Walter Gray, former director of the California State Railroad Museum, dies at 54 NEWSWIRE

Walter P. Gray III SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Walter P. Gray III, the longtime former director of the California State Railroad Museum and most recently a prominent state parks cultural official, died today in Sacramento after a long battle with cancer. He was 54. A graduate of California State University at Sacramento, Gray was instrumental in […]

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Distinctive diesels

FT 103

Four-unit locomotive No. 103 of GM’s Electro-Motive Corporation. Electro-Motive FT Tagged “the diesel that did it” by David P. Morgan, longtime editor of Trains Magazine, in a 1960 feature story, four-unit locomotive No. 103 of General Motors’ Electro-Motive Corporation was outshopped at a Grange, IL, plant in November 1939 (the firm later became GM’s Electro-Motive […]

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EMD F7: The most famous face in railroading

EMD F7

“COVERED WAGONS.” “CARBODY UNITS.” “STREAMLINERS.” “F UNITS.” Call ’em what you will, when you’re talking the F-for-freight series from General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division, you’re talking the most famous diesel in railroading. Maybe “F” should stand for Face. It’s the famous “bulldog nose” that did it. It hit the road with FT demonstrator quartet 103, “the […]

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Texas Types: Musclemen of steam

T&P 2-10-4

Texas & Pacific 600 was from the first group of 2-10-4’s. In 1919 Santa Fe purchased a group of 2-10-2’s. One of them, No. 3829, was built with an experimental four-wheel trailing truck, but was otherwise identical to the rest of the group. The experiment was inconclusive: No. 3829 was not converted to a 2-10-2, […]

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The Berkshire: Steam’s fast-freight legend

Berkshire

One of Nickel Plate’s handsome Berkshires leads a westward freight across the Grand River bridge in Painesville, Ohio. No. 802 was originally built for the Wheeling & Lake Erie in 1937, then went to work for the Nickel Plate Road in 1949 when the NKP leased the W&LE. John A. Rehor In 1920, when American […]

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