Union Pacific on Cajon Pass in the 1940s

Two steam locomotives power a heavyweight passenger train

Union Pacific on Cajon Pass in the 1940s: Union Pacific operates on Cajon Pass in Southern California as the Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad. It uses Santa Fe trackage on a rental basis from Daggett, 8 miles east of Barstow, to Riverside, 9 miles south of San Bernardino. This arrangement has been in effect […]

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Passenger Geep

Nose of diesel locomotive in black and white

Passenger Geep Southern Railway GP7 No. 2164 was in local service in eastern North Carolina when this image was made in September 1965. Note the steam generator exhaust stack to the right of the bell. Curt Tillotson Jr. photo […]

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‘Silver Meteor’

Passenger train going around curve

Silver Meteor The northbound Amtrak Silver Meteor from Miami rounds Honeymoon Wye on the way into Jacksonville, Fla., on June 16, 1976. A single EMD SDP40F leads the consist on this day. Jack M. Turner photo […]

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Baldwin ‘Babyface’ locomotives: Diesels that didn’t

Orange and blue streamlined diesel locomotive with freight train under bridge

Baldwin diesel locomotives history Established in the 1830s, Philadelphia’s Baldwin Locomotive Works was one of America’s oldest and largest locomotive builders. Baldwin steam engines were known for their high quality and good looks. But many of its internal combustion efforts could be classified as “diesels that didn’t.” Along with fellow steam builders Alco and Lima, […]

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Hard knock life

Men working on railroad tracks

Hard knock life Northern Pacific track workers labor near new Bozeman Tunnel in Montana in 1945. Regardless of the location track workers had a hard, dirty job. Northern Pacific photo […]

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Remembering Reading Company locomotives

Black-and-white three-quarter angle photo of 4-8-4 steam locomotive in action

All through October, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the gritty, coal-hauling, Pennsylvania-based Reading Company railroad. Please enjoy this photo gallery of Reading freight trains selected from the image archives of Kalmbach Media‘s David P. Morgan Library. Reading Company, as a railroad, disappeared into Conrail more than 40 years ago. But it is still possible to […]

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Gaspe peninsula

Passenger train waits at waterside station

Gaspe peninsula Canadian National train 119 is at the division point of New Carlisle, 104 miles into its 202-mile trip from Gaspe to Matapedia in 1975. Bill Linley photo     […]

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Fall 2021

Classic Trains' Fall 2021 issue cover

Welcome  Camelot in Dairyland Head End  A potpourri railroad history, then and now Fast Mail  Letters from readers on our Summer 2021 issue True Color  Frisco’s Will Rogers at St. Louis Mileposts  Commentary by Kevin P. Keefe The Way It Was  Tales from railfans and railroaders Classic Today  R&LHS turns 100 Car Stop  Bamberger Railroad […]

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Chihuahua al Pacífico

Dirty orange diesel locomotives

Chihuahua al Pacífico Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacífico chop-nosed 515 and unadulterated sister 509 work a freight at La Junta, Chihuahua, in March 1975. The government-owned railroad began service in 1961 and became part of Ferromex in 1998. Keith E. Ardinger photo […]

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PAs on parade

Red and silver diesel locomotives power streamlined stainless steel passenger train

PAs on parade Santa Fe PA1s 75L and 78L hustle train 23, a nameless three-car remnant of the Grand Canyon, up Edelstein Hill west of Chillicothe, Ill., on Feb. 10, 1968. F.C. “Buck” Dumaine Jr. and the Delaware & Hudson saved the PA from extinction. J. David Ingles photo […]

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Clark Fork River

Orange and black diesel and electic locomotives on deck truss bridge over river

Clark Fork River Milwaukee Road tTrain 262 crosses high above the Clark Fork River at St. Regis, Mont., in August 1973 with a Little Joe leading three SD40-2s. Steve Schmollinger photo […]

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Texarkana train

Gray and red diesel locomotives pull freight train by interlocking tower

Texarkana train After a crew change, Southern Pacific SD40T-2 8386 leads train  MFLAT out of Texarkana, Texas, on August 31, 1985. At the right is the interlocking tower that protects the Cotton Belt’s crossing with the KCS main line to Shreveport. Scott D. Lindsey photo […]

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