Gibson City, Ill., located in the heart of Central Illinois’ grain-growing region, is the headquarters for the Bloomer Shippers Connecting Railroad, otherwise known as the Bloomer Line. Gibson City also serves as a junction and interchange point for two Class I railroads, Canadian National and Norfolk Southern. CN runs up to two locals a day […]
Nestled among hillside dairy farms, corn fields, and rock quarries, Byron Hill, Wis., sees more than 20 trains per day on Canadian National’s busy Waukesha Subdivision. Positioned halfway between Fond du Lac and Lomira, Wis., the main line is paralleled by two vital roadways, Highways 175 and 41. Branching off of those main arteries are […]
Chicago is still the railroad capital of the country in most people’s opinion. What puts it on top over other cities like Kansas City is the strong passenger-train presence. It’s Amtrak’s midwestern hub (8 routes), and hundreds of Metra commuter trains (11 routes) hustle in and out of the city daily. Much of the railroad […]
Feature Articles Photographing the Real Rio Grande Narrow Gauge By Victor Hand From a first visit in 1959 until the end of revenue freight in 1968 Will Stop on Signal Only … By James E. Dierks A veteran traveler muses on flag stops of yore Last Decade for the Georgia Railroad By Jeffrey A. Harwell […]
Feature Articles Rambling on the Reading By Karl Zimmermann Between 1959 and ’64, surplus 4-8-4s and idle commuter coaches criss-crossed southeastern Pennsylvania on a series of remarkable excursions See more photos of Nos. 2100, 2102, and 2124 on the Reading’s Iron Horse Rambles. Rolling Laboratory By James E. Dierks The American Steel Foundries’ test train […]
Feature Articles Steam’s Last, Highest Outpost By Gordon Glattenberg Ride the locomotive on Colorado & Southern’s Climax Branch to the top of America’s standard-gauge trackage What’s in a Photograph? C&NW at Sioux City Stockyards, 1947 By Jerry A. Pinkepank Extensive rail facilities were required to support the Iowa town’s meatpacking plants “Booming” in Modern Times […]
Feature Articles Wyoming Steam Parade By R. Clifford Black IV In 1953, a boy and his dad thrilled to the constant mainline action of Union Pacific’s Big Boys, Challengers, and Northerns What’s in a Photograph? Double RS2s on the Laurentian By Jerry A. Pinkepank Delaware & Hudson’s Montreal—New York City day train pulls into Plattsburgh, […]
Feature Articles “Mr. L&N” By Ron Flanary and Charles Buccola Charlie Castner — railfan, photographer, author, preservationist, and railroad professional — has studied and promoted the Louisville & Nashville Railroad for more than 80 years The Prosperity Special: Symbol of the 1920s By Don L. Hofsommer A mass movement of new Southern Pacific locomotives across […]
Feature Articles Chicago in the 1930s By Photos by William Ranke; Text by Mike Raia At a time when most rail photographers were taking static “engine pictures,” one man was capturing the dynamic scene in the Railroad Capital Train Time at Los Angeles, 1960 By R. David Read My stint as “wire chief” at LAUPT […]
Classic Trains is a quarterly magazine celebrating the “golden years of railroading.” Each issue covers the North American railroad scene from the 1920s to the late 1970s with extraordinary photographs and compelling writing. Giant steam locomotives, colorful streamliners, down-home local trains, great passenger terminals, recollections of railroaders and train-watchers . . . they’re all in […]
Classic Trains is a quarterly magazine celebrating the “golden years of railroading.” Each issue covers the North American railroad scene from the 1920s to the late 1970s with extraordinary photographs and compelling writing. Giant steam locomotives, colorful streamliners, down-home local trains, great passenger terminals, recollections of railroaders and train-watchers . . . they’re all in […]
Classic Trains is a quarterly magazine celebrating the “golden years of railroading.” Each issue covers the North American railroad scene from the 1920s to the late 1970s with extraordinary photographs and compelling writing. Giant steam locomotives, colorful streamliners, down-home local trains, great passenger terminals, recollections of railroaders and train-watchers . . . they’re all in […]
