See sample consists of the Overland Route’s City of San Francisco from 1936, 1939, 1947, and 1955. Download the information by clicking here. […]
City of San Francisco consists
Section: Railroads
Low-level platforms
A track-level platform at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport station near Baltimore enables the use of the middle track, at bottom, for passenger boarding and detraining. Note the yellow step box behind the railing, for use with the lower platforms. Brian Schmidt Q I live near Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor and see short track-level platform extensions at […]
When the train left, the fun paled
Central of Georgia’s 500-series Consolidations possessed good lines accented by interesting detail: visored headlight, capped stack, serif numerals, striped sandbox, generous cab. Classic Trains collection An alligator crosshead moving back and forth on its greased guides to the dictates of a hot piston rod; the hurried, hollow sighs up the stack as a pair of […]
Prototype drawings of Union Pacific Big Boy 4-8-8-4 steam locomotive
Click on the image or link to download a PDF of this drawing of the Union Pacific Big Boy In 1941 the Union Pacific RR took delivery of its first 4-8-8-4 single-expansion articulated steam locomotives. Aptly named “Big Boy,” these 7,000 hp, 386-ton locomotives were the heaviest and among the most powerful simple articulateds ever […]
The Shaughnessy Files
In honor of Jim Shaughnessy, a legendary railroad photographer, we have gathered together a free 15-page PDF download filled with three stories written and photographed by Shaughnessy. […]
American Orient Express
‘American Orient Express’ observation car ‘New York’ at Denver in June 1996. Ten years later, the train would be rebranded as GrandLuxe Express. Chip Sherman Q What happened to the American Orient Express? It appeared on several railroad videos from the 1990s. – Frank Klos, San Diego, Calif. A The genesis of the American Orient […]
Canadian National in the US
The Canadian National Railways started off by acquiring a handful of bankrupt and government owned railways, but soon after this takeover, and over the next decade, the Canadian National Railways expanded significantly as it purchased railroads in the United States. In this free 39-page PDF download, we dive into the details behind: The Wisconsin Central, […]
Trains Tube: In a Swiss Tunnel 2018
Join Trains on a visit to a track work project in a Swiss tunnel. Rhomberg Sersa and the Rhaetian Railway invited Trains to see how they re-build meter-gauge track in often grueling conditions in September 2018. See Steve Sweeney’s full story in the March 2019 issue of Trains, THE magazine of railroading! […]
Crisis at the coal chute!
The engineer of Canadian National 2-8-2 3503 enjoys the breeze as he hurries a freight east at Lorne Park, Ont., in August 1955, a year after the author’s experience on another CN Mikado some 700 miles to the northwest. W. H. N. Rossiter A steam locomotive fireman’s duties go far beyond the actual firing of the […]
Trains Presents: Southern Railway steam doubleheader
Ride with us on the tender tank of Southern Railway 2-8-0 No. 630 while we watch Southern 2-8-2 No. 4501 at work on a Chattanooga, Tenn.-Summerville, Ga., trip in October 2018. You’ll see and hear the engines at work on famous Missionary Ridge. It’s a classic Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum excursion with lots of stack […]
Trains Presents: Cumbres & Toltec Scenic double-headed steam
Join us for a ride on the tender of a narrow-gauge Mikado in the San Juan Mountains of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. We’ll ride the tender tank from Chama, N.M., up the 4 percent grade of Cumbres Pass. Only from Trains! […]
Mystery gondola loads
MGPX No. 201, part of the first batch of Magnetation iron ore cars built by FreightCar America, arrives in Superior, Wis., in June 2014. David C. Schauer Q I live along the BNSF Railway main line west of Chicago, and I have seen black gondola unit trains with MGPX reporting marks. Even from my second-story […]
