Sterling performers

Grand Trunk Western 0-8-0s arriving at Northwestern Steel & Wire in Chicago

Northwestern Steel & Wire, located in Sterling, Ill., beside Chicago & North Western’s east-west main line, cut up untold numbers of steam locomotives in the 1950s and early ’60s to provide raw material for its furnaces. Among the condemned engines entering the plant were 15 Grand Trunk Western 0-8-0s, which arrived in 1960. NS&W spared […]

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Where there’s smoke

Delaware & Hudson PA's 18 and 19 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Where there’s smoke. . . there’s often an Alco. Delaware & Hudson PA’s 18 and 19 blast north out of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., with the Laurentian in June 1969. Doyle McCormack is restoring No. 18 (ex- Santa Fe 62L) as “Nickel Plate 190” in Oregon, while sister 16 has moved to the Museum of the American […]

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Missabe 2-8-0 at work

Duluth Missabe and Iron Range 2-8-0 at Rainy Junction, Minn.

Missabe 2-8-0 at work Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range 2-8-0 No. 1218 has hold of a side-door caboose as it switches cars around Oliver Iron Mining Co.’s plant at Rainy Junction, Minn., in September 1954. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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The ‘Century’ at Syracuse

Hudson 5363 rolls down Washington Street in downtown Syracuse with an eastbound train. NYC passenger trains used this street trackage until a

In 1928 I was a freshman at Syracuse University. I needed a part-time job, and got one with American Railway Express, Inc., which became Railway Express Agency the following year. I worked at the New York Central’s Syracuse depot on the night shift Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings from 5 p.m. until 1 a.m., whenever […]

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Steamy snow scene

Canadian Pacific 2-8-2s travel along the Eaton River valley

A pair of Canadian Pacific 2-8-2s, Nos. 5410 and 5329, drift with their grain extra down into the Eaton River valley just west of Cookshire, Quebec, in the mid-1950s. Cookshire was home to one of five water tanks on the line east from Montreal into Maine, and most eastbound trains would stop there. Photo by […]

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Remembering Pacific Electric Railway locomotives

A steeple cab electric freight motor surrounded by other freight equipment.

  All this month, October 2020, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the legacy and heritage of the Pacific Electric Railway. This week, we’re featuring the motley mix of electric, diesel-electric, diesel-mechanical, and steam locomotives that all operated on the Pacific Electric in Southern California. If you like this photo gallery, you might also like a […]

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Story City branch

Minneapolis & St. Louis 2-6-0 Mogul 310

Minneapolis & St. Louis 2-6-0 Mogul 310 has only one gondola left to deliver in Story City, Iowa, before returning home in July 1946. The railroad had 877 route miles in the state in 1931, the fifth most for a railroad at the time. Photo by William F. Armstrong […]

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Photo of the Day

20200619

Mountain meet Pennsylvania Railroad GP9s on westbound piggyback train TT1 pass J1 class 2-10-4 No. 6166, which has stopped on the main line near Johnstown, Pa., to take water from an overhead spout, in September 1956. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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Photo of the Day

20190909

B&O steam Baltimore & Ohio S-1 class 2-10-2 No. 6174 backs up the hump at Willard, Ohio, with reefers. The railroad had 125 such locomotives in the class, built by Baldwin and Lima between 1923 and 1926. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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Photo of the Day

20181213

Union Pacific mixed train Consolidation 284 leads Union Pacific train 386, a mixed train on the road’s Idaho Northern Branch, near Smith’s Ferry, Idaho, in December 1947. R. H. Kindig photo […]

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