Empire Builder on the Stone Arch Bridge

20101112

Great Northern’s Chicago–Seattle/Portland Empire Builder is seen on the Stone Arch Bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis in a 1929 publicity photo. Amtrak’s Empire Builder does not use this bridge, which, though preserved as a landmark, has been devoid of tracks for years. GN photo […]

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Streamliner harbor

20100928

A World War II-era view at Chicago & North Western’s 40th Street coach yard in Chicago shows four streamliners. From left: C&NW’s Twin Cities 400, the C&NW-UP City of Denver, the C&NW-UP City of Los Angeles (apparently coupled behind C&NW E3 5001B), and the C&NW-UP-SP City of San Francisco. C&NW photo […]

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First run of Santa Fe’s Super C

Santa Fe FP45’s 100 and 102 race west of Gallup, N.Mex., with the inaugural run of the road’s premium piggyback train the Super C on January 18, 1968. Road Foreman of Engines Jack Elwood is at the throttle; he wrote about the trip in Classic Trains‘ Special Edition No. 7, Fast Trains. ATSF photo […]

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CB&Q Hudson with the ‘Empire Builder’

In April 1943, Burlington Route 4-6-4 No. 4000 enters Chicago Union Station with Great Northern’s Empire Builder, which has used CB&Q rails from the Twin Cities. Hudson 4000 was once streamlined to pinch-hit for diesels on the stainless-steel Zephyrs. Classic Trains collection […]

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Jersey Central men with the ‘Blue Comet’

Launched in 1929, the Jersey City-Atlantic City Blue Comet was the pride of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, as is evident in the faces and attire of conductor Joseph T. Ross and engineer John Wait, standing with immaculate Pacific 831 at Jersey City. Classic Trains collection […]

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Lounge car on Pennsy’s 1938 ‘Broadway’

The 1938 Broadway Limited‘s mid-train lounge cars, Harbor Point and Harbor Springs, contained two double bedrooms, a barber shop, a secretary’s room, and a 14-seat lounge area. Typically for designer Raymond Loewy, the lounge section was elegantly decorated but had no windows. PRR photo […]

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Banana train on the IC

Illinois Central 4-8-2 2605 is northbound near Peotone, Ill., with a long train of reefers filled with bananas. IC did a brisk business hauling the popular Central American fruit from New Orleans to Chicago. IC photo […]

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Transferring a transcontinental sleeper

20180227

Chicago & North Western 0-6-0 2624 passes the busy C&NW-MILW-PRR junction at Western Avenue, Chicago, with a Union Pacific sleeping car bound for North Western Station, where it will join a train for the West Coast. The Pullman had arrived at Grand Central Station or La Salle Street Station on a B&O or NYC train […]

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