NEW YORK — If you have an extra $300,000 to $500,000 burning a hole in your pocket, you can own a piece of transcontinental railroad history. Upon completion the first transcontinental railroad in May 1869 at Promontory Summit, Utah, four ceremonial spikes were created: two golden spikes, a silver spike, and a gold, silver, and […]
Rio Grande 4001, a diesel-hydraulic built by Germany’s Krauss-Maffei, fills the window of a caboose cupola on Oct. 11, 1963. The exotic unit was testing in helper service between Denver and the Moffat Tunnel. R. P. Parsons photo […]
In the kitchen car of a Korean War-era troop train out of Fort Meade, Md., the cook tends to a giant pot on the stove as a soldier peels potatoes. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
CHICAGO — President Joe Biden has signed legislation that changes the Pullman National Monument to a National Historical Park, making it the first National Park Service unit in Chicago. Pullman National Monument was designated by President Barack Obama on Feb. 19, 2015. The park tells the story of one of the first planned industrial communities […]
The Railway & Locomotive Historical Society will recognize magazine writing about passenger rail service with the latest addition to its Railroad History Awards. The William F. Howes Jr. Passenger Rail Article Award becomes the seventh category of the awards program, which began in 1982. Howes, a career railroad official with the Baltimore & Ohio railroad […]
Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee equipment set it apart from other electric interurban lines. Please enjoy this photo gallery selected from files in Kalmbach Media‘s David P. Morgan Library. Each month since October 2019, Classic Trains editors have selected one Fallen Flag to honor. A Fallen Flag is a railroad whose name and heritage have succumbed […]
GLENMONT, N.Y. — Two historic New York Central electric locomotives are finally safe after a 4½-hour ballet to lift and shift them 200 feet on a Hudson River island on which they were stranded, dodging a torrent of heavy truck traffic. The Danbury (Conn.) Railway Museum announced Thursday night (Dec. 29) that Phase 1 of […]
The Center for Railroad Photography & Art and Chicago author Sandra Jackson-Opoku have received 2022 research grants, each worth $2,500, from the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society. R&LHS President Robert Holzweiss said “the proposals could not be more different, but both were adjudged to be worthy of our support. The Center applies every year and often […]
A few weeks ago, I made an embarrassing blunder in the pages of Classic Trains. In a brief, bylined description of the Budd Rail Diesel Car, or RDC, I had casually and quite spectacularly goofed by describing its diesel engines as “rooftop.” Yes, rooftop. What was I thinking? I knew its V-6 diesel […]
At the beginning of 2022, no one would have considered Silvis, Ill. a center of the railroad preservation community. The massive former Rock Island shop facility had just been downgraded by owner National Railway Equipment. It was closed in March 2021 as part of a plan to consolidate NRE rail operations to its shops in […]
Trains News Wire continues our review of the top stories of 2022. We’ll count down the Top 10 stories of the year, as voted on by Trains editors, columnists, and correspondents, beginning Dec. 26. As a prelude, we’ll be looking at major stories that didn’t make that list. Today: Preservation. While some preservation stories did […]
Passengers fill the rear platform of the observation car on Rio Grande’s Scenic Limited at Denver Union Station in about 1928. Those folks have the best seats in the house for the climb up the Front Range. George Beam photo […]
