Classic Trains Archives - Page 36 of 249

The Rail Diesel Car (RDC) was the Budd Co.’s answer to declining passenger traffic during the post war. The demonstrator was introduced on Sept. 19, 1949, at Chicago Union Station. As described by Trains’ then-Associate Editor David P. Morgan in the November 1949 issue, this new rail-motor car was a combination of prior self-propelled technology, […]

Amtrak Toledo services through the years

Amtrak Toledo services passenger train crossing low bridge over waterway

Amtrak Toledo services have seen changes consistent with the rest of the national network in its 50-year history. Throughout its history, Amtrak trains have called upon the former New York Central station on Emerald Avenue at the south end of downtown. NYC opened the station, built with cream brick and copious amounts of glass block, […]

Six EMD locomotives no one wanted

Yellow-and-black centercab GMDH1 diesel-hydraulic locomotives outside factory

EMD may be the most famous locomotive manufacturer in the history of railroading. Despite that success, there are models in the the EMD history books which arrived to little fanfare and few orders. The following are six notable examples of EMD locomotives that, for one reason or another, no one wanted. EMD Model 40 The […]

Five key steps to storing locomotives

BNSFstoredlocomotivesNorthtownMinneapolisMinnesota

Storing locomotives Changing traffic levels affect the amount of equipment in operation, from freight cars to locomotives. When events occur such as a softening of the economy, losing a major contract to haul goods, or the end of a cyclical demand such as a grain harvest, a railroad will occasionally have to store equipment when […]

Fleet fillers: The postwar Lionel No. 25000 two-bay hopper

There’s never been a shortage of large industrial structures for three-rail layouts. Many of them could have been coal-powered. You need not go broke buying high-dollar hoppers or high-side gondolas to carry the rivers of black diamonds needed to keep commerce humming. Back in the postwar days Lionel made a wide variety of scale and […]

Big Four

An HO scale scene of tank cars spotted at a loading rack, with storage tanks and an oil well nearby

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Track ballast 101

Side-dump gondola unloads rock next to rail line

Track ballast Down below the trains, below the rails, the tie plates, and the ties, is a lowly yet vital component of railroading — track ballast. While ballast may not be at the top of anyone’s list of rail topics, it’s literally part of the foundation of railroads, and it can comprise more than 80% […]

The General

An ornate, old-fashioned black-and-red 4-4-0 steam locomotive smokes on a wood trestle

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The Virginia City embodies the legacy of Beebe and Clegg

I’ve never been in the market for a private railroad car — editors and writers rarely ascend to that rarified air — but if I was, I’d compose an email this very moment and send it to the equipment broker Ozark Mountain Railcar, there to bid on what might be the ultimate PV: heavyweight sleeper-observation […]