Grand Central Station, Chicago

Aerial view of brick passenger station alongside river

The Baltimore & Ohio’s passenger terminal in Chicago was Grand Central Station, built in 1890 to the plans of noted architect S. S. Bemen. The Wisconsin Central Railroad actually commissioned the station, but later sold it to the B&O; other users were Chicago Great Western and Pere Marquette. Grand Central was razed in 1970; its […]

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The 3 principles of great railway station photos

FULL SCREEN Todd Halamka Victoria Station, Mumbai, India FULL SCREEN Todd Halamka Victoria Station, Mumbai, India FULL SCREEN Todd Halamka Dadar Station, India FULL SCREEN Todd Halamka Haydarpasa Station, Istanbul FULL SCREEN Todd Halamka Munich Station, Germany FULL SCREEN Todd Halamka Munich Station, Germany FULL SCREEN Todd Halamka Augsburg Station, Germany FULL SCREEN Todd Halamka […]

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Duck, duck, belle?

Two Kansas City Southern “Southern Belles” cross the Kankakee River at Momence, Ill., on a southbound Union Pacific container train on July 16, 2011. The route between Chicago and Woodland Junction, Ill., is jointly operated by CSX and UP. Photo by Brian M. Schmidt […]

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An aggravating situation, with a 1940s solution

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Santa Fe 2-8-2 3243 climbs west toward Summit, Calif., in 1952. Chard Walker In the early 1940s, when steam locomotives were supreme, I worked on the Santa Fe around Los Angeles. At Redondo Junction, today the north end of the “Alameda Corridor” to the L.A. and Long Beach harbor facilities, Santa Fe’s Harbor Branch left […]

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Grand Central photo gallery

Trains magazine celebrates Grand Central Terminal’s 100th anniversary in our February 2013 issue with a comprehensive look at America’s most famous railroad station, from its planning and construction a century ago, and the thwarted attempts to place a skyscraper above it in the 1960s, to the incredible restoration work completed in recent decades that has […]

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America’s newest roundhouse

Former regional railroad owner Jerry Joe Jacobson built a private, 18-stall roundhouse he calls the “Age of Steam” in Sugarcreek, Ohio, to house his collection of a dozen locomotives. The complex includes a boiler wash track, offices, a backshop, machine shop, store house, water tank, and water column. Enjoy this short video, and be sure […]

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Highest points and steepest grades on America’s classic railroads

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Railroad names: Georgia Railroad, Great Northern, Gulf, Mobile & Ohio, Illinois Central, Kansas City Southern, Lehigh Valley, Louisville & Nashville, Maine Central, Milwaukee Road, Missouri Pacific, Missouri-Kansas-Texas, Monon, Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis, New Haven, New York Central, New York, Ontario & Western, Nickel Plate, Norfolk & Western, Northern Pacific, Pennsylvania, Reading, Rock Island, Rutland, […]

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‘Foreigners’ at Bensenville . . . and beyond

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West of Huntington, Ind., on the Erie Lackawanna, in March 1976, an EL U25B and GP35 back down to an eastbound freight brought in from Chicago by Milwaukee Road F units. Mike Schafer When I started with the Milwaukee Road in 1971, in road service, the railroad was desperately short of motive power. To help […]

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Seeing time move

FULL SCREEN Ellen Skye The Union Pacific Railroad in southern Nevada circa the late 1990s/early 2000s. FULL SCREEN Ellen Skye The Union Pacific Railroad in southern Nevada circa the late 1990s/early 2000s. FULL SCREEN Ellen Skye The Union Pacific Railroad in southern Nevada circa the late 1990s/early 2000s. FULL SCREEN Ellen Skye The Union Pacific […]

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Gimme shelter

A New York City Transit subway train on the 7 line rolls into the 61st St./Woodside station in Queens during a torrential downpour on June 11, 2011, while riders wait nonchalantly on the platform for the train to stop and the doors to open. Photo by Matt Van Hattem […]

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