Trains Presents: Norfolk Southern’s Fostoria District, Vol. 3

Norfolk Southern diesel locomotive

Visit Norfolk Southern’s fabulous Fostoria District, connecting Fort Wayne, Ind., and Bellevue, Ohio! In Volume 3, you’ll see fast freights, including the now-historic Triple Crown RoadRailer trains, bounce over the often overlooked diamond at Maple Grove, Ohio! Watch more: Trains Presents: Norfolk Southern’s Fostoria District, Vol. 1 Trains Presents: Norfolk Southern’s Fostoria District, Vol. 2 […]

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Burlington ‘Zephyr’ record

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The Burlington ‘Zephyr’ as seen in Aurora, Ill., on May 26, 1934. Its nonstop run may have included slow spots. CB&Q Q In 1934, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy ran the Zephyr from Denver to Chicago nonstop. How did they do this without changing crews? Did they have crews on-board for each subdivision and change […]

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Whose cab ride is this?

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Erie RS2 904 clatters into the Lackawanna’s Hoboken Terminal with a Main Line local in 1956. Richard H. Young Youth is wasted on young people, so the saying goes. Kids don’t have the … well … maturity to know what’s special in their world. Watch the crowds at Disneyland. It’s the adults who are agog […]

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Trains Presents: BNSF’s Chicago Racetrack

Join Assistant Editor Brian Schmidt for a look at BNSF Railway’s famed “Racetrack,” the former Chicago, Burlington & Quincy main line between Chicago and Aurora, Ill. You’ll see fast freights along with Amtrak and Metra passenger moves along the triple-track speedway at the Naperville and Route 59 stations. For more Chicago railroading, be sure to […]

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Northeast Corridor safety

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Extra tall fences (seen on the overpass in the background) often protect electrified lines from road debris. Michael S. Murray Q I have driven over the Northeast Corridor and have seen guardrails on the bridge get higher over the tracks themselves. Why is that? – Dan Wescott, Louisburg, N.C. A The primary reason higher barriers […]

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NKP Berkshire making time

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The Nickel Plate carried a lot of meat traffic from Chicago and other cities. Here, Berkshire No. 776, with two Swift cars at the head end, rushes a long string of meat reefers east near Vermilion, Ohio, in 1957. H. S. Ludlow photo […]

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Classic Chicago commuter trains

FULL SCREEN John Bjorklund, collection of Center for Railroad Photography and Art A Burlington Northern commuter train arrives at Chicago Union Station in July 1971, as seen from Roosevelt Road. FULL SCREEN John Bjorklund, collection of Center for Railroad Photography and Art A Burlington Northern commuter train arrives at west suburban Riverside, Ill., in July […]

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PRR doodlebugs

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Three Pennsylvania Railroad self-propelled motor cars (“doodlebugs”) layover near Penn Station, Baltimore, in May 1955. The cars worked commuter runs on the old Northern Central to New Freedom, Pa. Classic Trains coll. […]

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Pennsylvania narrow gauge

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A passenger train departs Waynesburg, Pa., in 1907 on the Waynesburg & Washington, a 28-mile-long, 3-foot-gauge pike that came under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1885. Waynesburg University Museum collection […]

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