Rio Grande 2-8-8-2 Mallet 3413 helps 2-8-8-2 3606, a newer, simple-expansion locomotive, up the Front Range of the Rockies with a 48-car freight at Pinecliff, Colo., in May 1940. J. W. Maxwell photo […]
Rio Grande 2-8-8-2s, compound and simple
Section: Photos
Missouri Pacific passenger trains remembered
Rock Island passenger trains: All through February 2025, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history and heritage of the Missouri Pacific. Please enjoy this photo gallery of Missouri Pacific passenger trains, originally published online in December 2020. […]
Monon’s Tippecanoe leaves Chicago
Two red and gray Monon F3 diesels approach the complex 21st Street interlocking in Chicago with the outbound Tippecanoe in 1950. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]
Ma & Pa Ten-Wheeler at Towson
Maryland & Pennsylvania 4-6-0 No. 27 is being ferried north ahead of train 1’s gas-electric car at Towson, Md., in November 1953. James P. Gallagher photo […]
E-unit engineer
J. F. Brunson is in the hot seat for the Florence (S.C.)–Savannah (Ga.) leg of Atlantic Coast Line train 75, the Havana Special, in August 1957. William D. Middleton photo […]
Washington state logging trestle
A work train slowly moves across 1,130-foot-long Baird Creek Trestle during the bridge’s construction in 1940 at Weyerhauser Co.’s St. Helens Tree Farm near Longview, Wash. The 235-foot-high structure was dismantled in 1961 when the railroad closed. Weyerhauser photo […]
UP’s Daylight Livestock
Among the best-known dedicated livestock trains was the Union Pacific’s Daylight Livestock, train 299. It’s heading west on Cajon Pass behind a matched set of new Alco FAs in 1951. Donald Sims photo […]
Streamliner pioneer
The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy’s Zephyr was the first diesel streamliner, entering service in 1934. The locomotive, which was articulated with the train set, was powered by a 660-hp Winton 201A diesel engine. Classic Trains collection […]
Streamlined steam
Brooks-built class Norfolk & Western K2 4-8-2 No. 117 goes for a turntable ride at Schaffers Crossing in Roanoke, Va., in 1954. The locomotive is one of 22 class K1 Mountain types given J-style streamlining in the late 1940s. W.A. Akin Jr. photo […]
Reassigned obs car
In Chicago, an observation car originally built for Great Northern’s 1947 Empire Builder is ready for its first run on the Western Star in June 1951. The trains utilized Chicago, Burlington & Quincy trackage east of Minnesota’s Twin Cities. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]
Produce power
A Southern Pacific produce train arrives at Tucumcari, N.M., in June 1951 behind AC-9 class 2-8-8-4 No. 3804. The railroad had 12 such locomotives built by Lima in 1939. W.G. Fancher photo […]
Pioneer coach
A replica Pioneer coach rides a special flatcar at the Chicago & North Western station in Fond du Lac, Wis., on June 27, 1948. The original operated with Galena & Chicago Union locomotive Pioneer, a C&NW predecessor, in October 1848. Harold Nehls, Lake States Railway Historical Society collection […]
