To Saigon via Summit

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A Santa Fe RSD15, SD24, and two SD45s curve toward Summit with an eastbound freight on November 14, 1970.  Jay Potter People used to say that railroads held the country together. They were the proverbial ribbons of steel that kept commerce and people moving and made a lot of things possible. Today — as I […]

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WM diesels for smoke abatement

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Two Western Maryland F3s haul a 2-10-0 and its train on the outskirts of Baltimore. The diesels were on the train for just a short distance to keep the Decapod from running afoul of municipal anti-smoke laws. Francis Riffle photo […]

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Surviving FL9s

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New Haven FL9 2019, owned by Railroad Museum of New England, during North Carolina Transportation Museum’s Streamliners at Spencer event in June 2014. Robert S. McGonigal View a list of the 22 survivors of the New Haven’s original fleet of 60 FL9 locomotives […]

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One moment sooner!

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Rare CPA-24-5 4500 (partially hidden by a signal box) and an F3B lead NYC’s James Whitcomb Riley north at Illinois Central’s 115th Street station; second car is a C&O Newport News–Chicago sleeper. Gordon E. Lloyd What makes a perfect photo? Perhaps first and foremost, “perfect” is an abstraction, perfection being generally defined in the mind […]

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The big engine that couldn’t

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PRR J1 2-10-4 No. 6480 crests the hill in Irvington, heading east from downtown Indianapolis with a freight during the switchmen’s strike at Hawthorne Yard in the winter of 1951-52. Martin E. Biemer The winter of 1951–52 brought a new thrill for us railroad-crazy boys in the Indianapolis neighborhood of Irvington: Freight trains! Irvington, a […]

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Toledo Central Union Terminal

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One of the last big-city stations to be built was Toledo Central Union Terminal, completed in 1950. Owned by New York Central, by far its heaviest user, TCUT also hosted B&O, Wabash, and C&O trains. Amtrak’s Capitol Limited and Lake Shore Limited still use it. Classic Trains coll. […]

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CB&Q Northern at Mendota

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Burlington Route 4-8-4 No. 5621 on a westbound freight clatters across the Illinois Central diamonds at Mendota, Ill., as it slows for a coal and water stop in September 1954. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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History According to Hediger: Interlocking insights

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Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page Model Railroader magazine’s senior editor Jim Hediger returns to the MRVP studio! In this episode, he first explains how a real plant works, before describing how former MR editors Paul Larson and Gordon Odegard engineered a model for use on an HO scale […]

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