Patricia Howell, a 14-year veteran of Seaboard Air Line’s stewardess-nurse program, poses with the observation car of the Silver Star in 1955. Fraser Hale photo […]
Seaboard stewardess-nurse
Section: Railroads
Pennsy J1a at the Columbus coal dock
Pennsylvania J1a 2-10-4 6483, one of 125 J1’s and J1a’s the PRR built at its Altoona shops in 1942–44 to the plans of Chesapeake & Ohio’s class T-1, stands under the coal dock at Columbus, Ohio, in July 1950. Classic Trains coll. […]
Intense media focus on derailments belies long-term safety trends
Why are there so many derailments? Freight train derailments have been in the headlines since the disastrous Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern wreck in East Palestine, Ohio. Some have been spectacular, like the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train caught on video at a grade crossing in Springfield, Ohio.; the fiery derailment of a BNSF Railway […]
Santa Fe courier-nurses
Two of Santa Fe’s courier-nurses show off newly redesigned uniforms as they pose with one of the road’s Hi-Level coaches in 1969. ATSF photo […]
Beyond the byline with Kevin Gilliam
What was your first byline in Trains? Kevin Gilliam: My first byline was what became a Trains Trackside (previously Trains Presents) five-minute video that was concurrent with the Norfolk Southern 21st Century Steam Program visit to Asheville, N.C., in April 2013. More of those short videos followed, eventually culminating in the first feature-length 611 In Steam […]
Keystone Arch Bridges of Massachusetts
Still in use more than 180 years after they were built, the Keystone Arch Bridges of western Massachusetts stand as enduring monuments to the skill of their creators. An economic crisis Boston had a problem in the late 1830s. The newly completed Erie Canal was drawing more and more trade to the ports of New […]
Pennsy 0-6-0 at Williamsport
Pennsylvania Railroad class B6sb 0-6-0 No. 4027 has a small audience as it switches cars in Williamsport, Pa., in 1950. A. C. Kalmbach photo […]
Kansas City Southern history remembered
Kansas City Southern history is now appropriate to talk about since the seventh of seven Class I railroads in North America has been approved to merge with Canadian Pacific to make a larger No. 6 Class I railroad. Kansas City Southern history In 1889 Arthur Stilwell began building the Kansas City, Nevada & Fort Smith […]
C&O steam turbine
Chesapeake & Ohio 500 was one of three class M-1 steam-turbine-electric locomotives built by Baldwin-Westinghouse in 1946–47 for the new Chessie streamliner. But the road de-emphasized its passenger business, the Chessie never ran, and the M-1’s led short lives. Classic Trains coll. […]
Nickel Plate Road’s major components
The Nickel Plate Road’s major components were all in place by 1949. The Nickel Plate, formally the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railway, was conceived in 1881 as a Buffalo-Chicago project to compete with the parallel Lake Shore & Michigan Southern (later New York Central) of William H. Vanderbilt. To thwart rival […]
Amtrak E60 locomotives
Amtrak E60 locomotives are an important bridge for Northeast Corridor electric railroading between the GG1s of the 1930s and 1940s to the AEM-7 and HHP-8 locomotives of the 1980s and early 2000s. E60 locomotive history General Electric developed the E60 C-C or six-axle locomotives at its Erie, Pa., plant in the early 1970s. The […]
Fairbanks-Morse H12-44TS locomotive: A special diesel for a special job
The Fairbanks-Morse H12-44TS locomotive was a familiar-looking unit with different internals. FM was a fierce competitor in the early days of dieselization, perhaps remembered most for its H24-66 Train Master, a six-axle 2,400 hp road-switcher that impressed almost every railroad it demonstrated on. Among its lesser-known successes were three specialized units produced […]
