Watch video clips of SP 2-10-2s, Daylight 4-8-4s, cab-forwards, and more from the Herron Rail Video program Glory Machines Vol. 1. […]
Southern Pacific steam in action
Train Topic: History
1939’s big breakthrough: The FT
Seventy-five years ago on Nov. 25, 1939, Electro-Motive Corp.’s FT demonstrator diesel locomotive No. 103 left its birthplace at the company’s La Grange, Ill., plant. Nobody, not even its builders, knew what the new creation could do. True, the 17-year-old Electro-Motive had been a pioneer in diesel propulsion for railroad use, having built a successful […]
Whistles for helper engines
On West Virginia’s Cass Scenic Railroad, engine crews with three Shay locomotives signal each other with whistles for moves and stops. Steve Sweeney Q In the days of steam, when railroaders didn’t have radios or other one-to-one communication, how did the engineer on the lead locomotive communicate to the engineers in the “helper” locomotives as […]
Routes of the Freedom Trains
As part of America’s bicentennial celebration, the American Freedom Train spent 21 months touring the country, displaying 500 artifacts of the nation’s history — ranging from George Washington’s copy of the Constitution to a moon rock — to more than 7 million visitors in 48 states. That journey, celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2016, was […]
Book Review: Traqueros: Mexican railroad workers in the United States, 1870-1930
Traqueros: Mexican railroad workers in the United States, 1870-1930 No. 6 in Al Filo: Mexican American Studies Series By Jeffrey Marcos Garcílazo, Ph.D. Forward by Vicki L. Ruiz, Ph.D. University of North Texas Press, 1155 Union Circle, Denton, Texas, 76203-5017; 256 pages, map, tables, illustration, footnotes, index, bibliography, paperbound, 6 x 9 inches; $24.95. untpress.unt.edu […]
Three-phase locomotives
Great Northern Railway used three-phase locomotives in the 1920s. This General Electric locomotive operated with three-phase power. General Electric Q In a September 1999 article in Trains, I read that the Great Northern Cascade Tunnel electrification project was the first and only three-phase A.C. system in America. Was three phase delivered to a moving locomotive? […]
I was a teenage hostler
Big EM-1 2-8-8-4s congregate at the Benwood, Ohio, engine terminal in August 1957, a decade after author Tanner was a hostler there. J. J. Young Jr., Bob Withers coll. Sixty-odd years ago, North American railroads were enjoying prosperous years. World War II was over, but the momentum created during that time continued for another decade. […]
Santa Fe’s Super Chief
Watch clips of the Santa Fe’s legendary Chicago–Los Angeles streamliner from Sunday River Productions’ program The Super Chief — The Whole Story. […]
Santa Fe’s Super Chief
Watch clips of the Santa Fe’s legendary Chicago–Los Angeles streamliner from Sunday River Productions’ program The Super Chief — The Whole Story. […]
The last dance
The boiler explosion at Serra, Calif., that destroyed Mikado 3199 and killed its watchman took the classic form of such incidents, with the boiler being catapulted hundreds of yards from the running gear. Jack O. Elwood coll. During the era of steam locomotives, many of us in engine service loved those gallant machines, but we […]
Railroad Reading: Blue-chip investment
The cover of Yanosey’s first Lehigh Valley book, one of Morning Sun’s early titles. Editor’s note: This story first appeared in the August 2006 issue of Trains Magazine in the “Railroad Reading” section. Recently one of my authors at Morning Sun, who is writing a Lehigh Valley book, came here and immediately stated, “I didn’t […]
The Erie’s super locomotive
Erie No. 2603, later No. 5014, was built in 1914 by Baldwin in Philadelphia. None of these 850,000-pound-plus locomotives were preserved. Herb Broadbelt Q With so much talk about Union Pacific’s Big Boy, I was wondering about other North American “big steamers.” Do you know the current location of any of the Erie Railroad’s three […]
