The year 1952 was a spectacular one for Lionel operating toy train accessories. An enduring favorite to come out of it was the no. 362 barrel loader. Professor Carp gives the history of the item and discusses changes and variations, while Classic Toy Trains Editor Hal Miller looks at how it operates. You can get […]
GP39 Chesapeake & Ohio No. 3909 is a GP39. It looks like a GP38 but it /has a single turbo stack in front of the dynamic brake fan. The GP39 was an “in-between” locomotive, using a smaller (12-cylinder) turbocharged 645 engine rated at 2,300 hp, putting it between the GP38 and GP40. It never became […]
CP Pacific type One of Canadian Pacific’s 173 G3 Pacifics steams east out of Calgary station with a regional train in June 1949. One track over, a mountain observation car has just been added to the westbound Dominion’s tail. Walter H. Thrall Jr. photo […]
Geared for success Brimstone’s 3-truck Shay No. 35 pulls coal in Tennessee. Lumber railroads were the primary users, but a few coal-haulers used Shays and/or the two other popular geared locomotives in North America, Heislers and Climaxes. Dwight Smith, Jim Wrinn collection […]
SPUD switcher St. Paul Union Depot 44-ton 441, built by GE in 1941, works its namesake Minnesota passenger terminal. The locomotive’s size and weight would allow one-man operation under the “90,000-pound” rule of the 1937 National Diesel Agreement labor rules. Classic Trains collection […]
Soldier Summit The eastbound California Zephyr catches the morning sun at Soldier Summit, Utah, in August 1959. Ahead: a full day of breathtaking scenery on the Denver & Rio Grande Western, which the train used for 570 miles of its 2,518-mile, three-railroad route. Fred Matthews photo […]
Roosevelt Road Evidence of Penn Central’s pre-1968 legacy — New York Central, Pennsylvania, and PC-painted units — is clearly visible in this 1970 view of LaSalle Street Station. Chicago’s famous Roosevelt Road provided a great view of the downtown passenger terminals. Harold A. Edmonson photo […]
‘Golden Spike Centennial Limited’ High Iron Co. observation car Mountain View brings up the markers on the Golden Spike Centennial Limited prior to departure from Track 34 at New York’s Grand Central Terminal on May 3, 1969. The car once ran on the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Broadway Limited. Don Wood photo […]
Portland Union Station Maine Central 4-6-2 No. 467 rests at Portland Union Station in the early 1950s. The former Maine Central headquarters is seen above the locomotive. Today, this area is occupied by a mall and parking lot. H.W. Pontin photo […]
‘Powhatan Arrow’ Railroad employees shine up the Tuscan red exterior of the Powhatan Arrow’s dining car at Williamson, W.Va. The new streamliner started operations April 28, 1946, on a 15.5-hour westbound timing over the 676-mile route from Norfolk to Cincinnati. Norfolk & Western photo […]
Not what it seems A Clinchfield “Shifter South” crawls out of Elkhorn City yard away from the camera and across Pool Point at the north end of the Breaks of the Big Sandy in 1964. The three-unit pusher will stay with the train to Towers, Va., where the grade begins to ease. Ron Flanary photo […]
West Point Route Atlanta & West Point and Western Railway of Alabama — together known as the West Point Route — handle the Southern Crescent between Atlanta and Montgomery. On February 28, 1948, WofA 4-8-2 No. 185 heads a 13-car train 38 east at Hogansville, Ga. David W. Salter photo […]
