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I have a personal connection with a Budd-built Vista-Dome. In November 2018, my old friend and President and co-owner of New Hampshire’s Conway Scenic Railroad, Dave Swirk, called me, “Would you like to join me on a big adventure?” Before I realized what I was getting into, I said “Yes.” The railroad had just […]
Passenger cab units, like this twin-engine New York Central EMD E8, rode on six-wheel trucks with the center axle unpowered, denoted as A1A-A1A. EMD built 421 E8A units and 39 E8B units making it the second most popular model in the line behind the E7. Pictured is a late production E8, with stamped-metal grill along […]
Typical of their brethren everywhere, even a century after the fact many railroaders still called certain southern Michigan branchline segments “the Air Line.” But unlike many such monikers elsewhere for short-cuts or straight-track segments, this one had an ancestor with that actual name. The Michigan Air Line Railroad was planned to link the Canada […]
In 1931-32, Chief Mechanical Engineer Charles T. Ripley applied his European experience, along with his work on steam motorcar M-104 back in 1911, as he worked with Winton Engine Manufacturing Co., Electro-Motive Corp., and the Pullman Co. in the design, development, and introduction to service of a distillate-engine-powered motorcar, the M-190. The articulated M-190 […]
ROANOKE, Va. — Norfolk & Western Class A locomotive No. 1218, the 2-6-6-4 built by the railroad’s East End Shops in Roanoke in 1943, will be added to the National Register of Historic Places and has been designated as a Virginia Historic Landmark. The locomotive, retired in 1959 and restored for excursion service between 1987 […]
Has any class of homebuilt, remanufactured mainline steam locomotive ever performed as brilliantly as the Reading T-1 4-8-4? Given the long lives of four from its illustrious class of 30 engines, I’d say no. I came to this conclusion during a recent visit to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, which has announced that ex-RDG […]
Trailers were loaded and unloaded at mid-century “circus style” by means of a ramp at the end of a track and retractable bridge plates between cars. Here, a Southern Pacific trailer moves along a string of flatcars. Robert Hale photo […]
ELKHART, Ind. — Initial fundraising for the campaign to restore New York Central 4-8-2 No. 3001 has passed the halfway mark, with a new challenge grant launched to help bring in more funds. The American Locomotive Project seeks to restore the 1940 Alco, ownership of which was transferred from the City of Elkhart to the […]
Fresh from the American Car & Foundry plant in 1950, this RPO is ready for service on Great Northern’s newly re-equipped Empire Builder. The 85-foot car has a 60-foot RPO apartment. ACF photo […]
Baltimore & Ohio S-1 2-10-2 6149 descends the west side of the Allegheny Mountains at Keystone, Pa., after crossing the summit at Sand Patch on April 5, 1947. William P. Price photo […]
When the long-anticipated “Hill Lines” merger finally created the Burlington Northern on March 2, 1970, it was time not to mourn the loss of a favorite, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, but to embrace and record the details of the changeover. I had been through this six years before, when the Norfolk & Western […]
Having six intercity passenger terminals at one time, and that doesn’t include the electric interurbans, is a muscle flex to Chicago’s claim as the nation’s railroad capital. That is also why former Trains and Classic Trains Senior Editor J. David Ingles made regular visits to document whatever was left, prior to Amtrak’s formation in May […]
