Classic Trains editors are celebrating the heritage, history, and lore of famed (and infamous) railroads. In May 2020, we celebrate the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. Please enjoy a collection of locomotive images located in the David P. Morgan Library archives at Kalmbach Media that include the Santa Fe’s iconic locomotives and classic scenic […]
Section: Railroads
Remembering Santa Fe Railway freight trains
All this month — May 2020 — Classic Trains editors are celebrating the heritage, history, and images of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. Please enjoy this photo gallery of images from the David P. Morgan Library archives at Kalmbach Media that include Santa Fe diesel- and steam-powered freight trains through time. You might […]
Remembering Santa Fe passenger trains
In May 2020, Classic Trains is celebrating the history, heritage, and splendor of the Santa Fe Railway. Enjoy this photo gallery, originally published online in April 2015, as the perfect salute to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe. Return each week for another salute to the railroad of the month! See what we did last […]
Remembering the Santa Fe Railway
F units dressed in Santa Fe’s incomparable Warbonnet paint scheme accelerate the Chicago–Los Angeles Chief away from its station and crew stop at Chillicothe, Ill., in early 1968. J. David Ingles History of the Santa Fe Railway The Atchison & Topeka Railroad was chartered in 1859 to join the towns of its title and continue […]
Gettin’ out of Dodge
In August 1968, two years before author Dierks’ ride and when the Boise City mixed carried a combine instead of just a caboose, Santa Fe train 174 is at Elkhart, Kans. Joe McMillan This wasn’t my first rodeo, so to speak. I had ridden mixed trains in Utah and Idaho, and, just four days ago, one in Kansas. […]
Tips for identifying modern diesel locomotives
Many readers have asked how we identify the current crop of big, modern road diesels. Unfortunately, it isn’t easy, as many locomotive designs have evolved into a family of similar looking locomotives. This means modelers have to study the details to figure out what locomotive is represented by a specific scale model. Comparing the model […]
Remembering Pere Marquette Railway freight trains
All this month — April 2020 — Classic Trains editors are celebrating the heritage, history, and images of the Pere Marquette Railway. Please enjoy this photo gallery of images from the David P. Morgan Library archives at Kalmbach Media that include Pere Marquette diesel- and steam-powered freight trains through time. You might also enjoy this […]
Universal leader
The U30C was the most popular of General Electric’s “Universal” locomotive series, selling 592 units built beginning in 1967. Buyers included Burlington Northern, Louisville & Nashville (pictured), Milwaukee Road, Pennsylvania, Reading, Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, and others. This unit has lost its L&N markings in the transition to a Seaboard System identity. Jim Hediger photo […]
Timeless Tennessee Pass
Running behind three Rio Grande GP40s and a GP30, this eastbound was working up the west side of Tennessee Pass near Red Cliff, Colo., on April 30, 1967. Out of sight are two F7 helpers on the rear. In the late 20th century Tennessee Pass had eight or more heavy trains climbing its 13 miles […]
Treacherous tracks
A Denver & Salt Lake passenger train pauses at Arrow, Colo., on the original Rollins Pass line in 1905. At left is the main line west to Middle Park, which has a 4-percent grade. Today, Union Pacific freights and Amtrak’s California Zephyr bypass this treacherous trackage with Moffat Tunnel, completed in 1928. L. C. McClure photo […]
Roosevelt Road revisited
Baltimore & Ohio train 6, the eastbound Capitol Limited, picks up orders as it departs Chicago’s Grand Central Station bound for Washington, D.C., in July 1968. Philip A. Weibler photo […]
Short-lived short line
Michigan Northern GP7 No. 1606 rolls a two-car train south along Keystone Road south of Traverse City, Mich., in 1982. The railroad operated various trackage in the Wolverine State from 1976 to 1986. Neil Plagens photo […]