A look back in time: July 1958

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July 1958 in railroad history One of steam’s greatest chapters comes to a close July 2 when class S-2 No. 746 makes the last revenue freight trip of a Nickel Plate Road Berkshire, Bellevue-Conneaut, Ohio. . . . Fan trips: Burlington Route assigns O-5A 4-8-4 No. 5618 to a July 4th weekend Railroad Club of […]

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Wheeling & Lake Erie locomotive roster

The Wheeling & Lake Erie, an Ohio-based regional railroad, has quite a fleet. See the pdf below for its current locomotive roster. To read more about the Wheeling & Lake Erie, see our special issue, “24 hours inside a railroad,” July 2008 Trains, which hit newsstands on June 10, 2008! […]

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Online Bonus: Pend Oreille Valley Railroad

By the time Milwaukee Road pulled the plug on its Western operations in March 1980, the Pend Oreille Valley Railroad had already been in business nearly six months. Local business leaders organized the Port of Pend Oreille in 1978, and on Oct. 1, 1979, they took charge of the trackage between Newport and Metaline Falls, […]

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Wheeling & Lake Erie’s predecessors

The Wheeling traces its history back to April 6, 1871. It reinvented itself on May 18, 1990. The pdf below shows all of its predecessor railroads. To read more about the Wheeling & Lake Erie, see July 2008 Trains, which hits the newsstands on June 10, 2008! […]

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Pullman on Dress Parade

The Summer 2008 issue of Classic Trains magazine pays tribute to the Pullman Company. Published in 1948 at the height of postwar passenger optimism, the 40-page booklet “Pullman on Dress Parade” showcased the company’s various accommodations and services. Pullman “On Dress Parade” DOWNLOAD […]

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Tom Danneman’s ideas for restyling BNSF

When Editor Wrinn mentioned his idea for an upcoming editorial (“BNSF, CSX, Please Buy a Vowel,”page 4, February 2008), I was in total agreement. I mentioned to him that since we were going ahead and renaming BNSF to Great Western, why don’t I fix their paint scheme while I’m at it. Jim thought that an […]

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North America’s hump yards

Norfolk Southern’s Linwood, N.C., classification yard Matt Van Hattem More than half of the hump yards in North America have closed in the past 25 years. From 152 operating classification yards in 1975, the number dropped to 122 in 1985, and 72 by 1993. In 2002, there were 59 active hump yards. The reasons for […]

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