E5 with new bi-levels

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An E5 heads up one of the first Burlington Route commuter train to sport the new bi-level “gallery” cars delivered by Budd in 1950. The train is eastbound at famous Naperville curve on the triple-track west of Chicago. Bob Borcherding photo […]

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Erie PA at Hoboken

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Erie Railroad Alco passenger diesel No. 860 stands with a train at Hoboken, N.J., in April 1959. Erie’s 14 PAs all went to the Erie-Lackawanna upon the Erie’s merger with the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western in 1960. Erie began using Lackawanna’s Hoboken terminal a few years before the two roads merged. Louis A. Marre collection […]

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Chicago: the video!

Several trains and a truck in a complicated visual display.

Chicago is still the North American railroad capital, and Trains Magazine takes you there with this all-new DVD production. You’ll see heavy freights, fast passenger runs, and the transit system that takes a major city to work. Be sure to check out the companion issue: Chicago, America’s Railroad Capital. Both are available in January! […]

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Trains Presents: North Shore Scenic Railroad

Trains Magazine Assistant Editor Brian Schmidt takes you along for a look at the North Shore Scenic Railroad‘s operations in September 2016. The railroad, part of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum, operates excursion trains on its line between Duluth and Two Harbors, Minn., with historic equipment from the Upper Midwest’s fallen flags. You’ll see Duluth, […]

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The time I got to run ‘my unit’

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On June 15, 1972 — six years before author Olson’s ride on it — Illinois Central Gulf SD40 6000 pulls into Markham Yard at Homewood, Ill., with GP40 3011. J. David Ingles I have always had a thing for “class units,” that is, the first in a series, and “my engine” is Illinois Central 6000, […]

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Baltimore yards and rail lines, 1948

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It was an act of sheer audacity that made Baltimore the cradle of American railroading. Baltimore’s topography of hills broken by short, steep valleys was exactly wrong for a canal, and the city’s outlet to the west, the National Road, was expensive and slow. So city leaders proposed a railroad, the Baltimore & Ohio, to […]

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1990s B units

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Santa Fe management ordered 23 GP60B units in 1991 for road service. Today, these four-axle veterans still ply BNSF Railway rails, but mostly on local jobs. Bob Miller Q I was watching railroad videos of the 1990s and saw locomotives without cabs in various consists. I rarely see these units on the main lines of […]

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Trains Presents: Nashville Union Station

Nashville Union Station

Come along with Trains Magazine Editor Jim Wrinn as we look at this gem of the Music City. Nashville Union Station is a luxury boutique hotel in the heart of the city’s historic downtown. It’s also a magnificent railroad preservation project, and an excellent place to watch action on the adjacent CSX Transportation main line! […]

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