Rio Grande Alco PA 6013 revs up out of Littleton, Colo., with the Denver-bound Royal Gorge on May 18, 1967. David Ingles […]
PA with the Royal Gorge
Louisville & Nashville passenger diesels
Workers at the New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal enginehouse prepare Louisville & Nashville FP7 651 and a GP7 to go out on the Piedmont Limited/Gulf Wind in 1954. James G. La Vake […]
Less-than-carload boxcars in L.A.
Boxcars assigned to less-than-carload (LCL) service — including several Southern Pacific “Overnight” boxcars — are being loaded on parallel tracks at Pacific Electric’s 8th Street Freight Station in Los Angeles in the 1940s. PE was an SP subsidiary. Pacific Electric […]
Freight train on Tanglefoot Curve
A 70-car Denver & Rio Grande Western narrow-gauge freight train drops down famous Tanglefoot Curve, just east of Cumbres, Colo., in June 1960. Since 1960, Cumbres & Toltec tourist trains have plied this landmark. Robert F. Collins […]
Inside GN’s Red River
Great Northern launched its Red River pocket streamliner between Grand Forks, N.Dak., and St. Paul in June 1950, part of the road’s big postwar push for passengers. The coach seats featured a wheat motif on their upholstery. Great Northern […]
Remembering Seaboard Air Line freight trains
Join Classic Trains editors in celebrating the hustle and muscle showed in Seaboard Air Line Railroad freight trains. We hope you enjoy this photo gallery of images selected form the files of the David P. Morgan Library at Kalmbach Media. […]
B&O freight under wire
Two GP38s and a GP40 lead a Baltimore & Ohio freight out of Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac’s Potomac Yard in Arlington, Va., in April 1971. The train will soon enter Washington, D.C., via the “Long Bridge” over the Potomac River. The catenary is for Penn Central freight trains, which also use “Pot Yard.” David Ingles […]
Auto-rack revolution
By the early 1960s, railroads began reclaiming auto traffic from highway trucks with long two- and three-level auto racks on flatcars. Here, new Thunderbirds and other Fords are loaded aboard a Western Pacific tri-level car built by ACF. American Car & Foundry […]
Casey at the throttle
In the only known photo of legendary engineer John Luther “Casey” Jones at the throttle of a locomotive, Jones and fireman J. W. McKinnie are ready to take Illinois Central 2-8-0 638 out for a break-in run after a shopping at Water Valley in summer 1898. Less than two years later, Jones perished in a […]
Powder River Trickle
The flood of Powder River Basin coal that became so important to successor Burlington Northern began modestly on NP, with a 1969 contract to move coal from Colstrip, Mont., to Cohasset, Minn. In July 1969, a Cohasset-bound train pauses in Mandan, N.D. Duane Durr collection […]
Monon RPO
A Railway Express Agency truck, along with a cart with milk cans, transfers express into a messenger car, while in the background, mail bags are loaded and unloaded from an RPO car along the Monon in 1948. Photo by Linn Westcott […]
Winter 2020
More in this issue WELCOME •J. David Ingles, 1941-2020 FAST MAIL •Letters from readers on our Fall 2020 issue THE WAY IT WAS •Tales from rail fans and railroaders BUMPING POST •FEC’s Miami station HEAD END •A potpourri of railroad history, then and now TRUE COLOR ‘Pere Marquette’ passing Rougemere MILEPOSTS Commentary by Kevin P. […]
