A special Metroliner carries President Nixon and Mrs. Nixon out of Washington on the evening of Jan. 24, 1970. The President and First Lady were en route to Philadelphia for an orchestra concert. The Metroliners had entered service 12 months earlier, and Nixon wanted to ride one. Don Phillips photo […]
In 1936, this Northern Pacific stock train is loading at the cattle pens at Medora, N.Dak. When the drovers are done loading the car, the train will move additional cars into position. Library of Congress photo […]
The Professionals filming location. The Professionals is a perfect Saturday afternoon popcorn picture. Four mercenaries in the waning days of the wild American West dive deep into Mexico to rescue the abducted wife of a multi-millionaire railroad tycoon. Along the way are bandits, memories of yesterday’s glory days, and plot twists that make what looks […]
Plow-equipped Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range 4-6-2 1110 waits to depart Virginia, Minn., with train 14 for Iron Junction and a connection with Hibbing–Duluth train 2 on Aug. 22, 1947. Harold Nyberg photo […]
Baldwin Centipede locomotives were an oddity of mid-century railroading that just couldn’t compete with more mundane offerings from rivals Alco or Electro-Motive. What is a Centipede? Officially, this gargantuan diesel is the Baldwin DR-12-8-1500/2. That’s a mouthful. Broken down, it stood for Diesel Road, 12-axles, eight of which were connected to traction motors, with two […]
New York Central class L-4 3137 brings the Queen City from Detroit into Cincinnati Union Terminal in September 1954. The 50 L-4 engines, built by Lima 1942–44, were the final group of 4-8-2s acquired by the Central, which had more of the type — 600 — than any other road. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Private cars in town for the Kentucky Derby fill the tracks near Louisville Union Station in 1967. Charles B. Castner photo […]
Central Railroad of New Jersey 4-6-0 155 — one of CNJ’s many center-cab “Camelback” engines — takes water on the fly from the track pans at Dunellen, N.J., in late 1931. R. P. Morris photo […]
New York Central J-1 4-6-4 5249 eases off the turntable at Harmon, N.Y., the point 33 miles up the Hudson River from Grand Central Terminal where for decades NYC exchanged steam for electric locomotives. Ed Nowak photo […]
Southern Railway 2-8-8-2 4021, running boards and driving wheels trimmed in white, looks sharp at Appalachia, Va., on the afternoon of May 27, 1952. But a close look reveals that her main rods have been taken down in preparation for being hauled away for scrap. Ed Theisinger photo […]
St. Louis-San Francisco passenger trains are part of Classic Trains‘ editors’ celebration of the Frisco all through May 2022. Please enjoy this photo gallery of Frisco passenger trains selected from Kalmbach Media‘s David P. Morgan Library. Since October 2019, Classic Trains’ editors have celebrated a different Fallen Flag, that is, a Class I railroad that […]
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 […]
