James La Vake photographed passenger trains at their peak

Men washing front of streamlined diesel locomotive

Of the many first-rate photographers who became fascinated by postwar railroading, one of the best was James La Vake. An airline pilot by profession, he also had some experience as a photographer, and it showed: his photos in Trains magazine in the late 1940s and early ’50s are among the best featuring diesel-powered streamliners. I’ve […]

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Grand Trunk Western steam: America’s last real show

Grand Trunk Western steam locomotive with passenger train in city

Grand Trunk Western steam provided a last look for many Midwest railfans.     Despite having a large population with sizeable cities, Michigan has hovered just above the nation’s busy paths of commerce. Except for Detroit, the state tends to be out of sight, out of mind — no offense to Grand Rapids, the state’s […]

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Budd streamliners

A streamlined passenger train in a mountainous setting

  Prior to the time of the streamliners, North American passenger trains were not particularly colorful. Most sleeping cars were Pullman green, although there were exceptions; both the Pennsylvania and Canadian Pacific utilized shades of red on their passenger equipment, for example.   With the arrival of streamlined lightweight equipment as of the late 1930s, […]

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Divided, but one

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At Pittsburgh in 1956, a Pennsylvania Railroad SW1 switches cars on the “Panhandle” side of the station as passenger trains pass on the “Fort Wayne” bridge over the Allegheny River in the distance. The names refer to PRR predecessors Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway and Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway, respectively. Philip […]

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Grand Trunk Western passenger trains remembered

a streamliner pulling passenger cars with chicago in the background

All through January 2025, the Grand Trunk Western is Classic Trains‘ Railroad of the Month! In this photo gallery, please enjoy images of Grand Trunk Western passenger trains selected from the archives of the David P. Morgan Library at Firecrown Media! This photo gallery had previously been published in May 2020. Only from Trains.com! […]

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Milwaukee Road’s A-class: ultimate 4-4-2 Atlantic-type

Streamlined 4-4-2 Atlantic-type steam locomotive below bridge

  By 1935, it would have been sensible to consider the 4-4-2 Atlantic-type steam locomotive all but obsolete, at least insofar as new construction was concerned. In the U.S., the design could be traced back to the 1880s, and ultimately about 1,900 of the type were built. Its heydays were the years surrounding World War […]

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Big Sky cowl unit

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Great Northern 434 was one of the road’s 14 F45 freight diesels. Built in 1969, they carried GN’s “Big Sky blue” scheme of black, white, and blue. EMD built 86 F45s, for Santa Fe, GN, and Burlington Northern, during 1968–71. EMD photo […]

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Allegheny might

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On June 6, 1956, one of Chesapeake & Ohio’s 60 collossal Lima 2-6-6-6 Allegheny types is westbound at Handley, W.Va., 24 miles east of Charleston. The train, framed by a signal gantry still in primer, is a mixed freight, not one of the coal trains more commonly found on this line along the Kanawha River. […]

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