Nickel Plate yard at Frankfort, Ind.

20131014

Looking west at Frankfort, Ind., in 1944, we see the westbound yard with its east-end ladder angling off to the right, and in the distance the eastbound yard’s east ladder running the other way. Beyond the east yard ladder are the icing platform and the ice plant. Jay Williams photo […]

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An underrated diesel

NH-PP-716

Once a proud hauler of crack passenger trains and fast freights as a DL109 diesel locomotive, New Haven test vehicle PP 716 languishes in Boston in 1968, awaiting its fate: the scrapper’s torch. Bruce Beardsley If Alco’s famous PA diesel is perhaps a bit overrated, as implied in the January 2004 issue of Trains magazine, then the […]

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History According to Hediger: Riding the Auto-Train

Passenger train models

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page Planes, trains, automobiles, and even a tornado, this episode has it all! Jim recounts his trip to Florida in the 1970s on the then-new Auto-Train, but half the adventure proved to be just getting to the station! Related Topics: history according to hediger […]

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First train to Tower Grove usually wins

MP-SLSF STL

St. Louis, late 1940s: After a “race” that was not as close as the one author John Mills saw in 1941, MP 4-6-2 5327 rolls the Missourian past a Terminal Railroad Association Baldwin diesel as Frisco 4-8-2 4401 backs the Will Rogers into Union Station. Harold E. Williams What could be more exciting to an 11-year-old […]

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Green beans and trains

Erie 2707

Erie Pacific 2707, a sister to the engine that enthralled author Noble during Ohio summers, is seen at Dunkirk, N.Y., 200 miles and two seasons away, but coincidently also alongside an NYC line. Al Rung My dad, after changing jobs following World War II, from Crosley Corp., in Cincinnati to one at Wright-Patterson Air Force […]

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‘Happy 10th birthday, David Watson!’

SAL 3001 Comer

A trio of new Seaboard E4 diesels, perhaps the very ones “David Watson” saw in Florida three months earlier, shows off the citrus-hued Orange Blossom Special livery in March 1939. Hugh M. Comer, David W. Salter coll. To be addressed by my first and middle names by my parents meant one of two things. Either […]

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Cinerama Rides the California Zephyr

Read about the California Zephyr‘s role in the 1955 widescreen movie Cinerama Holiday in “When Cinerama Rode the C.Z.,” an article from Classic Trains Special Edition No. 1, Dream Trains (2003). Download the story by clicking here. Watch the original remastered Cinerama Holiday trailer. Keep an eye out for the C.Z. at about 3 min […]

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