A railroad study in snow On Jan. 15, 1885, Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley, a farmer from Jericho, Vt., became the first person to successfully photograph a single snow crystal — a snowflake. Bentley, in his study of snow, went on to capture images of more than 5,000 individual snowflakes, finding that, in fact, no two were […]
CSX Santa Train The CSX Santa Train, enjoying new life after a two-year hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic, again delighted children and adults along its 110-mile former Clinchfield Railroad route between Shelby, Ky., and Kingsport, Tenn. This year’s train featured a new “Santa Car” rebuilt from a former Pan Am Railways office car, as well […]
Electro-Motive Division BL2 No. 52 On a picture perfect Saturday Sept. 2, 2023, the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum’s refurbished Electro-Motive Division BL2 No. 52, made three round-trip runs from North Judson to English Lake, Ind. The museum’s mechanical department, led by Mechanic Travis Hunt, has worked on returning the locomotive to service for over two […]
Delaware & Hudson passenger trains All through July 2023, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the grit and grandeur of the Delaware & Hudson in its bicentennial year. Please enjoy this photo gallery of Kansas City Southern passenger trains selected from the files in Kalmbach Media‘s David P. Morgan Library. Only from Trains.com! […]
Steam locomotives What is it about a steam locomotives that attract generations? Like the Saturn V rockets of their time, steam locomotives represent the pinnacle of engineering in an era long since passed. Their ability to use simple components, coal or oil with water, to produce power sometimes only inhibited by the hand of the […]
Aberdeen Carolina & Western E9A The short line, Aberdeen Carolina & Western Railway Company, debuts its rebuilt and repainted former Union Pacific E9A locomotive, No. 103, on an equipment ferry move on May 25. Then E9A leads former Norfolk Southern F9A and F9B locomotives between the company’s headquarters and main shops at Candor, N.C., and […]
Wabtec’s Fort Worth plant FORT WORTH, Texas — In October 2022, following my attendance at the Railway Supply Institute Expo and Technical Conference, I also had a chance to visit Wabtec’s locomotive assembly plant in Fort Worth. My visit happened to fall on the day Canadian National accepted the first of a series of 50 […]
Do people wreck train photos? A common situation that really irritates a lot of rail photographers is when people get in the way of their picture taking. If you are attempting the perfect “roster shot,” I suppose that could be an irritant. But having railroad employees, passengers, and other fans in your photos should be […]
Stephen Low, IMAX filmmaker With big diesels, beautiful landscapes, and unique camera shots, the documentary Train Time takes the IMAX audience on an adventure from the crew’s point of view. Those working behind the scenes of the BNSF Railway openly share their triumphs and struggles as they battle brutal weather-related conditions, unforeseen delays, and much […]
The many faces of Conrail Conrail, the amalgamation of many financially struggling Eastern railroads both big and small, was born April 1, 1976. When it began, the system operated thousands of locomotives on about 19,000 route-miles in 15 states and two Canadian provinces. Its mandate: to revitalize rail service in the Northeast and Midwest as […]
Passenger diesels Florida may not leap to mind as a center of passenger railroading — or a hotbed of railroading oddities, for that matter — but the locomotives of the state’s passenger rail operations do include some rarities. And in the winter, you could do worse than spending time trackside at any of these operations. […]
UP Challenger No. 3985 On Jan. 6, Railroading Heritage of Midwest America began work on UP Challenger No. 3985 at its shop in Silvis, Ill. The main focus of the day was first to move the Milwaukee Road turntable from Bensenville, Ill., donated by Canadian Pacific to the Silvis sandblasting booth where it will be […]
