Rolling stones Cresting Sand Patch while witnessing an Allegheny Summit sunrise on the former Baltimore & Ohio was one of the intangible benefits of being the engineer of Amtrak’s Capitol Limited between Washington and Pittsburgh in the late 1980s. Few things are as awe-inspiring, but Mother Nature can also be frighteningly treacherous. The right of […]
What was your first byline in Trains? Doug Riddell: My first byline in Trains appeared in the February 2000 issue: “A dose of perspective” (Readers Platform). I’d just run into a retired Chesapeake & Ohio conductor, Gilly Parker, who shared a story with me. He’d worked passenger service between Richmond and Newport News in the early […]
France’s 1949 Merci Train left a legacy of European rail equipment displays throughout the U.S. During the period around World War I and II a number of European railroads utilized a small boxcar — small by American standards. The cars rode on four wheels and carried all of 20 tons. In France, such […]
Wabash locomotives were distinctive in both steam and diesel eras. After depending on more than 150 2-8-2s for freights that succeeded typical smaller types, Wabash in 1930 received 50 handsome 4-8-2s and 4-8-4s (25 each) from Baldwin. Perhaps more remembered were seven 4-6-4 Hudsons, rebuilt at Decatur from unsuccessful three-cylinder Mikados in the […]
I’m not holding my breath, but the Federal Railroad Administration late last year released a long list of routes chosen for what it calls its Corridor Identification and Development Program, which the Trains News Wire describes as “a catch-all group of 69 potential future Amtrak routes, possible extensions to existing routes, efforts to increase service […]
Lake Shore Limited dining car In profiling a train for Trains’ 1,000th issue whose New York and Boston sections average just under 1,000 miles, it isn’t possible to relate more than a fraction of what has made trips aboard the Lake Shore Limited so memorable through the years. [See “Lake Shore Limited: A Survivor,” Trains, […]
Almost every railroad has its “other” passenger train. You know, the lesser known one usually received far less press. The one that deviated here and there from the timetable of the premier train that plied the route. Thumb through a company history and you soon realize Southern Pacific had lots of them. Almost […]
Wabash Railway passenger trains: All through January 2024, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history and heritage of the Wabash. Please enjoy this photo gallery of Wabash Railway passenger trains, originally published online in May 2019. […]
Private cars Private cars also called private varnish is a side of railroading that is a mystery to many. Imagine being trackside one day and seeing a historic passenger car attached to an Amtrak train. Who’s in that car? Where are they going? How are they able to do that? What does it cost? These […]
Lake Shore Limited Oct. 3, 2011, wasn’t just another day in the life of the Lake Shore Limited. That’s because just ahead of two New York Viewliner sleeping cars on eastbound train 48 out of Chicago was dining car No. 8400, on its first revenue run after a top-to-bottom refurbishment at Amtrak’s Beech Grove Heavy […]
LIRR FA2 It’s an unusual sight — what looks almost like a diesel B unit, resting on the cold ground in an Ohio scrapyard. A closer look reveals that this wasn’t always a B unit — it had a cab at one point, removed with significantly greater care than any scrapyard could give. On its […]
The 4-8-4 steam locomotive wheel arrangement was exemplified in the South by the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Dixies. Of all the regions in the U.S., the South had the fewest of what might be called the ultimate dual-service “modern” steam locomotive, that is, engines with four-wheel trailing trucks, especially 4-8-4s. An agrarian […]
