A new way to unload sand

This story was related to me by those personally involved in a new but somewhat less-than-satisfactory method of unloading sand. The time was in the middle of the Great Depression. The locale was the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the “U.P.” The two unloaders were the sons of a local Methodist preacher, long in spirit and […]

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A South Bend tradition

SSL100

Two of the South Shore Line’s air-conditioned M.U. cars stand at the road’s downtown South Bend, Ind., depot on La Salle Street in 1967. H. G. Goerke; J. David Ingles coll. It was about 14 years before this evocative photo was snapped by my late train-chasing buddy Hank Goerke that I first stepped off a […]

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America’s newest roundhouse

Former regional railroad owner Jerry Joe Jacobson built a private, 18-stall roundhouse he calls the “Age of Steam” in Sugarcreek, Ohio, to house his collection of a dozen locomotives. The complex includes a boiler wash track, offices, a backshop, machine shop, store house, water tank, and water column. Enjoy this short video, and be sure […]

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America’s newest roundhouse

Former regional railroad owner Jerry Joe Jacobson built a private, 18-stall roundhouse he calls the “Age of Steam” in Sugarcreek, Ohio, to house his collection of a dozen locomotives. The complex includes a boiler wash track, offices, a backshop, machine shop, store house, water tank, and water column. Enjoy this short video, and be sure […]

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‘Foreigners’ at Bensenville . . . and beyond

MILWonEL

West of Huntington, Ind., on the Erie Lackawanna, in March 1976, an EL U25B and GP35 back down to an eastbound freight brought in from Chicago by Milwaukee Road F units. Mike Schafer When I started with the Milwaukee Road in 1971, in road service, the railroad was desperately short of motive power. To help […]

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Building Model Railroader’s Winter Hill Quarry Branch, part 1

Cody Grivno and Jim Hediger next to layout

Beginning in the January 2013 issue of Model Railroader you’ll learn about the Winter Hill Branch of the Milwaukee, Racine & Troy. Over the next few months you’ll can also watch video journals taken during the construction of this Model Railroader staff project. In part 1, associate editor Steve Otte gives you an overview of […]

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Building Model Railroader’s Winter Hill Quarry Branch, part 1

Cody Grivno and Jim Hediger next to layout

Beginning in the January 2013 issue of Model Railroader you’ll learn about the Winter Hill Branch of the Milwaukee, Racine & Troy. Over the next few months you’ll can also watch video journals taken during the construction of this Model Railroader staff project. In part 1, associate editor Steve Otte gives you an overview of […]

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Give my regards to the Broadway

A Conrail executive locomotive, E8 No. 4022, leads the eastbound Broadway Limited, train No. 40, into Chicago Union Station on April 11, 1977. Amtrak is in the midst of a motive power shortage, caused by problems with its EMD SDP40F fleet, and is leasing extra locomotives wherever it can. Photo by Gary Dolzall […]

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