A mix of GE and EMD units lead an eastward Conrail freight off the former Pennsylvania Railroad Atglen & Susquehanna low-grade line at Parkesburg, Pa., in May 1980. Photo by Robert S. McGonigal […]
Atglen & Susquehanna
American classic
Chicago & Illinois Midland American-type 4-4-0 No. 500 hustles a two-car passenger train north under Illinois Route 97 near Petersburg in May 1952. Once ubiquitous, the diminutive locomotive was a real anachronism by mid-century. Photo by Edward Theisinger […]
‘Finest interurban equipment’
A Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Electroliner streaks through the south side of Milwaukee en route to Chicago in October 1957. The photographer, second to none as an authority on electric railways, called the North Shore’s two articulated trains “the finest interurban equipment ever constructed in the United States.” Photo by William D. Middleton […]
Metra EMD F40C diesel locomotives
EMD F40C diesel locomotives were six-axle, 3,200-hp units built for Chicago-area commuter service in 1974. They were found on two Milwaukee Road-operated routes out of Union Station, one west to Elgin and one north to Fox Lake. The units had a cowl body like the Amtrak SDP40F of 1973, but used an alternator to […]
Erie Railroad passenger trains remembered
Erie Railroad passenger trains: The Erie Railroad is Classic Trains’ railroad of the month for October 2023. All this month you’ll find interesting articles detailing the history of the Erie in text and photographs. Please enjoy this Erie Railroad passenger trains photo gallery, originally published in March 2016 and selected from the archives of […]
WM mixed at Durbin, W.Va.
Western Maryland 2-8-0 750 and a combine car stand at the station in Durbin, W.Va., end of the run for the daily mixed train from Elkins, W.Va., in April 1951. K. F. Merlin photo […]
Classy passenger locomotive paint schemes from the 1940s to the 1980s
Locomotive paint schemes In an era when passengers and passenger trains were an important part of the revenue stream, railroads generally did their best to keep their equipment clean. If the marketing department was going to promote classy passenger locomotive paint schemes, railroaders did their best to make sure the rolling stock shined. Whenever a […]
Western Maryland GPs on high
Three red-and-white EMD road-switchers — two GP35s and a GP40 — lead an eastbound freight across the great steel viaduct that spans a valley and the Baltimore & Ohio main line at Meyersdale, Pa., in July 1973. Today the bridge carries only a recreational trail. Victor Hand photo […]
Never too many Denver & Rio Grande Western narrow gauge books
Does the world need another book about the Denver & Rio Grande Western narrow gauge? Someone might reasonably ask. Of all railroads with a literature disproportionate to its relative economic importance, the D&RGW is Exhibit A. To underscore the point, I stopped into the Kalmbach Media library to do some rudimentary research: when […]
UP Challenger 3939
Union Pacific 3939, the final member of the batch of 25 4-6-6-4 Challengers that Alco built for the road in 1937, poses for a publicity photo with a dozen boxcars. UP’s first Challengers, 3900–3914, arrived in 1936. Classic Trains coll. […]
Erie Railroad history remembered
Erie Railroad history starts, surprisingly, with a canal. “The Work of the Age” was a proclamation by New York City’s Common Council upon the opening of the 300-mile New York & Erie Railway in 1851, “Erie” referring to one of the Great Lakes. New York City had become the natural gateway to the […]
Largest 2-8-2 Mikado: Great Northern’s O-8 class
For much of the first half of the 20th century, the 2-8-2 Mikado was the dominant freight locomotive of the steam era. With its medium weight and medium power, it became the go-to, general-purpose engine — sort of the GP38 of its era. Consider how the World War I-era United States Railroad Administration divvied up […]
