50 years ago in railroad history … A supplement to the Classic Trains Online Look Back e-mail newsletter Pullman car Ferdinand Magellan, modified to haul the President of the United States in 1942 and in POTUS ever since, is donated to the Florida Development Commission for display at the University of Miami; it later moved […]
Train Topic: History
Video: Remembering the Gorre & Daphetid
Having trouble viewing this video? Please visit our Video FAQ page Executive editor Andy Sperandeo talks about running trains on John Allen’s HO scale Gorre & Daphetid. […]
Video: Remembering the Gorre & Daphetid
Having trouble viewing this video? Please visit our Video FAQ page Executive editor Andy Sperandeo talks about running trains on John Allen’s HO scale Gorre & Daphetid. […]
Ask Trains from September 2007
Q Lately I have noticed that many freight cars, including tank cars, boxcars, and hoppers, have five to seven vertical reflective strips on their sides. What’s the deal? — Frank C. Darling Jr., Wolcott, N.Y. A The objective is better nighttime visibility. In January 2005, the Federal Railroad Administration issued “The Final Rule on Reflectorization […]
A look back in time: November 1958
Rock Island buys GM’s two Aerotrains for suburban service out of Chicago, where they join RI’s own Jet Rocket Talgo train, powered by an Aerotrain-style locomotive. . . . Illinois Central buys eight sleeping cars (four 10-5’s, four 4-4-2’s) from New York Central for City of Miami service. . . . Pullman-Standard’s first 85-foot flatcar […]
TRAIN CONSISTS: Champion and Auto-Train
In his article “One Day at . . . Sanford, Fla.” in the Winter 2008 issue of Classic Trains, author George Hamlin presents his photos of the northbound Auto-Train and Amtrak’s northbound Champion. Here are the consists for those trains. Amtrak No. 88, the Champion, at Sanford, Fla., on November 15, 1975: SDP40F 641; baggage […]
Video Extra: New York Central steam around Buffalo
In his article “Boyhood Fascination with New York Central Steam” in the Winter 2008 issue of Classic Trains, author Fred Furminger recalls the mid-1950s when he, as a bike-riding teenager in Buffalo, photographed the final years of steam on NYC’s Michigan Central. Here’s a sampling of the 8mm movies he took then, including his homemade […]
Video Extra: Santa Fe PA’s in action
In his article “The First PA’s” in the Winter 2008 issue of Classic Trains, author Peter A. Hansen examines Alco’s first postwar passenger diesels, Santa Fe Nos. 51L, 51A, and 51B. Here are scenes of Santa Fe PA’s in action from Herron Rail Video’s DVD program “Glory Machines, Vol. 5.” […]
Video Extra: New York Central steam around Buffalo
In his article “Boyhood Fascination with New York Central Steam” in the Winter 2008 issue of Classic Trains, author Fred Furminger recalls the mid-1950s when he, as a bike-riding teenager in Buffalo, photographed the final years of steam on NYC’s Michigan Central. Here’s a sampling of the 8mm movies he took then, including his homemade […]
Video Extra: Santa Fe PA’s in action
In his article “The First PA’s” in the Winter 2008 issue of Classic Trains, author Peter A. Hansen examines Alco’s first postwar passenger diesels, Santa Fe Nos. 51L, 51A, and 51B. Here are scenes of Santa Fe PA’s in action from Herron Rail Video’s DVD program “Glory Machines, Vol. 5.” […]
A look back in time: October 1958
As of October 1, 1958, Class I railroads own or lease 27,622 diesel locomotives, 1,532 steam locomotives, and 559 electrics. . . . Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line are mulling a merger. . . . New York Central unveils a system for transporting ballistic missiles in conventional 70-foot baggage cars. . . . […]
A look back in time: September 1958
New Jersey challenges the constitutionality of the Transportation Act of 1958, under whose provisions the Erie and New York Central seek to discontinue their Hudson River ferry service. . . . Reading Company completes a $500,000 upgrade at its Port Richmond Marine Terminal on the Delaware River in Philadelphia; new ore-unloading machinery nearly doubles the […]