Unloading on a car float

20190211

A worker unloads produce from refrigerator cars on a Pennsylvania Railroad car float in New York harbor in 1939. This car float has two tracks flanking a central covered platform that enabled cars to be unloaded while still on the float. Arthur Rothstein, Library of Congress photo […]

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Troubled times

20200225

Rolling through Marengo, Iowa, in May 1979 was this Rock Island freight with GP38-2 No. 4305 leading. This Davenport–Des Moines section of the Omaha main was one of the road’s busiest, but this portion was still train order territory. The railroad’s precarious financial condition is reflected in the depot’s upkeep. R.B. Olson photo […]

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Railroad bus service to New York City

People in street outside two-story building with Coca-Cola sign on roof

  There are standard-gauge tracks close by, but they can’t be seen here, since they’re underground in this neighborhood. We’re at Columbus Circle in New York’s borough of Manhattan, on Thanksgiving Day in 1951, Nov. 22. How can that be deduced? Well, that’s the famous Macy’s parade that’s passing down the street, complete with a […]

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Burlington Northern passenger trains

Streamlined diesel locomotive with passenger train in urban canyon

Talk of Burlington Northern passenger trains inevitably conjures visions of green E units toting bilevel stainless steel coaches at rush hour. But BN has history, albeit brief, with conventional intercity passenger service. This spanned from its March 1970 inception to the May 1, 1971, startup of Amtrak – just days less than 14 months.   […]

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Steam and diesel on the Union Pacific

20190206

June 13, 1950, finds three Fairbanks-Morse H20-44 end-cab road-switchers and 4-8-2 No. 7019 at Union Pacific’s San Bernardino (Calif.) engine house. The F-Ms had taken over Cajon Pass helper chores in 1948. When they were found wanting, UP brought steam back for a spell in 1950–51. Chard Walker photo […]

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Winter 2024

The Winter 2024 cover of Classic Trains magazine, which features a locomotive with a striped red and white front end moving towards the camera in a snowy winter location

Welcome – Still has the connections Head End – A potpourri of railroad history, then and now Mileposts – Commentary by Kevin P. Keefe True Color – Katy green-and-yellow Short Rails – Illinois Central in Wisconsin The Way It Was – Tales from railfans and railroaders Classics Today – Preserved NYC steam Looking Back – […]

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Seashore Lines Budd Car

20190227

One of the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines’ 12 Budd Rail Diesel Cars pauses at Collingswood, N.J., about 3 miles out of Camden on the old West Jersey & Seashore, in September 1964. William J. Coxey photo […]

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Burlington Northern history remembered

Green-and-black diesel locomotives of Burlington Northern history with train of containers along river

  When created, Burlington Northern had a greater extent than any other U. S. railroad: Vancouver, British Columbia, to Pensacola, Fla. If you crossed North America from east to west, you had to cross BN rails or get your feet wet in the Gulf of Mexico or find your way around the north side of […]

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