Action may be required on your Trains.com account in order to continue accessing content. Click here to learn more.
Railway at a glance Name: P&BW RR Size of railroad: 30′ x 40′ Scale: 1:29 and 1:20.3 Gauge: Nº 1 (45mm) Era: Late 1800s to present Theme: Colorado railroading then and now Age: 4 years Motive power: USA Trains diesels, LGB and Bachmann steam locomotives Length of mainline: Lower loop, 106′; upper loop, 146′ Maximum […]
Great train, great scenery: NP’s North Coast Limited rolls west along the Clark Fork River in Montana. Classic Trains coll. My 1947 journey on Northern Pacific’s North Coast Limited is a treasured memory. I had come to love good trains through numerous trips between Washington, D.C., and my childhood home in Florida. My first ride […]
Pictured with the engine, left to right, are fireman Dean Gordon, mechanic Phil Reader, and engineer Willie Maine. Chip Sherman SILVER PLUME, Colo. — Georgetown Loop Railroad No. 12, a 1928 Baldwin 2-6-2, ran its last day in Colorado on August 1. The engine will be shipped later in the month to Midwest Central Railroad at […]
In October 1953, about the time author Les Clark was a fireman here, a Union Pacific freight climbs the grade out of the Snake River Valley near Reverse, Idaho. Challenger 3838 is on the point; 2-8-8-0 pusher 3528 was added at Glenns Ferry. David W. Salter October was a favorite month for me in southern […]
On July 2, 1994, a Montana Rail Link local heads east at Manhattan, Mont., with an incredible SD9/SD9/SD9/SD9/GP9/GP35/GP9/GP9 lashup. Photo by Tom Danneman […]
An English import, the American railway diverged sharply from English ideals. Environment proved stronger than genetics — settled and industrializing England constrained railway builders to design the most efficient routes possible, whereas their counterparts in unsettled and impecunious America disregarded gradient and circuity on pain of not completing lines at all. As the American era […]
Montana Rail Link’s Missoula-Laurel manifest freight rolls through Bearmouth, Mont., on Sept. 2, 2003. This is MRL’s 3rd Subdivision which is from Helena to Missoula. Photo by Tom Danneman […]
Great Northern Railway’s St. Paul, Minn.-Seattle transcontinental main line, now part of BNSF Railway, was built in the early 1890s as the northernmost such route in the United States, crossing the Continental Divide in the Lewis Range at Marias Pass, 5,213 feet above sea level. The Great Bear Wilderness in Lewis and Clark National Forest […]
The Silver Chalet, once part of the Western Pacific’s California Zephyr, rests outside Quad/Graphics’ Sussex, Wis., printing plant Nov. 24, 2004. Cody Grivno Q I saw a private car named “Silver Chalet” at Union Station in Washington, D.C. It had an odd-looking observation platform. Can you tell me its history and who owns it now?— […]
Virginia & Truckee 2-8-0 No. 29 charges past the depot in Gold Hill, Nev., in March 2010 on a portion of the rebuilt silver hauling railroad, high in the desert near Reno. Photo by Jim Wrinn […]
The activity level of this track belies its once important status as part of D&RGW’s Tennessee Pass. Michael Humphreys Q In December 2010, I noticed a little-used rail line running through Eagle, Colo. What can you tell me about it? The mainline rail dated from the 1950s. — Michael Humphreys, Berryville, Va. A The tracks […]
This landscape view of the Colorado & South Eastern is full of railroad and pictorial interest, hallmarks of Charles Clegg’s work. Typically, both Clegg and Beebe asked the fireman to “turn on the smoke.” California State Railroad Museum Lucius Beebe’s “wedge of pie” view of Virginia & Truckee No. 27 at Steamboat, Nevada. No. 27, […]
