[…]
Previewing a future that never was
![CO500](https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/co500.jpg)
Townspeople of South Charleston, W.Va., inspect C&O 500, first of the road’s trio of colossal steam-electric-turbine locomotives intended for its new Chessie train, on Dec. 4, 1947. Ogden Willis, William J. Sparkmon coll. When Robert R. Young took over control of the Chesapeake & Ohio, he started looking for ways to improve the railroad. After […]
Thank you, Q
![CBQ4000](https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/cbq4000.jpg)
CB&Q Hudson 4000, a sister to the 3012 that surprised Bob Jack on a freight, works tonnage at Galesburg, Ill., in 1954. Robert Milner Steam died in various ways, depending on the railroad. I nominate the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, “The Q,” for having done it in the most agreeable fashion. On some roads, steam’s […]
‘Deepest twilight’ on the Rutland
![Rutland93](https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/rutland93.jpg)
While waiting for their train at Bellows Falls in 1952, author Beardsley and his dad saw Rutland 4-8-2 No. 93. Kenneth D. Beardsley Catching up on my reading a while back, I had my memory jogged by David Lustig’s “One Day in March” and Curt Tillotson Jr.’s “Magic Carpet to Durham” in Spring 2003 Classic […]
Mix-up on the Ripley Mixed
![CTR-TWSU03_01](https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/ctr-twsu03_01.jpg)
B&O men pose with Baldwin switcher 428, the first diesel on the mixed train to Ripley, W.Va., in late 1953. Six years later, a sister Baldwin took a hard hit on the same job. F. Altizer It was dark and cold on the night of January 4, 1960, when Baltimore & Ohio train 961 arrived […]
Pennsylvania Railroad patent drawings
See PDFs of the patent drawings covering elements of the Pennsy’s S2 turbine locomotive […]
A friend in time: My railroad watch
![ZTWSP04_06-sm](https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/ztwsp04_06-sm.jpg)
Bought from a pawnshop when the author was a boy, this Hamilton Railway Special 992 watch passed many an official time check during his 44 years on the railroad. Jack O. Elwood I knew I wanted to be a railroad man, specifically a locomotive engineer, when I was about six or seven years old. This […]
Classic Trains Index 2010-2011
![Classic Trains logo](https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/CTR_index_2010-2011.jpg)
If you’re looking for an article from a past issue of Classic Trains, check out the annual index for 2010-2011. Classic Trains’ 2010-2011 index […]
Classic Trains, Winter 2011
[…]
To Chicago with Dad
![ZTWSP04_03-low](https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/ztwsp04_03-low.jpg)
Grand Trunk Western 4-8-2 No. 6040 on the Maple Leaf stands beside Santa Fe E1 diesel No. 2 on the Kansas Cityan at Chicago’s Dearborn Station. Frank M. Rogers I think I was a railfan by the time I was 5 years old. My father had been a fireman on the Milwaukee Road since he […]
Big Saturday night
![CS1-E1111_13](https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/cs1-e1111_13.jpg)
Frisco 4501, one of the road’s three 4500-series 4-8-4s assigned to passenger service, rolls the Meteor into St. Louis. Ben F. Cutler About midnight on a Saturday in 1944 on the station platform in Neosho, Mo., are 500 guys with suntans, each carrying a one-day pass and probably a railway ticket tucked in his wallet. […]
Calculated drawbar horsepower curves for 4-8-4s
![1-Early 4-8-4 DBHP](https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/1-early-4-8-4-dbhp.jpg)
This graph shows the calculated drawbar horsepower curves for five classes in the first wave of 4-8-4s: Lackawanna Q-1, Canadian National U-2-a, Northern Pacific A, Santa Fe 3751, and Canadian Pacific K-1. Neil Carlson In the days of steam it was a normal practice to estimate the horsepower potential of a locomotive. Baldwin Locomotive Works […]