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F is for freight
Magazine: Classic Trains
The day the GG1 fleet called in sick
I became a railfan at age three, near the end of World War II. Awaiting the return of my naval officer father, I sat in our West Philadelphia kitchen window facing one of the busiest divisions of the Pennsylvania Railroad — the four-track electrified main line to Harrisburg. The parade of wartime tonnage, plus express […]
Minnesota identity crisis
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Belfast & Moosehead Lake No. 18
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CCC special on Tennessee Pass
A 2-8-8-2 assists a 4-8-2 on a special Denver & Rio Grande Western train carrying Civilian Conservation Corps workers climbing Tennessee Pass near Mitchell, Colo., in March 1940. R. H. Kindig photo […]
A brief encounter with Northwestern Pacific
More than a few times, photographs in the Kalmbach library have sent me searching for railroads and places I’ve never encountered, and a few weeks ago some 8 x 10 prints lined up perfectly with travel plans. The destination: Mendocino, Calif., the charming old lumber town up the coast 155 miles from San Francisco. My […]
Western Maryland 2-10-0 pusher
Engine 1126, one of Western Maryland’s colossal class I-2 Decapods, assists a train upgrade at Helmstetter’s Curve west of Cumberland, Md., in May 1952. Ed Theisinger photo […]
Wartime in Washington
In a scene typical of World War II-era train travel, passengers stream off Baltimore & Ohio and Pennsylvania trains at Washington Union Station. Harold M. Lambert photo […]
Rio Grande tripleheader
Three locomotives – a 2-8-2, 2-8-8-2, and 4-8-4 – start the Rio Grande’s eastbound Royal Gorge out of Minturn, Colo., on Aug. 30, 1947. Ahead for the 18-car train: Tennessee Pass. C. L. Carson photo […]
Late era railroad dining car meals
In the past, railroad dining car meals were something to write home about, positively. A notable summary of this can be found in the lyrics of the popular song Chattanooga Choo-Choo, with its assertion that “dinner in the diner, nothing could be finer.” As private-railroad passenger service declined in the 1960s, however, this […]
Illinois Central’s EMD SD40A diesel locomotive
The Illinois Central’s EMD SD40A diesel locomotive resulted from the railroad’s desire to increase fuel capacity. “Customer modifications to production units aren’t all that unusual, don’t usually result in more than minor engineering and construction revisions, and seldom are dignified by a separate builder’s class,” wrote former Trains Managing Editor Wally Abbey in the January […]
Typical second-generation road-switcher
Grand Trunk Western GP38-2 5849 is a fairly typical example of the more than 2,200 of the four-axle road units that were built by Electro-Motive Division between 1972 and 1986. Cody Grivno photo […]
