In the past, railroad dining car meals were something to write home about, positively. A notable summary of this can be found in the lyrics of the popular song Chattanooga Choo-Choo, with its assertion that “dinner in the diner, nothing could be finer.” As private-railroad passenger service declined in the 1960s, however, this […]
The Illinois Central’s EMD SD40A diesel locomotive resulted from the railroad’s desire to increase fuel capacity. “Customer modifications to production units aren’t all that unusual, don’t usually result in more than minor engineering and construction revisions, and seldom are dignified by a separate builder’s class,” wrote former Trains Managing Editor Wally Abbey in the January […]
Classic Trains Film Archive | Midwestern and Eastern U.S. cities, J. David Ingles Reel UNK2 – Ride along with J. David Ingles in this first installment of Classic Trains Film Archive! Through his vintage color footage, you’ll see Amtrak action in southeast Wisconsin and central Illinois, then ride along eastbound on the Amtrak National Limited […]
Norfolk & Western Business Car No. 300 It seems like my trip on the Super Dome was only the beginning of my private varnish journeys in 2023. A few months later I was asked if I wanted to take the Norfolk & Western Business Car No. 300 on a fall colors excursion train through northeast […]
ATLANTA — The archives of the Southern Railway are now open to the public by appointment, the Atlanta History Center has announced, and a collection of more than 11,000 photos from the images are beginning to be made available online. The archives were donated by Norfolk Southern Railway in 2021 [see “Norfolk Southern to donate […]
PERRIS, Calif. – After sitting dormant for more than 30 years, a rare Fairbanks Morse H12-44 switcher made its public debut on Saturday, Jan. 20, following a multi-year restoration at the Southern California Railway Museum. Built in 1956, ATSF No. 560 was part of an order of six H12-44s built for the Santa Fe. They […]
Rolling stones Cresting Sand Patch while witnessing an Allegheny Summit sunrise on the former Baltimore & Ohio was one of the intangible benefits of being the engineer of Amtrak’s Capitol Limited between Washington and Pittsburgh in the late 1980s. Few things are as awe-inspiring, but Mother Nature can also be frighteningly treacherous. The right of […]
A Chicago & North Western Baldwin switcher begins pulling cars from the “potato yard” in Chicago as an icing truck services a refrigerator car (middle) and buyers finish unloading cars (left) in 1957. Chicago & North Western photo […]
What was your first byline in Trains? Doug Riddell: My first byline in Trains appeared in the February 2000 issue: “A dose of perspective” (Readers Platform). I’d just run into a retired Chesapeake & Ohio conductor, Gilly Parker, who shared a story with me. He’d worked passenger service between Richmond and Newport News in the early […]
France’s 1949 Merci Train left a legacy of European rail equipment displays throughout the U.S. During the period around World War I and II a number of European railroads utilized a small boxcar — small by American standards. The cars rode on four wheels and carried all of 20 tons. In France, such […]
Wabash locomotives were distinctive in both steam and diesel eras. After depending on more than 150 2-8-2s for freights that succeeded typical smaller types, Wabash in 1930 received 50 handsome 4-8-2s and 4-8-4s (25 each) from Baldwin. Perhaps more remembered were seven 4-6-4 Hudsons, rebuilt at Decatur from unsuccessful three-cylinder Mikados in the […]
I’m not holding my breath, but the Federal Railroad Administration late last year released a long list of routes chosen for what it calls its Corridor Identification and Development Program, which the Trains News Wire describes as “a catch-all group of 69 potential future Amtrak routes, possible extensions to existing routes, efforts to increase service […]
