Arroyo Seco

Steam locomotive with passenger train on steel viaduct

Arroyo Seco Several miles out of Los Angeles Union Station, Santa Fe 4-8-4 3782 leads the eastbound Chief across the viaduct spanning the Arroyo Seco Parkway. Although Santa Fe abandoned this line through Pasadena, the bridge is still in use by Metrolink light rail trains. Classic Trains collection […]

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Washington Hill

Steam-powered train passes a diesel-powered train by a semaphore signal

Washington Hill Electro-Motive F3s on a westbound freight wait in the clear at Chester, Mass., for the New England States to pass on its way to Chicago. Pacific 589 assists the States’ road engine, a three-unit Baldwin diesel, up Washington Hill. James D. Bennett photo […]

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Train 4

Steam locomotive with passenger train

Train 4 Pere Marquette’s unnamed Grand Rapids–Detroit train 4 rolls through Trowbridge, Mich., in 1940. Locomotive 712 is one of 12 class SP-3 4-6-2 Pacifics built by Alco’s Brooks works in January 1921. Classic Trains collection […]

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Camelback ‘Comet’

Steam locomotive waits by water tower

Camelback Comet Jersey Central Camelback 592 (now preserved in Baltimore) pinch-hits for a regularly assigned 4-6-2 on the Blue Comet at Hammonton, N.J., in the 1930s. With drivers up to 86 inches, Atlantics ruled on fast trains in the 1890s and 1900s before Pacifics superseded them. Granville Thomas photo […]

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Union Pacific on Cajon Pass in the 1940s

Two steam locomotives power a heavyweight passenger train

Union Pacific on Cajon Pass in the 1940s: Union Pacific operates on Cajon Pass in Southern California as the Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad. It uses Santa Fe trackage on a rental basis from Daggett, 8 miles east of Barstow, to Riverside, 9 miles south of San Bernardino. This arrangement has been in effect […]

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Baldwin ‘Babyface’ locomotives: Diesels that didn’t

Orange and blue streamlined diesel locomotive with freight train under bridge

Baldwin diesel locomotives history Established in the 1830s, Philadelphia’s Baldwin Locomotive Works was one of America’s oldest and largest locomotive builders. Baldwin steam engines were known for their high quality and good looks. But many of its internal combustion efforts could be classified as “diesels that didn’t.” Along with fellow steam builders Alco and Lima, […]

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Hard knock life

Men working on railroad tracks

Hard knock life Northern Pacific track workers labor near new Bozeman Tunnel in Montana in 1945. Regardless of the location track workers had a hard, dirty job. Northern Pacific photo […]

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Remembering Reading Company locomotives

Black-and-white three-quarter angle photo of 4-8-4 steam locomotive in action

All through October, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the gritty, coal-hauling, Pennsylvania-based Reading Company railroad. Please enjoy this photo gallery of Reading freight trains selected from the image archives of Kalmbach Media‘s David P. Morgan Library. Reading Company, as a railroad, disappeared into Conrail more than 40 years ago. But it is still possible to […]

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Eagle River Canyon

Smoking steam locomotive with train along river

Eagle River Canyon Winding through the Eagle River Canyon west of Redcliff, Colo., Rio Grande 2-8-8-2 3603 helps a 4-8-4 train 2, the Scenic Limited, in 1939. Eight years later, author Hamilton passed this way on a similar train. R. H. Kindig photo […]

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Reading Company passenger trains

Jersey City–Philadelphia Crusader, westbound at Roselle, N.J., on Jersey Central tracks, 1940s.

  All through October 2021, the Reading Company is Classic Trains‘ Railroad of the Month! In this photo gallery, please enjoy images of Reading passenger trains selected from the archives of the David P. Morgan Library at Kalmbach Media! This photo gallery had previously been published in June 2020. Only from Trains.com! […]

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Erie ‘Limited’

Rear of heavyweight passenger train on bridge

Erie Limited The westbound Limited crosses the New York-Pennsylvania state line as it bridges the Delaware River at Mill Rift, Pa. An ordinary Pullman, not a fancy observation car with a tail sign, brings up the rear of the Erie’s unpretentious but comfortable flagship. Wayne Brumbaugh photo […]

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‘Hollywood’

People seated in railroad lounge car with porthole windows

Hollywood Round windows marked the 1941 City of Los Angeles’s swank lounge car Hollywood. The train operated over Union Pacific and Chicago & North Western between its namesake city and Chicago. Classic Trains collection […]

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