Kansas City Southern locomotives remembered

Red, yellow, and black streamlined diesel locomotive with passenger train

Kansas City Southern locomotives were full of surprises in both the steam and diesel fleets.     Steam locomotives saw a gradual evolution, from 2-8-0 to articulated 0-6-6-0s (an oddball in the industry for road service) and 2-8-8-0s and eventually the much-vaunted 2-10-4s of 1937. The 0-6-6-0s were the largest group of the type built […]

Read More…

Most versatile: Canadian National U-class 4-8-4 locomotives

Canadian National U-class 4-8-4 locomotives coming off lift bridge

Canadian National U-class 4-8-4 locomotives proved to be the most versatile of the type operated in North America.   It’s generally accepted that the ultimate in steam power was the 4-8-4 Northern type, if defined by criteria that includes speed, power, technology, and, perhaps most importantly, versatility. A lot of railroads capped off the steam […]

Read More…

Aiken, S.C., keeps its railroad traditions

Passenger train station in black-and-white

  On a day when snow is flying back home in Milwaukee, I’m 900 miles away, luxuriating in 70-degree temperatures and enjoying the refreshing shade of the huge live oak that hugs the generous eaves encircling one of the South’s most distinctive train stations. The building is a replica, but don’t hold that against it. […]

Read More…

Steamtown announces 2023 excursion schedule

Steam locomotive moving between buildings

SCRANTON, Pa. — Steamtown National Historic Site has announced its schedule of train rides for 2023, with trips ranging from 30-minute trips exploring the park’s rail yard to full-day excursions through the Poconos. The seasonal rides resume May 11, with tickets on sale online as of April 1 for excursions in May through August. Excursions […]

Read More…

Twin Zephyr hoopla

20110726

Crowds swarm around Burlington Route 9901 and 9902, the original three-car Twin Zephyr diesel trains, during a publicity event before the pair entered service between Chicago and the Twin Cities in April 1935. CB&Q photo […]

Read More…

Cass Parade of Steam set for June 17

Five geared steam locomotives in operation

CASS, W.Va. — Cass Scenic Railroad operator Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad has announced that the 2023 Parade of Steam will take place June 17 at the Cass depot. In previous years, this increasingly popular event has featured five of Cass Scenic’s geared steam locomotives, in various combinations, under steam.  However, if all goes as […]

Read More…

Lionel Vision Line Stock Cars squeal into stores

Lionel Vision Line Stock Cars door and deck detail

The latest Lionel Vision Line Stock Car sets are now hitting the market. You might call them a squeal of a deal. Car sets aren’t new to the orange-and-blue. We were introduced in 2014 to these three-packs with steel-sided reefers. Since then, the train maker has expanded on the theme. In 2020 the train maker […]

Read More…

“Black Marias” on the New Haven

20110223

Alco’s initial answer to EMD’s wildly successful FT freight diesel of 1939 was a three-unit locomotive built as a testbed/demonstrator in 1945. Its lines and paint job led observers to dub it “Black Maria,” a slang term for a police wagon. Nos. 1500A, B, and C tested for barely a year on several New England […]

Read More…

Emery Trust announces 2023 preservation grant winners

Emery Rail Heritage Trust logo

The John Emery Rail Heritage Trust has announced the award of 19 grants totaling $250,000 for rail preservation projects as part of its annual award program, after considering some 29 applications seeking a total of almost $875,000 in funding. The Emery Rail Heritage Trust was founded by longtime Chicago resident John Emery, an avid rail […]

Read More…

Baldwin’s first “Centipede” diesel

old photo of diesel locomotive

Completed in 1943, this immense Baldwin Locomotive Works product was powered by four of an intended eight crossways-mounted 750 h.p. V8 diesels and had a 2-D+D-2 wheel arrangement. Designed for passenger service, the giant proved unsatisfactory, but its running gear was later used for Seaboard Air Line DR12-8-3000 No. 4500. Baldwin photo […]

Read More…

Genesee Valley Transportation prepares for move of PA

Men shaking hands in front of blue and white diesel locomotive

BATAVIA, N.Y. — The move of a preserved Alco PA locomotive from Oregon to its new home at Genesee Valley Transportation’s shops in Scranton, Pa., is tentatively slated to begin in April, although exact plans have yet to be finalized, GVT President Michael D. Thomas says. Thomas, speaking Sunday with Trains News Wire, said no […]

Read More…