Streamlined class I-5 Hudson 1406 accelerates the 15 cars of the New Haven’s westbound Yankee Clipper away from New London, Conn., in March 1947. Kent W. Cochrane photo […]
NH 4-6-4 with the Yankee Clipper
Magazine: Classic Trains
Morning Zephyr in the snow
Burlington Route’s Chicago–Minneapolis Morning Zephyr forges west at Downers Grove, Ill., on a snowy January 13, 1948. The six-car train carries four dome cars, including a dome-observation. CB&Q photo […]
Meet on the Rio Grande
D&RGW SD40T-2s on a coal drag off the Craig Branch hold the main line for a meet with westbound freight No. 83 at Yarmony, a few miles east of Bond, Colo., in June 1976. Richard Loveman photo […]
New York Central diesel roster showed diversity
The New York Central diesel roster showed diversity in an era known for experimentation. Major railroads with deep financial pockets have the freedom to spend money for equipment like the proverbial kid in the candy store. Among them, you’d have to include the mighty New York Central. Nicknamed the “The Water Level Route,” […]
Last gasp of PRR steam
Pennsylvania Railroad B6sb 0-6-0 5244 simmers inside the road’s roundhouse at Camden, N.J., on October 4, 1958. PRR stopped using steam locomotives nearly a year previously, but 5244 hung on until mid-1959 on lease to New Jersey short line Union Transportation Co. Frank Kozempel photo […]
Last and heaviest 2-10-2
The Reading’s 20 class K-1sb locomotives, constructed by Baldwin in 1931 and tipping the scales at a whopping 451,000 pounds, were the last-built and heaviest 2-10-2s in North America. Here, No. 3012 leads a train of anthracite down the Schuylkill River near Tamaqua, Pa., in July 1953. Classic Trains coll. […]
Baldwin DT-6-6-2000: Remembering a dinosaur
A friend asked me recently what was the first locomotive I clearly remember. The answer might be surprising: it was huge (to a 4-year-old, anyway), it was rare, it was a little scary, and it was orange. And to use the accepted sound nomenclature, it “burbled.” I’m referring, of course, to Elgin, Joliet & Eastern’s […]
Inside a CN caboose
Safe from the frigid weather outside, the conductor of a Canadian National freight train examines his wheel reports as his brakeman takes a break for tea inside their caboose in New Brunswick in 1955. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Illinois Terminal car in dress blue
Illinois Terminal car 277 stands at the interurban’s station in Springfield, Ill., after running from East Peoria as train 95 in May 1952. Once orange, IT cars donned blue in their final years. Edward Theisinger photo […]
Cleveland commuter trains
Little known outside the region, two Cleveland commuter trains closed out passenger rail service to the giant Cleveland Union Terminal. Shortly after 5 p.m. on a January day in 1977, passengers descended the only stairwell still open to track level at CUT (see Spring 2005). A single lightbulb revealed peeling paint. Wearing white shirts, navy […]
Havana Special approaching Charleston
CTC signals, angled for better visibility on a left-hand curve, preside over Atlantic Coast Line train 76, the northbound Havana Special, as it slows for its stop at Charleston, S.C., in 1957. William D. Middleton photo […]
Gulf, Mobile & Ohio local train
A single Alco PA diesel waits at Bloomington, Ill., with a Gulf, Mobile & Ohio local passenger train for St. Louis in 1950. Richard K. Smith photo […]
