Faded glory

Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Alco on a siding in Illinois

Its paint and glory faded, Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Alco DL109 No. 271 rests on a siding along the Indiana Harbor Belt at La Grange, Ill., on its way to scrapping for trade-in credit on new EMD locomotives in September 1963. Photo by Jim C. Seacrest […]

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Amtrak Twin Cities services through the years

Amtrak Twin Cities services passenger train on curve in snow

Amtrak Twin Cities services started on May 1, 1971, at the Burlington Northern (former Great Northern) station in Minneapolis. Service levels ebbed and flowed through the years as trains were added or subtracted.     Amtrak opened a new Twin Cities station on March 1, 1978, using a standard plan that was also built in […]

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Elroy-Sparta State Trail: Biking Along the Route of the ‘400’

Steam locomotive pointed away from the camera on trackage that would become the Elroy-Sparta State Trail

The first rail-to-trail conversion in the U.S., the Elroy-Sparta State Trail, gives riders an opportunity to traverse three tunnels.   Wisconsin isn’t usually associated with railroad tunnels, but it once had a number of them. Today only Canadian Pacific’s bore at Tunnel City is active, but next door is the closed tunnel of the Chicago […]

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Elusive editor

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Trains magazine Editor David P. Morgan watches the head end of a Southern Pacific freight pull out of the center siding at Midas, Calif., on the west side of Donner Pass. He and the photographer will board the 104-car train’s caboose when it reaches them. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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Cowboy state conveyance

Night Crawler in Casper, Wyoming in 1966

Workers fuel and exchange mail on Chicago, Burlington & Quincy train 29, known informally as the “Night Crawler,” at Casper, Wyo., in July 1966. Passengers have detrained for breakfast in town while “Chinese red” EMD and GE diesels on a freight wait to follow the passenger train out of town, the largest in the state […]

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Continental Grain Co.

Continental elevator at Milwaukee in 1986

The Continental elevator at Milwaukee, shown in 1986, had a capacity of 3.1 million bushels. Located on a Lake Michigan harbor, the elevator could load 30,000 bushels per hour onto ships. It was served at the time by the Chicago & North Western, whose cars are shown alongside the facility with its Alco switcher. Photo […]

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Coal country cooperation

Coal trains on the Pittsburgh & West Virginia

Pittsburgh & West Virginia and Wheeling & Lake Erie engines and crews ran through between Brewster, Ohio, and Rook, Pa. In September 1950 at Mingo on the P&WV, Wheeling 2-8-2 6008 heads onto the Ohio River bridge with the first section of train 92 as P&WV Mikado 1010 waits with a westbound extra. Photo by […]

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Capitol capture

Two Chicago & North Western E units leaving Madison, Wisconsin

On a frigid December 30, 1948, two Chicago & North Western E units leave Madison, Wis., with a Chicago-bound mail-and-express train. The train is crossing the Milwaukee Road diamond at MX Tower, located at the intersection of two causeways across Lake Monona; the state capitol rises beyond. Photo by William D. Middleton […]

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The GMDH1 diesel-hydraulic locomotives

Yellow-and-black centercab GMDH1 diesel-hydraulic locomotives outside factory

The GMDH1 diesel-hydraulic locomotives led a short life with one staying near their birthplace of London, Ontario.     Diesel-hydraulic railroad locomotives are just what they say they are: diesel engines connected to a hydraulic transmission via the same principle as you would in your automobile. They can be found in various parts of the […]

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Erie Railroad locomotives remembered

Steam Erie Railroad locomotives with freight train in country

Erie Railroad locomotives included both oddball steam and diesels right out of a builder’s catalog.     The Erie was a big user of the 2-8-0 Consolidation and 2-8-2 Mikado steam locomotive types. Going a step larger, the Erie experimented with articulated locomotives beginning with three Camelback 0-8-8-0s for pusher service in 1907. This evolved […]

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Canadian Pacific train and ship

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Having ridden up from Toronto on the train at left, passengers board Canadian Pacific’s S.S. Assiniboia at Port McNicoll, Ont., in the early 1950s. The graceful steamer will traverse Lake Huron and Lake Superior to Port Arthur/Fort William, Ont. Fred N. Houser photo […]

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California coast

Santa Fe FT No. 168 in San Diego in 1951

Santa Fe FT No. 168 set makes its regular run on train 75 north of San Diego in August 1951. The streamlined Warbonnet Fs provide a striking contrast to the heavyweight equipment on the train. Photo by Stan Kistler […]

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