As on the train artist buddies Gil Reid and Howard Fogg rode, an open-platform observation car brings up the rear of PRR’s Detroit Arrow at Englewood on the South Side of Chicago. R. S. Stemier One day in 1940 or ’41, I was in my Chicago apartment trying to make up my mind about whether […]
Policing the Olympian Hi
Models posed in the lounge of a Milwaukee Road Skytop sleeper-observation car appear to be better behaved than some of the soldiers who rode the Olympian Hiawatha after the Korean War. Milwaukee Road When the Korean conflict was halted by a truce in 1953, there was a rush to get most of our troops home. […]
B&O Q-4 Mikado in Indiana
Baltimore & Ohio class Q-4 2-8-2 No. 4479 steps along a manicured right of way with a westbound freight near Walkerton, Ind., in the early 1950s. Linn H. Westcott photo […]
Humping at North Platte
Union Pacific NW2 No. 1091, with extra ballast and low-speed gearing, shoves the last cars of a freight train up the hump. Behind the diesel is the new yard’s car-inspection station. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]
Canned steam at “The Cash”
National Cash Register’s 0-4-0F Dayton trundles through the big NCR plant at Dayton, Ohio. National Cash Register Co. I attended the University of Dayton, just two blocks up Stewart Street from the National Cash Register Co. that had been started by John M. Patterson. A great leader, Mr. Patterson nevertheless did have his odd ways. […]
It was a dark and stormy night
Flashbulbs highlight the snowflakes swirling around B&O 4-8-2 709 and caboose C1406 at B&OCT’s 14th Street Tower in Chicago on a stormy night in 1958. Edward J. Prendergast It truly was a dark and stormy night in Chicago in 1958, and I was a 19-year-old college student. Nineteen is an awkward age for a male—you’re […]
A busy night at Hinton
In the Summer 2013 issue of Classic Trains, author Bob Withers recounts the special movement of passenger cars to Cass, W.Va., in late May 1968 on the occasion of the extension of the tourist pike to the top of Bald Knob. It was a complex operation involving scheduled and extra trains, as he explains here. […]
North Shore Line action
Watch color films of North Shore Line trains, excerpted from the DVD program The North Shore Brought to Life, produced by Sunday River Productions. […]
History According to Hediger Chasing Ann Arbor’s last FAs
Having trouble viewing this video? Please visit our Video FAQ page In this video installment of History According To Hediger, Jim talks about chasing Ann Arbor Alco FA diesel locomotives shortly before they were replaced with EMD GP35s. Be sure to watch for the surprise ending to the story too! Related Topics: history according […]
History According to Hediger: Painting brass locomotives
Having trouble viewing this video? Please visit our Video FAQ page When Jim Hediger was a young man, he worked in a hobby shop owned by noted railroad photographer, Emery Gulash. To help pay for college, Jim took on the job of painting brass locomotives for Emery, and he shares some of the stories […]
PRR’s roundhouse at Crestline, Ohio
A July 1947 aerial view shows the Pennsylvania Railroad’s big roundhouse at Crestline, Ohio. The long engine at middle left is No. 6100, the 6-4-4-6 duplex of 1939. Classic Trains coll. […]
Travel could not be more pleasurable
Great train, great scenery: NP’s North Coast Limited rolls west along the Clark Fork River in Montana. Classic Trains coll. My 1947 journey on Northern Pacific’s North Coast Limited is a treasured memory. I had come to love good trains through numerous trips between Washington, D.C., and my childhood home in Florida. My first ride […]