Last ride north from Xenia

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PRR passenger service from Xenia north to Springfield, Ohio, — protected by an old gas-electric motor car — ended on July 21, 1953.  Harry V. Noble Xenia, my hometown in southwestern Ohio, was on the Pennsylvania’s Pittsburgh-St. Louis main line 16 miles east of Dayton. Xenia was also the base of a branch line north […]

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Thank you gift: Santa Fe

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  Thank you for being a loyal Classic Trains newsletter subscriber! Enjoy your love for classic trains to the fullest! Please enjoy a FREE gift: 27-page Article Collection we’ve set aside just for you! See downloadable files below for your FREE gift. Continue to enjoy the golden age of railroading on ClassicTrainsMag.com and enjoy these […]

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Learning the lingo at Flagstaff

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At Flagstaff, Ariz., where Santa Fe operator Elisa Lindenberg apprenticed in 1943, an operator hands up orders to an FT-powered eastbound perishables train in 1947. Joe Lynch The time was August 1943, the place, Flagstaff, Arizona. My mother, Elisa Ward Lindenberg, and I had come west because Zane Gray’s books had captivated her and she […]

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Get well soon

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Southern SD45 3134 leaves a pall of smoke over the depot area at Salisbury, N.C., July 17, 1977. Mike Small Growing up in close proximity to a main line, I’ve always valued speed and power in railroading. We lived about a mile south of Jamestown, N.C., where Southern Railway’s Washington, D.C., to Atlanta, Ga., route […]

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Former DT&I Lima depot demolished NEWSWIRE

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Crews clear the last debris from the depot site on Wednesday. The trackage belongs to Indiana & Ohio. Eric Davis LIMA, Ohio – Northwest Ohio has lost a piece of its railroad history this month. Crews recently razed the former Detroit, Toledo & Ironton freight depot in Lima, completing the job on April 15. The […]

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‘19 west, copy 4, Plains’

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Three NP F units lead a 12-car train 2, the Mainstreeter, through Plains, Mont., in summer 1964. The depot’s train-order signal projects above the third unit, while a mail pouch is ready to be snagged by No. 2’s RPO. Bruce Butler In the summer of 1964 I had just about the best summer job that […]

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To Saigon via Summit

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A Santa Fe RSD15, SD24, and two SD45s curve toward Summit with an eastbound freight on November 14, 1970.  Jay Potter People used to say that railroads held the country together. They were the proverbial ribbons of steel that kept commerce and people moving and made a lot of things possible. Today — as I […]

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NS unveils Southern heritage SD40 NEWSWIRE

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No. 3170 rests outside the paint shop at Debutts Yard in Chattanooga, Tenn., prior to its return to service. Norfolk Southern CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Norfolk Southern has unveiled a new addition to its vaunted heritage fleet: Southern Railway SD40 No. 3170. The locomotive was recently saved from the back lot; rebuilt into operating condition at […]

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