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The Walkway Over the Hudson state park has an illustrious railroad history dating back to the opening of the massive Poughkeepsie Bridge at Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in 1889. From its creation in 1872 until it was merged into the Penn Central 97 years later, the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad (familiarly known […]
The Lionel No. 2055 Hudson was prominent in the parade of 4-6-4 steam engines in O-27 outfits from 1950-56. Others in that notable group, including the 2046, 2056, and 2065, thrilled the many kids who received freight and passenger outfits at the peak of the postwar era. When the editorial staff of Classic Toy Trains […]
Freight locomotives in passenger service were the exception to the rules. They required passenger cars that were self-contained, the use of separate head-end power generator cars, or some understanding passengers. However, they often offered the best value for the railroads using them who may not have wanted to invest scarce capital in dedicated passenger power […]
LUDINGTON, Mich. — Loading-ramp damage has brought an early end to the 2023 season for Lake Michigan car ferry S.S. Badger. “We have made the difficult, and unfortunately unavoidable, decision to suspend our daily crossings for the remainder of the season,” Mark W. Barker, President of Interlake Maritime Services, parent company of the Lake Michigan […]
LOS ANGELES — Santa Fe No. 5704, the SD45-2 locomotive cosmetically restored to its bicentennial paint scheme, will make its California public debut at Los Angeles Union Station’s Train Festival 2023: A Celebration of Past, Present & Future on September 9-10. The locomotive, which was donated by BNSF to the Southern California Railway Museum in […]
Union Pacific’s General Electric U50C locomotives were the last double-diesel model to join the roster, beginning in late 1969. They were, however, the least successful of the three production models the railroad acquired. GE built 40 U50C locomotives for UP between September 1969 and January 1971. (Their production dates largely mirrored those of […]
The Algoma Central Railway was chartered in 1899 to build into the Ontario wilderness north of Sault Ste. Marie. Its purpose was to bring out pulpwood and iron ore. In 1901 the ambitions of its founder added “& Hudson Bay” to the corporate title. The line reached Hawk Junction, 165 miles north of Sault Ste. […]
Algoma Central locomotives provided a bit of variety in northern Ontario railroading. For a railroad its size, ACR owned a variety of steam power. The first engines were secondhand, including 11 acquired in 1899: four Lehigh Valley 4-6-0s and seven ex-Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 0-4-0s. ACR’s first new power, four Baldwin 2-8-0s, arrived […]
Boston & Albany’s J2 Hudsons provided subtle variety to the greater New York Central System. From the moment the New York Central absorbed the Boston & Albany Railroad via lease in 1900, you can imagine the company’s executive team vowing to hang on to as much independence as possible. The B&A was a […]
Amtrak Floridian service provided direct service between Florida and the Midwest for almost a decade. The train was first known as the South Wind, a name inherited from predecessors Pennsylvania Railroad, Louisville & Nashville, and Seaboard Coast Line. With the issuance of Amtrak’s first in-house timetable on Nov. 14, 1971, the name was changed to […]
The Milwaukee Road Hiawatha fleet stands out among mid-century passenger operators. Of all the major U.S. railroads that fielded impressive fleets of passenger trains between the end of World War I in 1918 and the arrival of Amtrak in 1971, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific — more commonly known as the […]
Even as he handed it to me the other night at a Milwaukee slide show, I couldn’t quite believe what Mike Schafer was telling me. “Hey, this is my first railroad book! Maybe you’ll write about it?” Mike Schafer’s first railroad book. That didn’t sound quite right. I’ve been reading Mike’s name on […]
