Pennsylvania 6200 turbine locomotive was an experimental locomotive that served on passenger trains in Indiana and Ohio. But it is perhaps best known as the Lionel No. 671 Pennsylvania Turbine. The first of several turbine projects the Pennsylvania considered was also the only one that produced an actual locomotive: steam-turbine-mechanical No. 6200. Pennsy […]
Ask someone to associate a railroad with the heaviest 4-6-4 Hudsons and they’ll likely guess “New York Central.” After all, it was NYC and its supplier, American Locomotive Co., that first developed the 4-6-4 in 1927, and it was NYC that gave the engine its famous name: Hudson, named for the river the Central’s main […]
The three railroads that shared Deramus red locomotives also shared the leadership of William N. Deramus III. He began working on the Wabash in 1939 and served in the U.S. Army Transportation Corps in British India before becoming general manager of the Kansas City Southern after the war. He died Nov. 15, 1989, at age […]
Was the Blue Streak Merchandise the last Great American Freight Train? “You define a passenger train by its cars, its menu, its route — even its patrons,” says railroad historian Fred W. Frailey in his 1991 book on the Blue Streak. “But the Blue Streak defined the railroads over which it runs — seized […]
In November 1953, Canadian Pacific 4-6-0 No. 1105, being prepared for a day’s work at Chipman, New Brunswick, steams ahead of 4-4-0 No. 29, which the Ten-Wheeler had just pulled out of the enginehouse. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Family road trips usually involve self-inflicted detours to see park steam engines, “stuffed and mounted” for the sake of local posterity. They’re usually easy to find, thanks to J. David Conrad’s standard reference “Steam Locomotive Directory of North America, Vols. I and II,” which I’ve consulted for decades, or, in a pinch, Google. A […]
The last Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad train out of Baltimore crosses the trestle at Sharon, Md., on Aug. 5, 1958. Lawrence W. Sagle photo […]
The Meridian & Bigbee Railroad “possessed all the credentials required for admittance to the Typical Southern Short Line Club,” wrote J. Parker Lamb in Trains’ July 1959 issue. Those included secondhand steam locomotives, a leisurely schedule, and insufficient revenue tonnage. Yet, the road was able to overcome those deficiencies to become a sought-after bridge route […]
Ex-Monon 2-8-2s face each other in the Tennessee Railroad’s yard at Oneida, Tenn., where the coal-hauling short line met Southern’s CNO&TP main, late one afternoon in September 1954. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Four Grand Trunk Western passenger trains meet at Durand, Mich., in July 1950. A streamlined 4-8-4 has just arrived with No. 17; visible east of the depot is a car from No. 38, in from Alpena; Pacific 5633 is on No. 21; and Pacific 5629, having cut off from No. 56 to take water, waits […]
St. Louis-San Francisco No. 2005 Winchester has the grilles and portholes of an E8, but it’s really an E7, as indicated by the louvers behind the cab door. For the sake of appearance, Frisco modified its E7As to look like its E8As. All were red with gold striping and silver trucks. SLSF photo […]
E7 No. 5879 had the honors of pulling the first regularly scheduled Pennsy diesel run on the joint PRR-Jersey Central New York & Long Branch in April 1956. Prior to this, K4s Pacifics handled PRR trains on the NY&LB. Don Wood photo […]
