An E unit leads a train through Berwyn, Ill., on a lazy day in August 1963. Such scenes were part of daily life along the Burlington’s triple-track main west of Chicago. Larry Kostka It didn’t matter how often you rode the trains, or even if you did at all. Growing up in the postwar era […]
Magazine: Classic Trains
Electric Railroads
The electrification of U.S. railroads has long been a vision for the future that’s never reached its full potential. From 18th century technology development, to early 20th century progress on major electric traction projects, the United States was a world leader in railroad electrification. But electrification expansion projects were halted during World War II and, […]
W. A. Eby, PRR engineman and foster dad
Like many old steam men, PRR engineman W. A. Eby disliked diesels, but he manages a smile in the cab of S12 No. 8734 working the Bellefonte local in 1957. Michael Hauk collection I never knew Walter A. Eby, my dad’s foster father. He passed away in 1963, when I was two years old. I […]
Classic Trains, Spring 2017
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Great Trains Heartland
Also in this issue Great Trains in Photos: MISSOURI RIVER EAGLE, pg. 2 JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY, pg. 7 TEXAS SPECIAL, pg. 18 MEADOWLARK and WHIPPOORWILL, pg. 28 TIPPECANOE, pg. 38 CINCINNATIAN, pg. 46 LAKER, pg. 58 MAPLE LEAF, pg. 68 DETROIT ARROW, pg. 82 BANNER BLUE and BLUE BIRD, pg. 100 ILLINOIS TERMINAL’S TRAINS, pg. […]
Chariots of fire on the Erie
A hot-metal “bottle car,” one of three in an Erie train that included eight hopper cars as spacers, passes DeForest Junction, between Youngstown and Warren, Ohio, in 1966. Clifford A. Redanz One of the more interesting aspects of steel-mill railroading were the “hot-metal runs” that moved molten iron from the blast furnaces to the open […]
Classic Chicago passenger trains
FULL SCREEN John Bjorklund, collection of Center for Railroad Photography and Art Santa Fe passenger train No. 1, the westbound ‘San Francisco Chief,’ is seen at Dearborn Station in Chicago in December 1970, just a few months before the creation of Amtrak. FULL SCREEN John Bjorklund, collection of Center for Railroad Photography and Art A […]
Springfield (Illinois) Terminal map
1920s-era map of the Springfield Terminal Railway, a coal-hauling short line northeast of Springfield, Ill., covered in Spring 2017 Classic Trains. […]
Baltimore & Ohio steam in Ohio
Watch video clips of B&O locomotives in action and being serviced from the Herron Rail Video program Steam and Diesel on the Baltimore & Ohio. […]
Close encounters of the 4-6-4 kind
Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo’s two ex-NYC J-1e’s were among the Hudsons that captivated a Buffalo boy in the late 1940s. Frank Clodfelter While growing up in Cleveland and Buffalo after World War II, a close encounter with a Hudson-type locomotive was just a train ride away. My first memory was as a four-year-old. My family […]
Classic Chicago freight trains
FULL SCREEN John Bjorklund, collection of Center for Railroad Photography and Art The Chicago & North Western switches newsprint cars in downtown Chicago in September 1981. FULL SCREEN John Bjorklund, collection of Center for Railroad Photography and Art The Chicago & North Western switches newsprint cars in downtown Chicago in September 1981. FULL SCREEN John […]
Long Island Rail Road – Image Gallery
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