C&O Historical Society members complete restoration of phone box

White wooden box on black pole

CLIFTON FORGE, Va. — Volunteers from the Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society have completed restoration of one of the railroad’s phone boxes at the C&O Railway Heritage Center in Clifton Forge. The box, saved in the 1970s by historical society member David Powell as it was being disposed of near Charlottesville, Va., was donated for […]

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CSX begins operating New England regional Pan Am Railways

PanAm_Fs_Hartley

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Pan Am Railways is now a fallen flag. The New England regional officially became part of CSX Transportation on Wednesday, six weeks after the Surface Transportation Board approved the acquisition. “We are excited to welcome Pan Am’s experienced railroaders into the CSX family and look forward to the improvements we will make […]

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The Chief at Dearborn

Santa Fe Railway Chief

In October 1950, Santa Fe’s Chief awaits the highball for Los Angeles at Chicago Dearborn Station as an RS1 of Chicago & Western Indiana, Dearborn’s owner, stands at right. Bob Borcherding photo […]

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Southern Railway history remembered

Southern Railway history: Black locomotives pulling a freight train.

Southern Railway history: The earliest portion of the Southern Railway was the South Carolina Canal & Rail Road Company, which was chartered in 1828 to build from Charleston, S. C., to Hamburg, S. C., on the north bank of the Savannah River. Its purpose was to bring trade to the port of Charleston from inland […]

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Frisco locomotives remembered

: Red and white diesel locomotives on freight train on curve

Frisco locomotives: Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history and heritage of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad all throughout May 2022. Please enjoy this photo gallery of St. Louis-San Francisco locomotives selected from the archives of Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library. The Frisco’s steam roster included several locomotives inherited from predecessors, subsidiaries, and short lines, among them St. […]

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Frisco freight trains remembered

Man prepares to catch papers hung out by man on passing freight train caboose

Frisco freight trains: Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history and heritage of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad all through May 2022. Please enjoy this photo gallery of Frisco freight trains selected from the archives of Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library. At its heart, the Frisco was a regional Class I railroad, an X-shaped system with lines from […]

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NP stock train being loaded

Northern Pacific Railroad

In 1936, this Northern Pacific stock train is loading at the cattle pens at Medora, N.Dak. When the drovers are done loading the car, the train will move additional cars into position. Library of Congress photo […]

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Last word in NYC Mohawks

New York Central Railroad

New York Central class L-4 3137 brings the Queen City from Detroit into Cincinnati Union Terminal in September 1954. The 50 L-4 engines, built by Lima 1942–44, were the final group of 4-8-2s acquired by the Central, which had more of the type — 600 — than any other road. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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St Louis-San Francisco passenger trains remembered

GP1511021

St. Louis-San Francisco passenger trains are part of Classic Trains‘ editors’ celebration of the Frisco all through May 2022. Please enjoy this photo gallery of Frisco passenger trains selected from Kalmbach Media‘s David P. Morgan Library. Since October 2019, Classic Trains’ editors have celebrated a different Fallen Flag, that is, a Class I railroad that […]

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St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad remembered

Black and yellow streamlined diesel locomotives on freight train

The St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad was a survivor and an innovator. It weathered some very rough times, including at least five bankruptcies. It started running unit coal trains from Fort Smith, Ark., the city across the Arkansas River from my hometown of Van Buren, in the 1930s. It helped move Texas and Oklahoma oil east […]

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A Pennsy super Pacific

Pennsylvania Railroad

Pennsylvania Railroad 5698, one of the road’s two class K5 4-6-2s, heads an unidentified passenger train south on the Northern Central line between the Harrisburg, Pa., area and Baltimore in the early 1940s. PRR added the pair of heavy Pacifics to its roster in 1929, after the last of 425 K4’s had been built. Frank […]

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