A map and profile compares Canadian Pacific’s original line up the west slope of British Columbia’s Kicking Horse Pass with the 1909 route that included two spiral tunnels, still in use today. Classic Trains coll. […]
CP’s Spiral Tunnels
Section: Photos
CN commuter tank engine
Canadian National 4-6-4T No. 46 couples to a string of commuter coaches at Dorval, Que., in September 1955. The tank engine brought the cars out from Montreal and now will head back with a load of morning commuters. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
1947 Empire Builder long-haul coach
Great Northern’s 1947 streamlined Empire Builder featured 44-seat leg-rest coaches for long-distance passengers. GN photo […]
0-6-0 on a name train
Ferrocarril Mexicano 0-6-0 No. 619 departs El Paso Union Station with the three through cars of Nacionales de Mexico train 8, El Presidente Juarez, in June 1950. The train will use Santa Fe tracks to the border bridge. At Juarez, an NdeM road engine will take over and more cars will be added. R. S. […]
Soo Line passenger trains remembered
Soo Line passenger trains were simple affairs serving wide swaths of the rural Upper Midwest. While passenger service was not a big part of Soo’s business, the road strived to maintain quality service, and with partner CP, offered Canadian connections. In 1889 MStP&SSM inaugurated the Minneapolis-Sault Ste. Marie Atlantic Limited, among the first […]
Former Cotton Belt Consolidation
Southern Pacific 2864 was one of eight 2-8-0s transferred to California from SP affiliate Cotton Belt in 1956. Built during 1920–23, SSW’s 36 700-series engines were the road’s top freight power until 4-8-4s came in 1930. SP 2864 stands at San Francisco in April ’56. D. S. Richter photo […]
Champion at Richmond
Having arrived from Washington behind Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac E8s, the Miami-bound East Coast Champion stands at Richmond’s Broad Street Station with a fresh set of Atlantic Coast Line E units. William D. Middleton photo […]
‘Twilight Limited’ at Ann Arbor
New York Central J-3a Hudson 5435 with a centipede tender departs Ann Arbor, Mich., with the Chicago–Detroit Twilight Limited in mid-1948. Stanley E. Yoder photo […]
Aberdeen Carolina & Western E9A debuts
Aberdeen Carolina & Western E9A The short line, Aberdeen Carolina & Western Railway Company, debuts its rebuilt and repainted former Union Pacific E9A locomotive, No. 103, on an equipment ferry move on May 25. Then E9A leads former Norfolk Southern F9A and F9B locomotives between the company’s headquarters and main shops at Candor, N.C., and […]
UP diesel and steam in Idaho
In the early 1950s, Union Pacific F3 units in A-B-B formation lead freight train 257 west up the nearly 2 percent grade to Reverse, Idaho, on the road’s main line to Portland, Ore.; 107 cars to the rear, two 2-8-8-0s assist the diesels. Henry R. Griffiths Jr. photo […]
SP steam survivor
Southern Pacific 2-8-0 3406 works mixed train No. 1 on the Nacozari Railroad between Douglas, Ariz., and Nacozari, Mexico, in spring 1958. Steam lasted on the SP subsidiary until January 1959, two years after diesels took over the rest of the SP system. Donald Duke photo […]
Santa Fe’s “Madam Queen”
Santa Fe 5000, built by Baldwin in 1930, was the road’s first 2-10-4 designed as such. (One member of the road’s 3800 class of 2-10-2s was built in 1919 with a four-wheel trailing truck.) Nicknamed “Madam Queen” after a comic strip character, No. 5000 laid the groundwork for the greatly enhanced 5001 class of 1938. […]
