Santa Fe 2-8-2 3243 climbs west toward Summit, Calif., in 1952. Chard Walker In the early 1940s, when steam locomotives were supreme, I worked on the Santa Fe around Los Angeles. At Redondo Junction, today the north end of the “Alameda Corridor” to the L.A. and Long Beach harbor facilities, Santa Fe’s Harbor Branch left […]
Train Topic: History
Grand Central photo gallery
Trains magazine celebrates Grand Central Terminal’s 100th anniversary in our February 2013 issue with a comprehensive look at America’s most famous railroad station, from its planning and construction a century ago, and the thwarted attempts to place a skyscraper above it in the 1960s, to the incredible restoration work completed in recent decades that has […]
‘Foreigners’ at Bensenville . . . and beyond
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 […]
AM radio antenna
It may look like a tiny handrail, but this is actually an AM antenna installed on some 1940s-era passenger cars. Michael Belcher Q What is the pipe on part of the roof of some 1940s-era diner and lounge cars as shown in Michael Belcher’s photo on page 90 of the April 2011 issue?— Randall Keils, […]
A new landmark for railroad workers
FULL SCREEN Phil Sullivan A heavy-duty crane is ready to lift the statue of Luther G. Smith, founder of the Brotherhood’s Relief & Compensation Fund, to its position in the plaza at the B&O Railroad Museum. FULL SCREEN B&O Railroad Museum Officers of the BR&CF, working full time in the organization’s headquarters in Harrisburg, Pa., […]
My ‘bad-luck’ engine
Santa Fe 4-8-4 No. 3760, author Elwood’s “bad luck” engine, leads the second section of the Grand Canyon west near Hesperia, Calif., in the 1950s. Don Sims My story takes place in 1943, when steam locomotives were supreme, and tells about my experiences with Santa Fe 3751-class 4-8-4 No. 3760. I was firing in passenger […]
CB&Q 5632 on a fantrip
Watch a video clip of CB&Q O-5 No. 5632 on a fantrip out of Chicago from the DVD program Reflections of American Railroading, produced by Herron Rail Video. […]
Steam and diesel on Santa Fe’s Surf Line
Watch a video clip of Santa Fe E1’s on a San Diegan meeting a 4-6-2 with the former Valley Flyer train from the DVD program Glory Machines, Vol. 1, produced by Herron Rail Video. […]
CB&Q 5632 on a fantrip
Watch a video clip of CB&Q O-5 No. 5632 on a fantrip out of Chicago from the DVD program Reflections of American Railroading, produced by Herron Rail Video. […]
Steam and diesel on Santa Fe’s Surf Line
Watch a video clip of Santa Fe E1’s on a San Diegan meeting a 4-6-2 with the former Valley Flyer train from the DVD program Glory Machines, Vol. 1, produced by Herron Rail Video. […]
Virginian riding high
Two Fairbanks-Morse diesels cross a bridge at Slab Fork, W.Va., in the 1950s in a photo by FM’s company photographer. Collection of Lewis A. Harlow […]
What do Photographer Andrew J. Russell, the Civil War, and Union Pacific Railroad have in common?
FULL SCREEN Andrew J. Russell, Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsca-11750 General Hermann Haupt (rear, center) supervises a construction site in 1863 at Devereaux Station of the Orange & Alexandria Railroad in Clifton, Virginia. The locomotive bears his name. At right is J. H. Devereaux, superintendent. FULL SCREEN Andrew J. Russell, Library of Congress, LC-B8184-10161 Ornately decorated […]