Union Pacific Challenger: Railroad slogans are one of the industry’s lost arts. The old ad men and promoters who came up with them were geniuses. Remember when phrases like Water Level Route or Main Line of Mid-America told you so much about a particular railroad? The best ones spoke of far-flung places, and how to […]
The combination of classic railroading and spectacular regional autumn color will be featured in “New England Fall Colors by Rail,” an eight-day, seven-night tour sponsored by Trains magazine and scheduled for Sept. 29-Oct. 6, 2022. Hosted by former Trains Editor Kevin P. Keefe and conducted by Special Interest Tours, the tour will be based out […]
EMD DDA40X: In 1968, Union Pacific purchased 50 20-cylinder, 3,600 hp EMD SD45s for high-speed service. However, the units did not meet management’s expectations in that role. So, UP commissioned EMD to design and build a locomotive that would develop more horsepower than the DD35, U50, or C855 models. The result was the largest double-diesel […]
A long string of Pacific Fruit Express reefers is being loaded with mail at right as workers sort mail bags at the Union Pacific Transfer in Council Bluffs, Iowa, during the 1951 Christmas rush. At busy times like this, all available equipment was pressed into mail service. Union Pacific Museum photo […]
CHICAGO — The “Last Pullman Car,” Amtrak Superliner George M. Pullman, and a locomotive simulator from Norfolk Southern have been added to the upcoming Pullman Railroad Days, to be held May 14-15 at the Pullman National Monument and hosted by the Historic Pullman Foundation, the monument’s non-profit partner. The Superliner, the last car built by […]
Conrail locomotives: Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history, heritage, and style of Conrail all through April 2022. Enjoy this photo gallery of Conrail locomotives selected from the archives of Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library. Conrail was formed in 1976 with the consolidation of several bankrupt Northeastern railroads: Penn Central, Central of New Jersey, […]
Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history and heritage of Conrail all through April 2022. Please enjoy this photo gallery of Conrail freight trains selected from the archives of Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library. Conrail served a variety of customers across the railroad’s territory stretching from St. Louis and Chicago east to Philadelphia, New […]
Diesel locomotive single order units: In the modern era, locomotive orders are typically measured in the dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of units. But orders early in the dieselization of North American railroad would often come in much smaller quantities, down to a single unit. It was commonplace decades ago when customers were more plentiful […]
Minneapolis & St. Louis 2-6-0 310, power for the Marshalltown–Story City, Iowa, mixed train, switches at Roland, the biggest source of traffic on the 38-mile Story City branch line, in the late 1940s. William F. Armstrong photo […]
Antique Trackmobiles in railroading, is one way to describe them. The photographer of Pennsylvania Railroad No. 445 uses “doodlebug” in his caption. They’re more descriptively described as “rubber tired switchers” on a Pennsylvania Railroad railfan site. Whatever you call them, the trackless locomotives once employed by railroads are clearly ancestors of today’s Trackmobiles and similar […]
1950s EMD customer relations: At the height of dieselization circa 1950, the volume of orders pouring into Electro-Motive Division was sufficient to require three production locations: La Grange, by far the largest; Plant 2, a former Pullman Co. facility in South Chicago; and Plant 3, the ex-Cleveland Engine Corp. facility in Cleveland, Ohio. However, by […]
CARSON CITY, Nev. – The Nevada State Railroad Museum will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad July 1-4 with the “Great Western Steam Up,” slated to include 17 steam locomotives, with nine operating locomotives representing six Nevada railroads. “We are excited to offer a lineup of historic steam locomotives unlike anything […]
