Iowa interurban

Iowa interurban

Fort Dodge, Des Moines & Southern freight extra 362 south meets northbound car 72, running as Boone–Fort Dodge train 1, at Hope, Iowa. The freight, powered by an ex-Oregon Electric motor, has backed onto the Rockwell City branch to clear the passenger train in this April 1955 interurban vignette. William D. Middleton photo […]

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High-nose U25B demonstrator

High-nose U25B demonstrator

General Electric 2504 was one of four red-and-white U25B demonstrator diesels that toured the nation in 1962. One, No. 2501, was the first U25B with a low nose; the others had the high nose that was just then falling from favor. Nos. 2501–2504 went to Union Pacific after their tour. Photo by J. David Ingles […]

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F units into Alexandria

F units into Alexandria

A three-unit set of dark blue-and-gray Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac F7s brings a northbound freight train into Alexandria, Va., in December 1949. The train is bound for RF&P’s big Potomac Yard, about a mile ahead. Photo by Charles Wales […]

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Climbing the Front Range

Climbing the Front Range

Denver & Salt Lake train No. 1, the day train to Craig, rounds a sharp curve in Rollins Canyon just east of Rollinsville, Colo. The D&SL’s low-drivered 2-8-0s like No. 122 were ideal for its route, but not much good for heavier trains. Few lasted long after the 1947 merger with the Denver & Rio […]

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Branchline oddity

Branchline oddity

On May 12, 1962, Rock Island “motor” 9006 has a typically short train as it heads west with mixed No. 79 near Horton, Kan. The first of the 10 “baggage-car locomotives” left the roster in 1948, and by 1960 only the 9006, 9013, and 9014 remain. Frank Tatnall photo […]

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Remembering Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo freight trains

Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo steam locomotive with freight train.

  All this month — July 2020 — Classic Trains editors are celebrating the heritage, history, and images of the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Railway. Please enjoy this photo gallery of images from the David P. Morgan Library archives at Kalmbach Media that include TH&B diesel- and steam-powered freight trains through time. […]

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Remembering the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Railway

In historic TH&B turf, against the backdrop of Lake Ontario and amid the vineyards at aptly named Vinemount, Ontario, Geeps 76 and 77 roll the Port Maitland local east on March 29, 1982. Greg McDonnell History of the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Canada, thanks to its two transcontinental giants after 1923, had few small “regional” […]

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Unintended clearance test

Modified for trailer-on-flatcar service as a test by Penn Central, a former Flexi-Van car carried trailers back-to-back.

  At the time of their merger in 1968, both the Pennsylvania and New York Central had extensive intermodal operations, with PRR using conventional Trailer Train cars in piggyback service and NYC using Flexi-Van equipment in an early form of containerized traffic. Penn Central retained both systems initially, but Flexi-Van traffic gradually declined. By late […]

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Proud passenger power

20200617

Three Southern Railway E8s curve through Atlanta with the New Orleans cars of the Southern Crescent, running in two sections this August 1977 day. Southern began painting its passenger steam power green with gold trim in the 1920s. Its early passenger diesels wore an ornate green-white-gold livery, simplified in the 1940s to match the lines of […]

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