EMD’s introduction of the 50-series road switchers in 1979 offered customers four variations of the design: the 3,500-hp, four-axle GP50, and its bigger brother, the six-axle SD50. The builder produced more than 275 of the former, and more than 425 of the latter. Also offered as part of the 50 line was the GP49, utilizing […]
Great Northern’s Chicago–Seattle/Portland Empire Builder is seen on the Stone Arch Bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis in a 1929 publicity photo. Amtrak’s Empire Builder does not use this bridge, which, though preserved as a landmark, has been devoid of tracks for years. GN photo […]
Baltimore & Ohio 2-8-2 4594 waits behind horizontal semaphore blades as New York Central E8’s breeze through with a westbound passenger train at Shelby, Ohio, in September 1955. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
A World War II-era view at Chicago & North Western’s 40th Street coach yard in Chicago shows four streamliners. From left: C&NW’s Twin Cities 400, the C&NW-UP City of Denver, the C&NW-UP City of Los Angeles (apparently coupled behind C&NW E3 5001B), and the C&NW-UP-SP City of San Francisco. C&NW photo […]
Santa Fe FP45’s 100 and 102 race west of Gallup, N.Mex., with the inaugural run of the road’s premium piggyback train the Super C on January 18, 1968. Road Foreman of Engines Jack Elwood is at the throttle; he wrote about the trip in Classic Trains‘ Special Edition No. 7, Fast Trains. ATSF photo […]
In April 1943, Burlington Route 4-6-4 No. 4000 enters Chicago Union Station with Great Northern’s Empire Builder, which has used CB&Q rails from the Twin Cities. Hudson 4000 was once streamlined to pinch-hit for diesels on the stainless-steel Zephyrs. Classic Trains collection […]
The Skytop sleeper-observation car of Milwaukee Road’s Olympian Hiawatha bangs across the C&NW diamonds in a 1952 view from the tower at Mayfair, on the north side of Chicago. W. A. Akin Jr. photo […]
General Electric’s B23-7 GE’s best-selling four-axle unit still hauls freight today. General Electric, now Wabtec, has been out of the intermediate horsepower market for decades now, but beginning in the late 1970s, the company newly introduced Dash 7 line made a mark on the industry. Part of the “second generation” of General Electric’s locomotive portfolio, […]
Launched in 1929, the Jersey City-Atlantic City Blue Comet was the pride of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, as is evident in the faces and attire of conductor Joseph T. Ross and engineer John Wait, standing with immaculate Pacific 831 at Jersey City. Classic Trains collection […]
The 1938 Broadway Limited‘s mid-train lounge cars, Harbor Point and Harbor Springs, contained two double bedrooms, a barber shop, a secretary’s room, and a 14-seat lounge area. Typically for designer Raymond Loewy, the lounge section was elegantly decorated but had no windows. PRR photo […]
Late in her life, New York Central 4-6-4 5403 races west from Mattoon, Ill., with nameless mail and express train 473 in September 1954. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Santa Fe 4-8-2 3746 roars up the Surf Line between Oceanside and Carlsbad, Calif., with a troop train on July 18, 1944. Union Switch & Signal photo […]
