Publicizing NYC’s Pacemaker service

20180822

New York Central’s Pacemaker merchandise service debuted in 1946, with specially equipped and painted (vermillion and gray) boxcars. The railroad even painted five cabooses for the service, one of which trails this consist assembled for publicity photos. NYC photo […]

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A Big Boy adventure photo gallery

Steam shooting from a large black articulated steam locomotive as it pulls its train.

“Been there. Done that.” In no way does this saying apply to standing trackside as Union Pacific No. 4014 — Big Boy — rumbles by. Every trip taken by the world’s largest operating steam locomotive is a new adventure. Here is a spectacle that doesn’t get old. It’s time for a Big Boy adventure. Although […]

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Fairbanks-Morse road-switcher

20160801

Virginian Railway H16-44 No. 36 was one of 430 B-B road-switchers Fairbanks-Morse built between 1947 and its 1963 exit from the market. The coal-hauling road dieselized completely with FM B-B and C-C road-switchers, plus one GE 44-tonner. C. R. Huff photo […]

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Ex-Wheeling 2-8-4 on the NKP in Cleveland

20160826

A former Wheeling & Lake Erie 2-8-4, identifiable as such by its inside-bearing pony truck, footboards in lieu of a pilot, and other details, soars above “The Flats” area of Cleveland with a Nickel Plate Road local freight in the 1950s. NKP acquired the Wheeling in 1949. Herbert H. Harwood photo […]

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10 more oddball diesels in North America

A Romanian FAUR Quarterhorse locomotive

Oddball diesels in North America: Oddball diesel locomotives are the exception, not the rule. For the most part, North American railroads are interested in performance and reliability when it comes to motive power. And why not? A disabled locomotive at the point of a freight train going nowhere is not something – from the people […]

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The first Dreyfuss Hudson

20150806

Among the most recognizable of all steam locomotive designs is the New York Central J-3a Hudson as styled by industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss for the 1938 20th Century Limited. Just-completed No. 5445, the first of the 10 streamlined 4-6-4s, stands outside the Alco plant at Schenectady, N.Y. Classic Trains coll. […]

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