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GM&O Jack Local
Western Maryland’s Baltimore Harbor stronghold
An aerial view from about 1940 shows the extensive dockside facilities the Western Maryland maintained at Port Covington on Baltimore Harbor. WM photo […]
Georgia Railroad: A good and unique ‘Family’ member
In its rich 150-year history, the Georgia Railroad was touched and torched by the rich and famous. During the process, the company morphed from a railroading pioneer and leader in the Peach State to an interesting combination of Class I and short-line operation. Started as The Georgia Railroad in 1833, the ambitious company hired […]
Tonopah & Tidewater’s lonely Pullman line
Begun in 1905, the Tonopah & Tidewater extended from the Santa Fe main line at Ludlow, Calif., 160 lonely miles north into Nevada. In the late 1920s T&T acquired a gas-electric car and began handling, in partnership with Union Pacific, a twice-weekly Pullman car that ran from Los Angeles to Death Valley, pictured here before […]
Frisco caboose ride remembered
A Frisco caboose ride provided a much needed railfan break during my military assignment near Kansas City. My spirits fell when I received orders for my first U.S. Air Force permanent-duty assignment, at the Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base just south of Kansas City, Mo. I had hardly been west of the Appalachian Mountains, and […]
SP narrow gauge at Laws
Southern Pacific narrow gauge 4-6-0 No. 18 stands in the weed-grown yard at Laws, Calif., in April 1956. Wendell Mortimer photo […]
Southern F7s on a freight
Looking sharp despite a coating of road dirt, a matched A-B-B-A set of Southern Railway F7s leads freight train 54 north at Austell. Ga., in 1959. Ron Flanary coll. […]
SAL piggyback hotshot
Three GP30s make 60 mph with TT-23, a fast freight composed of 56 piggyback flatcars, at Manson, N.C., in September 1965. Though a normal service, TT-23 was not in the timetable and so ran as an extra, hence the white flags on GP30 517. Curt Tillotson Jr. photo […]
Rio Grande 4-8-2 on Tennessee Pass
Denver & Rio Grande Western 4-8-2 1517 emerges from Eagle River Canyon near Redcliff, Colo., on D&RGW’s Tennessee Pass line on July 3, 1941. The Mountain type is heading the second section of train 36, a 50-car freight with 2-8-8-2 helpers at the middle and rear of the consist. J. W. Maxwell photo […]
Fred Frailey tries something new: a novel
Asked who my main influence has been as a writer, my reflexive answer is always “David P. Morgan.” The great editor’s inspiring use of language is what, in my opinion, made Trains magazine so important to generations of readers. And although I’d never be foolish enough to compare anything I write to that of D.P.M., […]
President Truman on the Ferdinand Magellan
Harry Truman relaxes behind armor plate and bulletproof glass in the lounge of Pullman car Ferdinand Magellan, specially outfitted for presidential service, at Fort Worth during the 1948 campaign. Texas & Pacific photo […]
NYC’s Cincinnati Special comes home
J-1 Hudson 5270 brings New York Central’s Cincinnati Special from Cleveland into Cincinnati Union Terminal in September 1954. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
