Video clips courtesy of Herron Rail Video. […]
Section: Railroads
Steam in the atomic age
CV M-5-a 461, the same class of 2-8-0 entrusted with atomic loads, nears Amherst, Mass., with a Palmer-Brattleboro local in 1950. Robert P. Brittin, Douglas J. Brittin coll. As a child in the mid-1950s, I was privileged to witness several “secret” military moves on the Central Vermont Railway. Given the high state of security surrounding […]
Grand view
VIA Rail train No. 72 passengers may not have noticed the dash of color in the trees on this early morning of Sept. 5, 2012, as they cross the Grand River in Paris, Ontario, high above the S-shaped Penman’s Dam that is one of the most photographed attractions, by locals and tourists alike. Photo by […]
Watch steam-powered trains in action
Norfolk Southern did an amazing thing in 2012 and they’re doing it again in 2013: Running steam-powered passenger trains to better tell the railroad story and as a point of pride for this amazing eastern railroad that just turned 30 years old. Take a closer look at Southern Railway Consolidation No. 630 and Nickel Plate […]
1975-1982: Seven more years of change in Philadelphia
South of 30th Street Station in September 1980, an Amtrak E60 accelerates a train toward Washington while, in the background, SEPTA Silverliner IV’s head out on a commuter run to either Media/Elwyn or Wilmington. Robert S. McGonigal Bob Trennert, in his article “A West Coast Railfan in Philadelphia, 1967–1974” in the Spring 2013 issue of […]
California’s Salton Sea: A rail photo gallery
The Salton Sea in Southern California was formed in 1907 when men tried to redirect Colorado River irrigation canals and caused a two-year flood. It spans the intersection of two great deserts: the Mojave to the north and the Sonoran to the south and west. Summer temperatures routinely hover at 120 degrees. In the 1950s […]
See EMD’s Cat-painted locomotive
In September 2012, Electro-Motive Diesel sent a unique locomotive to the MINExpo show in Las Vegas: A typical SD70Ace painted in the colors of EMD’s parent company, Caterpillar. Trains magazine got exclusive access to this amazing 4,300-hp workhorse prior to its public debut the following month at the grand opening for the new Caterpillar visitor […]
The 3 principles of great railway station photos
FULL SCREEN Todd Halamka Victoria Station, Mumbai, India FULL SCREEN Todd Halamka Victoria Station, Mumbai, India FULL SCREEN Todd Halamka Dadar Station, India FULL SCREEN Todd Halamka Haydarpasa Station, Istanbul FULL SCREEN Todd Halamka Munich Station, Germany FULL SCREEN Todd Halamka Munich Station, Germany FULL SCREEN Todd Halamka Augsburg Station, Germany FULL SCREEN Todd Halamka […]
Dashing through the snow
CSX train Q324 blasts out of the driving snow at old FC tower in Defiance, Ohio, on Dec. 26, 2012. Photo by Brian M. Schmidt […]
Duck, duck, belle?
Two Kansas City Southern “Southern Belles” cross the Kankakee River at Momence, Ill., on a southbound Union Pacific container train on July 16, 2011. The route between Chicago and Woodland Junction, Ill., is jointly operated by CSX and UP. Photo by Brian M. Schmidt […]
An aggravating situation, with a 1940s solution
Santa Fe 2-8-2 3243 climbs west toward Summit, Calif., in 1952. Chard Walker In the early 1940s, when steam locomotives were supreme, I worked on the Santa Fe around Los Angeles. At Redondo Junction, today the north end of the “Alameda Corridor” to the L.A. and Long Beach harbor facilities, Santa Fe’s Harbor Branch left […]
Grand Central photo gallery
Trains magazine celebrates Grand Central Terminal’s 100th anniversary in our February 2013 issue with a comprehensive look at America’s most famous railroad station, from its planning and construction a century ago, and the thwarted attempts to place a skyscraper above it in the 1960s, to the incredible restoration work completed in recent decades that has […]
