One of New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal’s SW8 switchers gets ready to add a Southern Pacific express boxcar to a passenger train in 1954, the year NOUPT opened. James G. La Vake photo […]
Magazine: Classic Trains
Soo local in northern Minnesota
Pacific 2702 clatters across the Northern Pacific tracks at McGregor, Minn., 81 miles west of Duluth, with Soo Line’s Thief River Falls–Duluth train 64 in September 1954. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Small diesel in a small town
Minneapolis & St. Louis GE 44-tonner 149 stands beside the weathered depot at Roland, Iowa, (population 700) in September 1950. William F. Armstrong photo […]
New York’s Hell Gate Bridge
The imposing size, look, and name of New York City’s Hell Gate Bridge fits perfectly in a metropolis where one must “dress to impress” and “go big or go home.” According to Victor Hand in Classic Trains’ Fall 2021 issue, the name can be composed of three separate bridges that are connected by two viaducts […]
Illinois Terminal locomotives remembered
Illinois Terminal locomotives included steam, electric, and diesel over its existence. The Illinois Terminal was an electric interurban line serving western Illinois down to the St. Louis area. In the mid-1950s the railroad abandoned its electric operations, moving to all-diesel operation — the last steam ran in 1950, and dieselization had begun with […]
Secondhand 2-8-2 in West Virginia
Mikado 482 was built by Alco’s Schenectady plant for the Mobile & Ohio in 1928. It went to West Virginia short line Cherry River Boom & Lumber after the GM&O merger. It’s resting at Jerryville, W.Va., southwest of Elkins, in May 1952. Ed Theisinger photo […]
U.S. Sugar 148 enjoys the spotlight
I haven’t counted every last owner one time or another of Florida East Coast 4-6-2 No. 148, but it must be close to a record. For a mainline-size engine, the Pacific was incredibly peripatetic, sort of like former Burlington 2-8-2 No. 4960 before it landed at the Grand Canyon Railway. The 148 emerged from Alco’s […]
Savannah & Atlanta mixed train
A Savannah & Atlanta 2-8-2 pulls out of Sardis, Ga., about halfway down S&A’s main line between Camak and Savannah, with train 2, the southbound mixed train. C. M. Clegg photo […]
Santa Fe’s Canyon Diablo bridge
An A-B-B-A set of FT freight diesels crosses the Santa Fe’s just-completed bridge over Canyon Diablo west of Winslow, Ariz., in 1946. Santa Fe photo […]
NC&StL F units
Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis considered its 52 F3 and F7 units (32 cabs, 20 boosters) to be dual service locomotives, although only the B units had steam generators. Linn H. Westcott photo […]
N&W 0-8-0 boiler
Norfolk & Western built 0-8-0 switchers until 1953, the last conventional steam locomotives built for U.S. service. Devoid of all fittings, a new 0-8-0 boiler is upside down at N&W’s Roanoke, Va., shops. W. A. Akin Jr. photo […]
Budd Slumbercoaches
Budd Slumbercoaches were born of a desire to serve budget-conscious leisure travelers in the mid-20th century. As economic conditions improved during the 1920s and more people could afford to travel, there was demand for a less costly but more comfortable means of travel, particularly for the long-haul routes between Midwest and West Coast […]