Ma & Pa caboose

20151012

Maryland & Pennsylvania four-wheel caboose 2003 — a little car with a big number — whiles away the day at the Ma & Pa’s Baltimore terminal in May 1955. William E. Warden Jr. photo […]

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Tank engine with a tender

20150427

Even though it’s a tank locomotive (with the water tank around the boiler), Rayonier 2-6-6-2T No. 111 also sports a tender for additional water capacity. The fitting atop the stack is a Gerlinger spark arrestor. Whit Towers photo […]

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West Side Heisler

20150401

West Side Lumber Co. two-truck Heisler No. 3 was one of about 600 geared locomotives produced by the Heisler Locomotive Works of Erie, Pa., between 1891 and 1941. Glenn W. Beier photo […]

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Alco and Baldwins at Rutland, Vt.

A vintage black and white photograph of a diesel locomotive in a switching yard

Lots of switching occurs around the slow-speed trackage at the junction between the Green Mountain line to Bellows Falls (left) and the former Bennington branch in Rutland, Vt. Note the Delaware & Hudson Baldwin Sharknoses at right. Karl Zimmermann photo […]

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WM diesels for smoke abatement

20150217

Two Western Maryland F3s haul a 2-10-0 and its train on the outskirts of Baltimore. The diesels were on the train for just a short distance to keep the Decapod from running afoul of municipal anti-smoke laws. Francis Riffle photo […]

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Toledo Central Union Terminal

20141222

One of the last big-city stations to be built was Toledo Central Union Terminal, completed in 1950. Owned by New York Central, by far its heaviest user, TCUT also hosted B&O, Wabash, and C&O trains. Amtrak’s Capitol Limited and Lake Shore Limited still use it. Classic Trains coll. […]

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The Roundhouse | Railfanning and Track Planning

In this episode of The Roundhouse, Classic Trains editor Brian Schmidt sits down with David Popp to discuss his unique path into the railroad hobby. David shares how he started as a model railroader but developed a passion for railfanning after discovering 1:1 scale trains routing near his childhood home. This dual interest led him to incorporate prototype […]

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Niagara on the run

20141126

New York Central 4-8-4 Niagara 6023 is near the end of its short life as it rambles through Millbury Junction, Ohio, (7.5 miles east of Toledo) with nine-car mail-and-express train X-78 in September 1955. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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Turbine orphan

20141125

Westinghouse and partner Baldwin fielded an experimental 4,000 h.p. B-B+B-B gas-turbine-electric in 1950. Dubbed the “Blue Goose” because of its paint scheme (and perhaps for its unusual appearance), No. 4000, pictured at Chicago on the Chicago & North Western, generated no orders. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]

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P5a’s on a PRR freight

A black and white image of a train

Two Pennsylvania Railroad P5a electrics roll northward with a freight at Halethorpe, Md., in the 1940s. Early P5a’s had box-cab carbodies; later versions with streamlined bodies, such as this pair, were known as “P5a modifieds.” Frank Clodfelter photo […]

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