FULL SCREEN Édouard Baldus/J. Paul Getty Museum Toulon Station, c. 1861. Édouard Baldus, who trained as a painter and worked as a lithographer, adopted compositional conventions of painting, such as centered motifs and balanced space surrounding the center, to his railroad photographs. FULL SCREEN Édouard Baldus/St. Louis Art Museum Approach to the Mountain Pass at […]
Section: History
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 […]
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 […]
What do Photographer Andrew J. Russell, the Civil War, and Union Pacific Railroad have in common?
FULL SCREEN Andrew J. Russell, Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsca-11750 General Hermann Haupt (rear, center) supervises a construction site in 1863 at Devereaux Station of the Orange & Alexandria Railroad in Clifton, Virginia. The locomotive bears his name. At right is J. H. Devereaux, superintendent. FULL SCREEN Andrew J. Russell, Library of Congress, LC-B8184-10161 Ornately decorated […]
Union Pacific Railroad Construction Photos
FULL SCREEN UP photo Casement Brothers construction train used during the building of the Union Pacific Railroad. Three 4-4-0s were the power this day. FULL SCREEN UP photo Casement Brothers camp train during the construction of the UP. Note the barely finished cottonwood logs stacked as ties to the left and the scant ballast, probably […]
Snow Train Parade
FULL SCREEN Trains Magazine Collection Skiers disembark Boston & Maine’s Snow Train at North Conway, N.H. FULL SCREEN Trains Magazine collection Passengers enjoy their ride aboard the Boston & Maine Snow Train. FULL SCREEN John Gruber collection The front cover of Boston & Maine’s 36-page booklet advertising its 1940 season. FULL SCREEN John Gruber collection […]
Southern 4501’s first excursion
FULL SCREEN John Gruber Graham Claytor Jr. (left) appears apprehensive as he talks with D. W. Brosnan and Walter Dove on the platform at Asheville, N.C. But the conversation was friendly and the 4501 soon was on its way. FULL SCREEN John Gruber Locomotive 4501 proudly poses at Terminal Station, about ready to leave on […]
Mountain railroad grade profiles
For railroad builders in North America, a 2.2 percent climb was considered the standard maximum grade for a well-engineered mountain railroad. But why this number? And how did its adoption become so widespread? Using modern-day analysis of some famous mountain railroad grades, Trains Magazine’s September 2011 issue explores the origins and adoption of 2.2 percent […]
Railroad timeline, 1950-1989
1950: Dieselization – Ten Class 1 railroads had already dieselized before this year, including the Atlanta & St. Andrews Bay; Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville (Monon); Columbus & Greenville; Detroit & Mackinac; Elgin, Joliet & Eastern; Gulf, Mobile & Ohio; Lehigh & New England; New York, Ontario & Western; New York, Susquehanna & Western; and Texas-Mexican. […]
Remembering Civil War rails
In addition to everything else the American Civil War might have been, it was also the first reliably documented major conflict. A combination of well-kept “Official Records” and preserved photographs give us a unique view into the first modern, industrialized, documented war. These images are only a sample of the rich documentary resources available from […]
Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg
This landscape view of the Colorado & South Eastern is full of railroad and pictorial interest, hallmarks of Charles Clegg’s work. Typically, both Clegg and Beebe asked the fireman to “turn on the smoke.” California State Railroad Museum Lucius Beebe’s “wedge of pie” view of Virginia & Truckee No. 27 at Steamboat, Nevada. No. 27, […]
A modeler’s guide to USRA locomotives
USRA locomotives were born under unique circumstances. A confluence of circumstances led to the nationalization of many of America’s railroads under President Woodrow Wilson in 1917. The outbreak of World War I, which necessitated a ramp-up of American industrial production capacity, and the financial circumstances of the early 1910s led to a liquidity crisis for […]
