West meets Midwest in New Orleans

As Southern Pacific Alco PA diesels move toward New Orleans Union Station in the background, an Illinois Central E7 rides the turntable at the IC roundhouse. It’s 1954, 2 years before New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal opened. James G. La Vake photo […]

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Famed photographer Shaughnessy dies NEWSWIRE

Jim Shaughnessey, shown in 2002 at Enola, Pa. Robert S. McGonigal TROY, N.Y. – Of all the pioneers who revolutionized railroad photography in the postwar decades, few equal the status of Jim Shaughnessy, one of the deans of the field, especially as measured by his powerful images from the steam-to-diesel era of the 1950s and […]

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Amtrak nixes New York’s Toys for Tots Train NEWSWIRE

ALBANY, N.Y. — Amtrak will not operate the annual Toys for Tots Train in upstate New York this year, area media outlets have reported. The passenger railroad cited its policy toward chartered trains, announced in March. [See “Amtrak to stop operating special trains, charter moves,” Trains News Wire, March 28, 2018]. The train, supporting U.S. […]

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New model trains for the week of July 10, 2018

HO scale freight cars 50-foot single-sheathed boxcars. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (single steel doors and Dreadnaught ends); Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (double steel doors and auto door end); Missouri Pacific (double wood doors and auto door end); Northern Pacific (double steel doors and auto door end); and Texas & Pacific (double steel doors and […]

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Diesel lineup at New Orleans

Illinois Central, Texas & Pacific, and Kansas City Southern E units plus (barely visible) Louisville & Nashville and Southern Pacific F units) idle in the engine terminal outside New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal in 1954, when the facility was new. James G. La Vake photo […]

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New model trains for the week of December 21, 2017

Accurail HO scale assorted freight car kits HO scale freight cars Assorted freight car kits. St. Louis-San Francisco (Frisco) Pullman-Standard 4,750-cubic-foot-capacity three-bay covered hopper, $19.98. Baltimore & Ohio 50-foot welded-side plug-door boxcar, $17.98. Erie 36-foot double-sheathed boxcar with wood ends and straight underframe, $17.98. Fowler 36-foot single-sheathed boxcar (undecorated, Mineral Red with data only, and […]

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Drew Halverson’s top 10 hot spots

A westbound BNSF intermodal train leans into the famous elevated curves at Siberia, Calif., in April 2014. Four photos, Drew Halverson I witnessed an endless array of trains while growing up in the Midwest. Despite the diversity of railroads, the surrounding landscape was lacking. I needed mountains and deserts to go with the ubiquitous cityscapes […]

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George Hamlin’s top 10 hot spots

Two Amtrak ‘Acela Express’ trains meet on the massive bridge at Perryville, Md., in January 2015. Four photos, George W. Hamlin I’ve had the good fortune to travel extensively during my almost 60 years of rail photography, and to have been able to see and photograph railroads throughout the continent. In addition, I’ve lived in […]

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Jacobson, champion of steam, dead at 74 NEWSWIRE

Jerry Joe Jacobson Contributed SUGARCREEK, Ohio — Jerry Joe Jacobson, shortline entrepreneur, steam preservationist, and builder of the Age of Steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek, died September 13 at home after a long illness. He was 74. The Age of Steam facility was Jacobson’s pride and joy, a multi-million-dollar complex built in 2012 and sprawling over […]

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