B&O museum completes cosmetic restoration of historic diesel

Olive green boxcab locomotive

BALTIMORE, Md. – The B&O Railroad Museum has completed a cosmetic restoration of Central of New Jersey No. 1000, the world’s first commercial diesel-electric locomotive. The existing paint scheme from the 1950s was maintained, which was an olive green with the famed Statue of Liberty emblem in gold. This restoration was completed in memory of […]

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Portland Union Station

Steam-powered passenger train pull out of train shed

Portland Union Station Maine Central 4-6-2 No. 467 rests at Portland Union Station in the early 1950s. The former Maine Central headquarters is seen above the locomotive. Today, this area is occupied by a mall and parking lot. H.W. Pontin photo […]

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Western Pacific Railroad freight trains

Steam powered freight train on a bridge on a curve exhibiting traits of the Western Pacific Railroad

All through August, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the grit, the glory, and the grandeur that was the Western Pacific Railroad. Please enjoy this photo gallery of images selected from Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library. Only from Classic Trains! […]

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‘Powhatan Arrow’

Workers stand beside streamlined passenger rail car

‘Powhatan Arrow’ Railroad employees shine up the Tuscan red exterior of the Powhatan Arrow’s dining car at Williamson, W.Va. The new streamliner started operations April 28, 1946, on a 15.5-hour westbound timing over the 676-mile route from Norfolk to Cincinnati. Norfolk & Western photo […]

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Not what it seems

Diesel locomotives push behind a caboose on a freight train by a signal

Not what it seems A Clinchfield “Shifter South” crawls out of Elkhorn City yard away from the camera and across Pool Point at the north end of the Breaks of the Big Sandy in 1964. The three-unit pusher will stay with the train to Towers, Va., where the grade begins to ease. Ron Flanary photo […]

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West Point Route

Steam-powered heavyweight passenger train on curve

West Point Route Atlanta & West Point and Western Railway of Alabama — together known as the West Point Route — handle the Southern Crescent between Atlanta and Montgomery. On February 28, 1948, WofA 4-8-2 No. 185 heads a 13-car train 38 east at Hogansville, Ga. David W. Salter photo […]

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Pere Marquette archives find new home

Logos of the Pere Marquette Historical Society and Plymouth Historial Museum

PLYMOUTH, Mich. —  The Plymouth Historical Museum has signed an agreement to bring the Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc., archives to the museum. The agreement was signed Aug. 6. “As someone who has been a member of the society since the very beginning and was fortunate enough to know several of the founders of the […]

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Western Pacific Railroad: passenger trains

GP1607011

  All through August 2021, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history and legacy of the Western Pacific Railroad. In this article, please enjoy a photo gallery of Western Pacific Railroad passenger trains in their prime. This gallery was first published in July 2016. Only from Classic Trains! […]

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‘Shasta Daylight’

Looking up at orange and red diesel locomotives on curved steel trestle

Shasta Daylight The Oakland-bound Shasta Daylight rumbles over the big, curved trestle at Redding, Calif., in mid-1950. The Shasta was diesel-powered from its July 1949 launch. James L. Martin photo […]

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Railroad man

Man in caboose cupola

Railroad man Gainesville Midland Railroad conductor L. C. Birchfield is perched in a caboose cupola in the late 1950s. The railroad ran between Gainesville and Athens in northern Georgia and one time had a branch to Monroe. Seaboard Air Line purchased the road in June 1959. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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