Introducing the all-new Trains.com Forum! Become a part of our Community! >>VISIT NOW
Editor’s Note: Former Classic Trains Senior Editor J. David Ingles rode the Georgia Railroad mixed train with his wife, Carol, on Oct. 22, 1975. Wednesday morning was dawning clear but crisp as we left the motel, and our taxi driver had no trouble making the 7-mile trip to the Harrisonville Yard “passenger station” […]
A Frisco caboose ride provided a much needed railfan break during my military assignment near Kansas City. My spirits fell when I received orders for my first U.S. Air Force permanent-duty assignment, at the Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base just south of Kansas City, Mo. I had hardly been west of the Appalachian Mountains, and […]
Q: I’m planning to model the Hoboken, N.J., and Brick Church, N.J., stations on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, the railroad I rode as a child and as an adult. I rode in the Lackawanna M.U. cars, but I can’t find them anywhere. I’m thinking I’ll buy the MuMP54 cars from Con-Cor and airbrush them […]
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 […]
Phoebe Snow as a person was an invention by advertising men a half century before the streamliner. A new management led by William Haynes Truesdale had taken charge of Lackawanna in 1899 and was turning the system from a 19th-century pike into a 20th-century railroad. The makeover included the passenger service. DL&W’s passenger engines used […]
In the Midwest, Chicago stands tall as the railroading capital. In the heart of the city is Union Station, serving as a major passenger terminus for the Amtrak system. While eight long-distance trains stretch out to all parts of the country, the remaining services out of the Windy City operate as short-distance regionals. Most are […]
These eight forgotten Amtrak trains are largely unremembered by railfans today. The shortest duration lasted just short of 14 months. Black Hawk The Black Hawk began service on the Illinois Central Iowa Division main line between Chicago and Dubuque, Iowa, on Feb. 14, 1974. It operated at first with Budd Rail Diesel Cars […]
The 1956 Santa Fe El Capitan was a special train that deserves attention of its own merit. Just say “Santa Fe” to anyone in the realm of railroading and they’ll likely think “Super Chief”! Truly, that Chicago-Los Angeles first-class-only streamliner was about as top notch as they got here in North America — […]
Amtrak Miami services have been dominated by trains from New York City. This included, at various times, the Silver Meteor, Silver Palm, and Silver Star. Additionally, at times, the Magic City has been served by its own section of the Floridian from Chicago and an extension of the Sunset Limited. Amtrak’s current Miami […]
Burlington Zephyr 9900 left a shiny legacy on North American railroading that’s still evident today. Zephyr! It’s a name in the world of American passenger trains that dates from 1934 and is still in use by Amtrak. Its pronunciation even has a fast sound to it. Let’s do what Classic Trains does best: […]
Milwaukee Road Hiawatha passenger trains are the long-lasting legacy of a Midwestern railroad plagued with underperformance and mismanagement — right up until its merger with the much smaller Soo Line in 1986. Rather than recount the bad times, join us for a look back at the Hiawatha trains over the years. Only from Trains.com. Twin […]
