Join Trains’ Editor Jim Wrinn on a three-day adventure watching Union Pacific Big Boy-type No. 4014 take its first baby steps toward restoration in Pomona, Calif. Jim’s three-minute time lapse video documents the painstaking work of Union Pacific’s heritage department in hand-laying track and carefully towing the giant 4-8-8-4 locomotive in sweltering early autumn weather. […]
Tag: Railfanning
Steve’s Big Boy Firebox Tour
Join Trains Associate Editor Steve Sweeney on a guided tour of Big Boy No. 4014 – from the firebox! Narration provided by Union Pacific’s senior manager of heritage operations, Ed Dickens Jr. […]
History According to Hediger: An engine ride on the Cannonball
Having trouble viewing this video? Please visit our Video FAQ page When Jim Hediger was a youngster, he wrote the president of the Wabash RR to see if he could ride in the cab of the locomotive on a trip to St. Louis. Much to everyone’s surprise, Jim got a letter and an invitation […]
History According to Hediger: An engine ride on the Cannonball
Having trouble viewing this video? Please visit our Video FAQ page When Jim Hediger was a youngster, he wrote the president of the Wabash RR to see if he could ride in the cab of the locomotive on a trip to St. Louis. Much to everyone’s surprise, Jim got a letter and an invitation […]
F3 to Monon
Red and gray Monon F3’s on the Louisville–Chicago Tippecanoe pause at Crawfordsville, Ind., in fall 1948. Dick Howell Back in the 1950s, when I was working for Kalmbach Publishing Co. but before I moved my family to be with me in Milwaukee, the Monon Route played an important role in getting me to and from Indianapolis […]
Stalking Coaling Towers in Maine
FULL SCREEN David Kahler To my delight I found not one, but two concrete coaling towers straddling the BAR rail yard. Originally the towers were connected with an overhead conveyer for coal. The left tower was primary and supplied coal for BAR freight locomotives while the right tower provided coal for the Maine Central passenger […]
Norfolk Southern’s Rat Hole
Join us for an interview with two experts on the tunnel district of the Southern Railway line between Cincinnati and Chattanooga, Tenn. Learn more about the abandoned tunnels in the woods of Kentucky. Find out just how difficult it is to see these relics of the steam era. […]
Norfolk Southern’s Rat Hole
Join us for an interview with two experts on the tunnel district of the Southern Railway line between Cincinnati and Chattanooga, Tenn. Learn more about the abandoned tunnels in the woods of Kentucky. Find out just how difficult it is to see these relics of the steam era. […]
Drew’s Trackside Adventures, Episode 9 – Metra Towers A2 and A5 in Chicago, Ill.
Join Drew on his Chicago railfan adventure as he dives deep into the heart of Metra’s operations, visiting two legendary railroad towers: A2 and A5. Get an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look inside these historic interlockings, once part of the Milwaukee Road lines. You’ll meet the dedicated operators who manage hundreds of trains daily, witness their intricate […]
Drew’s Trackside Adventures, Episode 9 – Tower A2 in Chicago
In part 2 of Drew’s trip to Chicago, he visits two towers along Metra’s former Milwaukee Road lines – A5 and A2. In this video, Drew gives you a close-up look inside the towers, and you get to meet the people who run these busy railroad junction points. […]
An underrated diesel
Once a proud hauler of crack passenger trains and fast freights as a DL109 diesel locomotive, New Haven test vehicle PP 716 languishes in Boston in 1968, awaiting its fate: the scrapper’s torch. Bruce Beardsley If Alco’s famous PA diesel is perhaps a bit overrated, as implied in the January 2004 issue of Trains magazine, then the […]
Drew’s Trackside Adventures, Episode 8 -Western Ave., Chicago
Drew’s off to Chicago this time to catch up with Metra, Chicago’s commuter rail system. After doing some railfanning with Steve Sweeney of Trains magazine at the busy Western Avenue Station, Drew and the crew are off to tour Metra’s shops. Is there a Metra-themed project railroad in our future? Time will tell! […]
