Classic logging Mallet

20160212

The 2-6-6-2T Mallet, exemplified by Weyerhauser No. 9, was perhaps the ultimate development of the logging locomotive. Compact, powerful, and flexible, the type was ideally suited to pulling heavy loads over rough, sharply curved track. Geared locomotives like the Shay also possessed these traits, but could not make the speed of a rod engine. Baldwin […]

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La Dolce Vita

  A Trenitalia local blasts out of one tunnel, and prepares to pick up waiting tourists at the platform in another, in the Cinque Terre community of Vernazza, Italy, in 2007. Photo by David Lassen […]

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Hard charging

  Not looking like a Canadian Pacific train, empty frac sand train No. 691 rolls through Bangor toward Oakdale, Wis., with three Union Pacific SD70ACes leading the charge on Jan. 25, 2014. Photo by Matt Krause […]

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Jointed rail

  An Iowa Pacific excursion makes its way toward Muscoda, Wis., along the jointed rail of Wisconsin & Southern’s Prairie Subdivision on June 21, 2014. Photo by Matt Krause […]

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Georgia heritage

Norfolk Southern ES440AC No. 8101, honoring the heritage of the Central of Georgia Railway, leads westbound train 66E through Old Fort, N.C., on Oct. 19, 2012. Photo by Grady McKinley […]

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B&O “Dockside” 0-4-0T

20160210

Baltimore & Ohio No. 9 is one of four class C-16 0-4-0T switchers built in 1912 to work tight-radius street trackage along Baltimore harbor. Two were rebuilt as tender engines in the 1920s, but the other two worked as-built until several years after World War II. Their compact size made them a favorite among HO […]

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“Fire” Photos that evoke fire and railroading

Cog steam locomotive with a passenger car on a steep incline.

  This “Trackside with Trains” photo contest result comes from January 2016. The theme was “Fire.” Trackside with Trains was a regular, periodic contest among Trains website visitors from the earlier 2000s until October 2018. Anyone in the world who wanted to participate, could, and with rare exception, have their images judged by viewers with […]

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Rock Island 4-8-4 at Joliet

Steam locomotive with freight train

Rock Island class R-67 Northern 5114 has just passed Joliet (Ill.) Union Station and crossed the GM&O/ATSF diamond as it steams toward Chicago with an eastbound freight in fall 1951. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]

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