ET23DCM locomotives explained ET23DCM locomotives explained: EMD’s SD40-2 turned 50 this year. While its days of front-line power on the mainline have long passed, the sheer quantity of locomotives built means a significant SD40-2 presence remains across the railroad industry. After a half century, the SD40-2 model has been rebuilt, upgraded, downgraded, and chopped up […]
Metra six-axle commuter locomotives Metra six-axle commuter locomotives: The arrival in October 2022 of Metra’s SD70MACH, MEXT No. 500, marks the return of six-axle commuter locomotives to Chicago after more than a decade. Rebuilt from former Kansas City Southern/Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana SD70MACs sourced from Progress Rail’s locomotive fleet, the 15-unit order brings new technology to […]
Hot Water Gingerbread Muffins Classic Trains Editor Brian Schmidt loaned me some old railroad cookbooks recently, and the recipe for “Hot Water Gingerbread” caught my eye. According to the book, this dessert was a favorite on the Sunset Limited in the 1950s and 60s. How would it taste today? With a few tweaks, I made […]
Central of Georgia passenger trains All through November 2022, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the Central of Georgia Railroad. For this article, please enjoy Central of Georgia passenger trains in images selected from Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library. This article was first published in December 2017. […]
The most expensive 2-8-4s were Louisville & Nashville’s “Big Emma” M-1s. Perhaps no latter-day steam locomotive wheel arrangement matched the 2-8-4 for dual service, a term for overall efficiency across multiple assignments. Introduced in 1924 by Lima Locomotive Works as the first exponent of what it called “Super Power” — a promotional phrase to highlight […]
The best-selling Baldwin diesel locomotives are low-horsepower end-cab switchers owing to wartime material restrictions. Baldwin Locomotive Works of Eddystone, Pa., was the country’s largest steam locomotive builder. But it was no stranger to electric and internal-combustion locomotives. It was, however, slow to offer a standard line of diesel road engines. Baldwin’s late entry to the […]
Central of Georgia locomotives bought a great deal of variety to the South. When the Central of Georgia Railway was organized in 1895, it had 214 steam locomotives of the 4-4-0, 4-6-0, and 2-6-0 types. The roster was expanded in the early 1900s with 2-8-0s, 2-8-2s, 2-10-2s, 4-6-2s, 4-8-2s, and, briefly, 2-6-6-2s. Many of these […]
I never met David “Dave” A. Fink, but I felt his presence for a while in the late 1990s. The pugnacious president of Guilford Transportation Industries had a reputation for being difficult with journalists, but long about 1997 I decided Trains absolutely had to have a profile of his railroad, no matter what. Fink proved […]
The builders of the Central of Georgia Railway’s earliest predecessor lines, beginning in my hometown of Savannah, could not have imagined that their railroad would eventually extend across Georgia into Alabama, barely into Tennessee, and, briefly, just inside Florida. But they persisted in assembling smaller roads into “A Hand Full of Strong Lines,” a slogan […]
The Bombardier HR616 locomotive sold just 20 copies to one railroad, qualifying it as a Diesel That Didn’t. In North America, when we think of builders of diesel road locomotives, we usually conjure visions of EMD, GE, Wabtec, Alco, Baldwin, and Fairbanks-Morse. But there were others, including Canada’s Bombardier. The Montreal-headquartered rail transportation arm of […]
Don’t be thrown by the name of the publisher: A Celebration of Chicagoland Railroads goes way beyond interurbans. Anchored by the work of Soo Line veteran Bill Raia, this softcover encompasses steam, diesel, and electric and includes virtually every railroad, every station, and seemingly every train. It’s all here: Burlington Zephyrs, Milwaukee Road Hiawathas, Santa Fe […]
Amtrak St Louis services have included routes to the East, Southwest, and other Midwest points throughout its 50-plus-year history. At one time, the Gateway City was a secondary Midwest hub for Amtrak. Long-distance trains serving St. Louis through the years included the Inter-American, National Limited, and Texas Eagle. Additional short-distance trains include services to Chicago […]
