Two E5 diesels thunder through Downers Grove, Ill., with the Chicago–Minneapolis Morning Zephyr in January 1948. CB&Q photo […]
Morning Zephyr in the snow
Magazine: Classic Trains
MoPac Mikado
Bound for the main line at Gorham, Ill., Missouri Pacific 2-8-2 1498 slogs uphill out of DeSoto, Ill., with coal loads in September 1954. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Transcontinental Railroad: Building track
Transcontinental Railroad Workers who built the first Transcontinental Railroad, by hand, in the late 1860s labored through grueling heat, biting winter cold, snow, attacks from Native American tribes, and long, long work days. Learn how they did it with this excerpt from one of Trains’ DVD’s, Journey To Promontory, available from the Kalmbach Hobby Store. […]
Icing station on the Erie
At an icing station on the Erie Railroad, crushed ice is dumped into refrigerator cars from a cart on the upper level through a funnel that rides on tracks at the platform edge. Erie Railroad photo […]
Are slugs locomotives?
Slugs What are slugs, what do they do You’re at trackside, eyeing an approaching CSX train. The roar of working diesels increases, but it’s oddly distant, given that the engines are so close. The lead unit grinds by, eerily silent but for the humming of its traction motors, followed by two others making all the […]
GN’s Western Star and Empire Builder
A Great Northern public timetable for Summer 1951 showcases the road’s two Chicago–Seattle/Portland streamliners, the new Western Star and the newly re-equipped Empire Builder. Classic Trains coll. […]
E7 diesels on the Afternoon Hiawatha
The Milwaukee Road’s Afternoon Hiawatha, led by two orange-and-gray E7 diesels, picks up speed outside of Minneapolis en route to Chicago on Oct. 13, 1947. James G. La Vake photo […]
VIA Rail Bombardier LRC diesel locomotives
Bombardier LRC diesel locomotives were built for the future using beloved Alco components of old. “From the tip of its pointed nose to its electric tail-end markers, the LRC locomotive is refreshingly different, but at heart it is nothing more than a third-generation FPA,” wrote Greg McDonnell in the July 1983 issue of […]
Delaware & Hudson passenger trains remembered
Delaware & Hudson passenger trains All through July 2023, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the grit and grandeur of the Delaware & Hudson in its bicentennial year. Please enjoy this photo gallery of Kansas City Southern passenger trains selected from the files in Kalmbach Media‘s David P. Morgan Library. Only from Trains.com! […]
C&NW narrow-gauge Mogul
Chicago & North Western 3-foot-gauge Mogul No. 279 stands at Fennimore, Wis., in 1925. Known as “The Dinky,” the North Western’s narrow-gauge line ran 16.4 miles from a C&NW standard-gauge connection at Fennimore to Woodman, on the Milwaukee Road’s Madison–Prairie du Chien, Wis., line. One of the last slim-gauge lines in the Midwest, The Dinky […]
A to Z: Trains in movies
Trains in movies Trains in movies: Looking for a brief retreat that is fun, fairly inexpensive, and easily accessible all year round? Try exploring the world of trains from the comfort of your own home. Enjoy the good, the bad, and the ugly in railroad movies from the past. Robberies, explosions, romance, comedy, suspense … […]
Phoebe Snow – passenger train advertising icon
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 […]
