Flying on the Carolina Special

Two steam locomotives "meet" on track.

Around 1940, give or take a little, I was firing Southern Railway Ps-4 Pacifics heading the eastern leg of the Carolina Special between Charlotte and Greensboro, N.C. This little rural train served towns like Mocksville, Cooleemee Junction, Woodleaf, Bear Poplar, Davidson, Mooresville, and the tobacco center of Winston-Salem. We met the Special’s Asheville connection at […]

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Cars of the 1938 Century

Streamlined steam locomotive leading a streamline passenger train on a gentle curve.

From its launch in 1902, New York Central’s 20th Century Limited was arguably the most prestigious train in America. With its all-first-class passenger accommodations, the Century was the way to travel between New York and Chicago. By 1938 the train’s reputation was well established when it was completely re-equipped with new streamlined Alco locomotives and […]

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Diesel locomotive slug profile

Two orange slugs operate with two orange diesel locomotives

Non-powered slugs help diesel locomotives move trains at lower speeds. Trains move at various speeds for different reasons. Moving trains from coast to coast requires high-horsepower locomotives to maintain high speeds. Local trains serving online customers or switch jobs in yards can use lower horsepower locomotives, since their top speed is much lower than a […]

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Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range: Freight trains

Steam locomotive with freight train

All through April 2021, Classic Trains editors are celebrating, the history, heritage, and grit of the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railroad. Please enjoy this freight train photo gallery of images selected from the files of Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library. Only from Classic Trains! […]

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Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range: Passenger trains

Rail Diesel Car on causeway over lake

  All through April 2021, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history and heritage of the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railroad. This week, we offer a photo gallery of the Missabe’s passenger trains selected from Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library files. Only from Classic Trains. […]

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Trains Magazine, Luckin Productions team up to produce EMD documentary

Diesel locomotive on turntable

The introduction of the FT diesel in 1939 would make fortunes soar for General Motors’ locomotive-building affiliate, Electro-Motive. The four-unit FT demonstrator, No. 103, was the prototype for, in the words of former Trains editor David P. Morgan, “the world’s first standardized mass-produced line of diesel freight locomotives with no equal in railroading.” However, the […]

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