History According to Hediger: Anchors not aweigh!

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Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page In this encore appearance, Model Railroader magazine’s retired senior editor Jim Hediger pops back into the MRVP studio to re-tell a story about Ann Arbor Railroad’s Viking car ferry concluding one particular trip across Lake Michigan. Related Topics: railfan […]

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In profile

  A pair of Iowa Pacific E units rolls west with an excursion train in tow on Wisconsin & Southern’s Prairie Subdivision near Muscoda, Wis., on June 21, 2014. Photo by Matt Krause […]

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The Erie’s super locomotive

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Erie No. 2603, later No. 5014, was built in 1914 by Baldwin in Philadelphia. None of these 850,000-pound-plus locomotives were preserved. Herb Broadbelt Q With so much talk about Union Pacific’s Big Boy, I was wondering about other North American “big steamers.” Do you know the current location of any of the Erie Railroad’s three […]

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GO, west

  A former GO Transit locomotive that once plied freezing-cold rails near Toronto, Ontario, cozies next to palm trees in Riverside, Calif., in October 2013. Photo by Steve Sweeney […]

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Color coordination

  A loaded crude oil train with BNSF Railway power passes a line of matching orange trees on Norfolk Southern’s Chicago Line near Otis, Ind., on Oct. 20, 2014. Photo by Brian Schmidt […]

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Colorado’s scenic tourist lines

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Railroads included in this map: Manitou & Pike’s Peak; San Luis & Rio Grande; Denver & Rio Grande; Cumbres & Toltec Scenic; Leadville, Colorado & Southern; Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge; Royal Gorge Route This map originally appeared in the May 2013 issue of Trains Magazine. Be sure to check out our Colorado Railroads special […]

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Lackawanna’s great Pequest Fill

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A 4-8-4 leads a freight east across the Lackawanna Railroad’s colossal Pequest Fill. At more than 3 miles long, Pequest was a major feature of the road’s 28.5-mile cutoff across the rough terrain of northern New Jersey. The line below is the Lehigh & Hudson River Railroad. Wayne Brumbaugh photo […]

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Muskogee memories

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Heavy Mikado of the Muskogee Group poses on the turntable at Muskogee, Okla., in August 1950. Joe Collias photo In the early 1950s, a friend and I traveled extensively in an attempt to photograph as many steam locomotives as possible before their impending destruction by dieselization. On one expedition, we chose a corner of Oklahoma […]

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Salad shooter

  CSX train Q091, operated for refrigerated logistics provider Railex, passes Deshler, Ohio, on June 14, 2014. The dedicated reefer train is known as the “salad shooter” to many local railfans. Photo by Brian Schmidt […]

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Popular railroad plates

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This Chicago Railroad Fair plate commemorates the 1949 industry gathering in Chicago. It is popular, but worth less than $50. Two photos, Peter Smith Q I have been given a nice dining-type plate commemorating the 1949 Chicago Railroad Fair. It is cream-colored with red-brown single-color images of seven period locomotives (for example: Minnetonka, Tom Thumb, […]

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