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A supplement to the Classic Trains Online Look Back e-mail newsletter Susquehanna 2514, a well-cared-for Pacific built for the Erie in 1905, strides out of Pompton Lakes, N.J., with a westbound commuter run. Theodore B. Kerr The New York Susquehanna & Western Railroad evokes in me almost palpable feelings of ownership. Having been born a […]
The stack-top addition to John J. Craig Co. Shay No. 2147 may have caused more sparks than it arrested. T. G. King photo, C. K. Marsh Jr. collection Hard by the campus of the 1950’s-era University of Tennessee lay the modest Knoxville terminal of the storied Smoky Mountain Railroad. Several postwar railfan students, including me, […]
Chesapeake & Ohio B30-7 No. 8242 is sandwiched between SD45s, with 4383 in the lead, as they pass through Thurmond, W.Va., on July 26, 1984. Kermit Geary Jr. photo […]
Robert Wegner This Map of the Month appeared in the December 2004 issue of Trains magazine. Although the idea of branding passenger-train fleets did not begin with the streamliner, it flourished in that era. Innovations such as stainless steel found widespread use in an age captivated by design. Suddenly, appearance mattered. Trains with colorful paint […]
This Map of the Month appeared in the November 2004 issue of Trains magazine. “Everywhere West” was an appropriate slogan for a railroad that once operated over 12,000 route-miles across America’s heartland. The classically styled 1940 official railroad map at right shows how the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy grew from modest beginnings to become a major […]
Bill Metzger This Map of the Month appeared in the October 2005 issue of Trains magazine. Rock Island Lines serve 14 Western states,” the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific’s map in the Official Guides of 1964 proudly proclaimed, offering “7,849 miles of modern railroad.” Trouble was, Rock Island’s main lines went everywhere its parallel rivals […]
Bill Metzger This Map of the Month appeared in the February 2006 issue of Trains magazine. Mention the Pennsylvania Railroad and iconic images come to mind immediately: passenger trains rocketing down a four-track electrified main line; limiteds scooping water on the fly from track pans; impossibly long coal drags; and mammoth engineering projects, from Horseshoe […]
This Rock Island paint scheme served as the prototype for Iowa Interstate’s new ‘Heritage’ locomotive (pictured above). Electro-Motive Mid-America Car KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Iowa Interstate ES44AC No. 513 has emerged from the paint shop at Mid-America Car wearing Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific colors. The unit will serve on Interstate’s ex-Rock Island route between […]
Rare find: Working in Cajon Pass helper service, Santa Fe center-cab Baldwin 2600 heads west at Summit. David Lustig collection I think I was about 14 or 15 when the word got out that I liked trains. It was not a secret, you understand, but unless I seriously misjudged him, I don’t think my father […]
The Grand Canyon was a stop on several of the tours I conducted in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Our groups would ride Santa Fe Railway trains to Williams, Ariz., then chartered motor coaches to the Canyon. After dinner at the Bright Angel Lodge at the Grand Canyon, the passengers and luggage were aboard […]
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Flying flags that mark it as an extra, Louisville & Nashville 806 South pulls a 106-car freight upgrade south of Montgomery, Ala., on May 26, 1955. The train consists mainly of empty cars bound for the docks at Mobile, Ala., and New Orleans. […]
