Burlington Route diesel locomotives showed a strong loyalty to Electro-Motive Division, located in the online community of LaGrange, Ill. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy was a diesel pioneer with its Zephyr passenger trains in the 1930s, and the railroad began dieselizing mainline freight trains with EMD FTs in 1943. The CB&Q continuing dieselizing with a […]
Magazine: Classic Trains
Trains.com Forums have a new home
The beloved forums for Model Railroader, Trains Magazine, Classic Trains, Classic Toy Trains, and Garden Railways are back and better than ever in a new home: forum.trains.com. After a brief hiatus, we’re thrilled to announce that we have successfully migrated nearly 70,000 users and an impressive 250,000 posts to our new platform. For those who’ve […]
Trains.com Forums have a new home
The beloved forums for Model Railroader, Trains Magazine, Classic Trains, Classic Toy Trains, and Garden Railways are back and better than ever in a new home: forum.trains.com. After a brief hiatus, we’re thrilled to announce that we have successfully migrated nearly 70,000 users and an impressive 250,000 posts to our new platform. For those who’ve […]
Richmond Beach
Two Great Northern E7s skirt Puget Sound at Richmond Beach, Wash., with the eastbound Empire Builder in April 1953, two years after its re-equipping. Soon, F units will replace the Es. David W. Salter photo […]
Inside scoop
The truss bracing in the sides of cab units helped support the locomotive’s weight, so cab units required a thinner underframe compared with switchers and road switchers. This is an F unit being assembled at EMD’s La Grange, Ill., plant. Electro-Motive Division photo […]
Hummingbird
Louisville & Nashville’s Hummingbird passes between the engine terminal and coach yard as it backs towards New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal in 1954. Visible at left are locomotives of Illinois Central and Kansas City Southern. James G. La Vake photo […]
Helping the Chief
Santa Fe 2-10-2 No. 1680 assists the 15 passenger cars and three diesels on train No. 19, the Chief, at Wootton, Colo., on the climb up Raton Pass on June 17, 1950. R.H. Kindig photo […]
Four-builder lineup
A General Electric U25B leads EMD, Alco, and Fairbanks-Morse units on Norfolk & Western train KB6 near Hull, Ill., in October 1964, just weeks after N&W leased the Wabash. J. David Ingles photo […]
Amtrak SDP40F diesel locomotives
Amtrak SDP40F diesel locomotives were derived from the best-selling SD40-2 platform but were far from a success on their own. The SDP40F shared its 72-foot, 4-inch frame with the predecessor passenger unit FP45 from 1967. Internally, however, it was akin to a 3,000 hp SD40-2 with a steam boiler added. That should have been a […]
Burlington Route passenger trains remembered
Burlington Route passenger trains are part of Classic Trains‘ editors’ celebration of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy all through December 2024. Please enjoy this photo gallery of Burlington Route passenger trains selected from Firecrown Media’s David P. Morgan Library. Since October 2019, Classic Trains’ editors have celebrated a different Fallen Flag, that is, […]
Enola bound
Pennsylvania Railroad M1 class 4-8-2 No. 6987 heads a freight toward Enola Yard near Harrisburg, Pa., in July 1955. The railroad had 301 such locomotives in the M1 and M1a classes built in-house and by Baldwin and Lima. Don Wood photo […]
Burlington Route steam as only John Gruber could see it
We all have “near misses” in our lives, and one of the biggest for me was the steam program of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, known best by the numbers of its two star locomotives, 4-8-4 No. 5632 and 2-8-2 No. 4960. Both were among a few saved after the Q dieselized and subsequently […]
