An Amtrak special move, with private car Ohio River at the back, rolls along Canadian Pacific’s former Delaware & Hudson main line on Sept. 4, 2009. The train is on its way from Albany, N.Y., to Railfest 2009 in Scranton, Pa. Jim Conroy photo […]
Think you’re in a hurry to get to work? The 3,170 trains on this map make it their business to hustle, with a purposefulness matched only by the riders packed aboard their coaches. This is a snapshot of the commuter trains that run every weekday in the Northeast. Without them, some of the biggest cities […]
This map has been almost 25 years in coming. As soon as Conrail was formed in 1976, Trains readers began requesting a huge “breakdown” map of Conrail coded to predecessor railroads. The project was too big for the limited resources then available to us. Thanks to Curt Richards, though, we now have a good source […]
Compared here are the world’s most important main lines across the most important freight territory on earth, at a time when railroads were the most important of man’s technologies, 1927. These four main lines were the Trunk Lines, a title originally given to any important main line between two great cities, but later reserved almost […]
The New Haven’s heavy passenger orientation is obvious, especially on the New York-Boston Shore Line. On the electrified West End, torrents of commuters flowed in and out of New York’s Grand Central Terminal. Some intercity runs used GCT too, while a relative handful of trains bound to and from points west of New York used […]
A supplement to the Classic Trains Online Look Back e-mail newsletter Susquehanna 2514, a well-cared-for Pacific built for the Erie in 1905, strides out of Pompton Lakes, N.J., with a westbound commuter run. Theodore B. Kerr The New York Susquehanna & Western Railroad evokes in me almost palpable feelings of ownership. Having been born a […]
Having trouble viewing this video? Please visit our Video FAQ page Watch trains run through detailed scenes on Don Shook’s HO scale East Broad Top/Pennsylvania Railroad layout. The layout features many scratchbuilt structures as well as standard gauge, narrow gauge, and dual gauge track. […]
Having trouble viewing this video? Please visit our Video FAQ page Watch trains run through detailed scenes on Don Shook’s HO scale East Broad Top/Pennsylvania Railroad layout. The layout features many scratchbuilt structures as well as standard gauge, narrow gauge, and dual gauge track. […]
Smoking like Alcos do, a pair of Western New York & Pennsylvania diesels storm eastbound past Almond, N.Y., on Sept. 20, 2009. WNY&P is an Alco-only short line operating over a portion of the Erie empire. Photo by Richard S. Perry […]
Dave Crosby and Bill Metzger This Map of the Month appeared in the April 2008 issue of Trains magazine. Delaware & Hudson Canal Co.’s 1826 Gravity Railroad over Moosic Mountain first hauled anthracite coal from Northeast Pennsylvania to New York City. By 1888, seven major railroads and several smaller lines tapped the rich coal seams […]
Bill Metzger This Map of the Month appeared in the February 2006 issue of Trains magazine. Mention the Pennsylvania Railroad and iconic images come to mind immediately: passenger trains rocketing down a four-track electrified main line; limiteds scooping water on the fly from track pans; impossibly long coal drags; and mammoth engineering projects, from Horseshoe […]
The Berkshire mountains of western Massachusetts are alive with color on October 11, 1997, as Conrail freight SELA rolls through Chester, Mass., behind C30-7A locomotives. Matt Van Hattem There are countless opportunities to enjoy the colors of fall from trackside public parks and railroad museums, and aboard special fall foliage train excursions. The U.S. Forest […]
