In the Fall 2006 issue of Classic Trains, we look at the Santa Fe’s great steam designs during the tenure of Chief Mechanical Engineer Charles T. Ripley. See clips of the giant 5001- and 5011-class 2-10-4’s on home rails in New Mexico and on lease to the Pennsylvania Railroad in Ohio from the Herron Rail […]
Train Topic: History
Pacing Santa Fe 2-10-4 5021
In the Fall 2006 issue of Classic Trains, we look at the Santa Fe’s great steam designs during the tenure of Chief Mechanical Engineer Charles T. Ripley. See clips of the giant 5001- and 5011-class 2-10-4’s on home rails in New Mexico and on lease to the Pennsylvania Railroad in Ohio from the Herron Rail […]
Santa Fe 2-10-4’s on PRR
In the Fall 2006 issue of Classic Trains, we look at the Santa Fe’s great steam designs during the tenure of Chief Mechanical Engineer Charles T. Ripley. See clips of the giant 5001- and 5011-class 2-10-4’s on home rails in New Mexico and on lease to the Pennsylvania Railroad in Ohio from the Herron Rail […]
Walter Gray, former director of the California State Railroad Museum, dies at 54 NEWSWIRE
Walter P. Gray III SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Walter P. Gray III, the longtime former director of the California State Railroad Museum and most recently a prominent state parks cultural official, died today in Sacramento after a long battle with cancer. He was 54. A graduate of California State University at Sacramento, Gray was instrumental in […]
Online Video Extra: Dick Wallin’s Illinois Central Steam
In our Summer issue, R. R. “Dick” Wallin recalls several cab rides on Illinois Central steam engines. See clips of Wallin’s 8mm color movies from those rides. […]
Online Video Extra: Dick Wallin’s Illinois Central Steam
In our Summer issue, R. R. “Dick” Wallin recalls several cab rides on Illinois Central steam engines. See clips of Wallin’s 8mm color movies from those rides. […]
Distinctive diesels
Four-unit locomotive No. 103 of GM’s Electro-Motive Corporation. Electro-Motive FT Tagged “the diesel that did it” by David P. Morgan, longtime editor of Trains Magazine, in a 1960 feature story, four-unit locomotive No. 103 of General Motors’ Electro-Motive Corporation was outshopped at a Grange, IL, plant in November 1939 (the firm later became GM’s Electro-Motive […]
EMD F7: The most famous face in railroading
“COVERED WAGONS.” “CARBODY UNITS.” “STREAMLINERS.” “F UNITS.” Call ’em what you will, when you’re talking the F-for-freight series from General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division, you’re talking the most famous diesel in railroading. Maybe “F” should stand for Face. It’s the famous “bulldog nose” that did it. It hit the road with FT demonstrator quartet 103, “the […]
Texas Types: Musclemen of steam
Texas & Pacific 600 was from the first group of 2-10-4’s. In 1919 Santa Fe purchased a group of 2-10-2’s. One of them, No. 3829, was built with an experimental four-wheel trailing truck, but was otherwise identical to the rest of the group. The experiment was inconclusive: No. 3829 was not converted to a 2-10-2, […]
The Berkshire: Steam’s fast-freight legend
One of Nickel Plate’s handsome Berkshires leads a westward freight across the Grand River bridge in Painesville, Ohio. No. 802 was originally built for the Wheeling & Lake Erie in 1937, then went to work for the Nickel Plate Road in 1949 when the NKP leased the W&LE. John A. Rehor In 1920, when American […]
Styled to sell: The names behind the Streamlined Era
The Streamlined Era For the industrial designer, no object was as enticing, dramatic, or attention-getting as the streamlined passenger train. Pulling together contemporary aeronautical theory and function, American designers in the 1930s created a whole new breed of streamlined trains with names such as Zephyr, Comet, Mercury, and 20th Century Limited — names that implied […]
Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.
TRAIN-WATCHING HIGHLIGHTS OF THE TWIN CITIES HIAWATHA LIGHT RAIL TRANSIT LINE Runs from: Warehouse District/Hennepin Ave. in downtown Minneapolis along Hiawatha Avenue to MSP International Airport and Mall of America in Bloomington, 11.6 miles. Train frequency: Trains run daily, every 7-8 minutes during rush hours, every 10 minutes between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm, every […]