CHICAGO – Metra’s Chicago & North Western-inspired heritage unit, F59PHI No. 90, made its inaugural run on the UP-NW line on Wednesday. The train was a non-revenue move from Chicago to Crystal Lake and return. After the run, the cars were put away at the California Avenue yard, along with Illinois commemorative locomotive No. 402, […]
Type of Train: Diesel Locomotives
New large scale products for October 2020
Large scale locomotives Eggliner motive power. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; Denver & Rio Grande Western; fire rescue with flashing roof light; and police with flashing roof light. Self-propelled model with light-emitting-diode headlights and marker lights, two-axle motor block design, and metal wheels. $239. Bachmann Trains, 215-533-1600, bachmanntrains.com Clean Machine Green. General Electric 25-ton diesel […]
Remembering Great Northern locomotives
All through September 2020 Classic Trains editors celebrate the history, legends, and grandeur of the Great Northern Railway. This month, we hope you enjoy a photo gallery of GN steam locomotives, electric locomotives, and diesel locomotives through time. You might also enjoy this history article; a photo gallery of passenger trains or Great Northern […]
Genesee Valley Transportation opens new Scranton locomotive shop
SCRANTON, Pa. — Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad Alco C420 No. 405 gently broke through a ceremonial ribbon this morning, officially opening Genesee Valley Transportation’s Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad Von Storch Locomotive Shops. Located in the Green Ridge section of Scranton, the steel structure features two 200-foot tracks inside, with an 83-foot walk-in inspection pit. A 20-ton crane will allow […]
‘Rebel’ rails
Alco’s distinctive pre-war DL passenger locomotives were styled by industrial designer Otto Kuhler. The diesels also featured a distinct sound, with a pair of 539 engines—the post-war PAs had a single 244 power plant. Gulf, Mobile & Ohio’s pair frequently pulled trains 15 and 16, the Gulf Coast Rebel, between St. Louis and Mobile. Photo by […]
Prototype diesel
An A-B set of drawbar-connected Boston & Maine EMD FTs (in Boston in March 1950) shows the distinctive four-porthole styling and close spacing between units. The boxy structure on the roof is the dynamic brake housing. The F unit’s “bulldog” carbody styling blended nicely with passenger cars but did not facilitate clear views to the […]
Legends in their fields
Trains magazine editor David P. Morgan pauses on a station platform at Joliet, Ill., to watch trains – in this case a Santa Fe streamliner behind EMD F7 diesels. Photo by Classic Trains collection […]
Intermountain interloper
Two of Rio Grande’s Krauss-Maffei diesel-hydraulics spent almost three weeks testing on the New York Central in early 1963. Here crews on New York Central Advance BF-3 change at Bellefontaine, Ohio, on February 24, 1963. Photo by Si Herring […]
Hoseshoe helper
Conrail 6070, a former Erie Lackawanna SD45, assists a westbound freight up Pennsylvania’s Horseshoe Curve on July 25, 1981, just a few months after removal of one of the Curve’s four tracks. Photo by Robert S. McGonigal […]
Summer Camp: Day 4 Morning
Camp Director David Popp was up’n at’m early to powder up his passenger cars and work out the weathering effects, top-to-bottom, for his HO scale Rapido RS-11 diesel locomotive. If that’s not enough, he also shares a technique for removing lettering from an RPO car. […]
Summer Camp: Day 4 Morning
Camp Director David Popp was up’n at’m early to powder up his passenger cars and work out the weathering effects, top-to-bottom, for his HO scale Rapido RS-11 diesel locomotive. If that’s not enough, he also shares a technique for removing lettering from an RPO car. […]
An 80-year-old Alco comes home
SCRANTON, Pa. — Genesee Valley Transportation, operator of four freight railroads with 318 total route-miles in Pennsylvania and New York, has added an old, rare Alco switcher to its fleet. The 80-year old HH660, built as Delaware, Lackawanna & Western No. 409, “came home” to Scranton, Pa., on August 12. Genesee Valley’s railroads are well […]
