Bessemer & Lake Erie locomotive 403, one of 82 six-motor, 1,500 h.p. DRS-6-6-15 road-switchers built by Baldwin between 1948 and 1950, idles in 1970. Eric Hirsimaki photo […]
Bessemer Baldwin
Magazine: Classic Trains
BA&P road-switcher electrics
Montana’s Butte, Anaconda & Pacific relied on a fleet of 28 General Electric box-cabs after it electrified its line in 1913. The road received these two road-switcher-style motors from GE in 1957, then went to diesels in 1967. General Electric photo […]
Wooding-up
Crewmen toss pine knots into the tender of Mississippi & Alabama 2-6-2 Prairie-type No. 4 at the wood rack, or “wooding-up platform,” in Leakesville, Miss., in September 1948. The Prairie-type was the 17-mile road’s only locomotive. C.W. Witbeck photo […]
Western Maryland Pacific
Well-tended Western Maryland 4-6-2 Pacific-type No. 153 stands beside the joint Chesapeake & Ohio-Western Maryland station at Durbin, W.Va., with train No. 53 from Elkins. The railroad had 19 such locomotives in the K-1 and K-2 classes, built by Baldwin between 1909 and 1912. Robert F. Collins photo […]
Fairbanks-Morse Erie-Built diesel locomotives
Fairbanks-Morse’ distinctive Erie-Built diesel locomotives were the builder’s entry into the six-axle passenger locomotive market. FM sold 111 total units between December 1945 and February 1949. They were the best-selling FM cab unit models; second place went to the CFA/CFB-16-4 “C-Liners” with 90 units sold. FM’s big Erie-Builts were named for being assembled […]
Preview December 2023 Classic Trains content
Preview Classic Trains’ December 2023 content Here’s a preview of what’s coming in the next month. Become a Trains.com member so you don’t miss any of this great content! If you have a story suggestion, email editor@classictrainsmag.com The EMC TA Diesel – A Locomotive That Kind of Did It An early passenger diesel, the TA […]
View from a short line’s caboose
Gainesville Midland 2-10-0 No. 207 does the honors on a freight from Athens to Gainesville, Ga., in April 1957. The 40-mile road in northern Georgia had five such locomotives on its roster with various backgrounds, along with two 2-8-0s. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Troop train
Soldiers of the U.S. Army’s 35th Division board cars at Camp Robinson, Ark., on December 18, 1941, less than two weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The era of the troop train had thus begun. U.S. Army Signal Corps. photo […]
Snow squall
During a Lake Erie snow squall at Stony Point, Pa., about 12 miles west of Meadville, K-5 Pacific-type No. 2924 stands in the siding as an unidentified K-5a dashes past with an eastbound train. The railroad had 160 locomotives of the 4-6-2 wheel arrangement in five classes and multiple subclasses built by Baldwin, Lima, Richmond, […]
Punkin’ Vine
Two Wabash F7s passes State Line Tower in Hammond, Ind., bound for the railroad’s so-called “Punkin’ Vine” route across northern Indiana to Montpelier, Ohio, in 1953. The railroad had 118 F7A and 9 F7B units. Robert R. Malinoski photo […]
NJ Transit GE U34CH diesel locomotives
General Electric U34CH diesel locomotives helped modernize commuter rail operations in northern New Jersey in the early 1970s. A passenger version of the U36C, the U34CH was built between 1970 and 1973 for the New Jersey Department of Transportation as a commuter locomotive. The 32 units carried Nos. 3351-3382 and operated over Erie […]
Passenger amenities
The American Car & Foundry-built Missouri Pacific lounge diner on the South Texas Eagle offered a quality of food and expanse of lounge that airlines of the day couldn’t match. American Car & Foundry photo […]
