Yosemite Valley train at El Portal

Yosemite Valley Railway at Yosemite National Park

Yosemite Valley Railway 4-4-0 No. 22 stands with a short train at El Portal, end of the line and gateway to Yosemite National Park, in 1940. YV ran 78 miles west to SP and Santa Fe connections at Merced, Calif.; its last run was in 1945. Harre W. Demoro photo […]

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Spring 2022

Classic Trains Spring 2022 magazine cover

Welcome  I Like Trains, too Head End  A potpourri railroad history, then and now Fast Mail  Letters from readers on our Winter 2021 issue True Color  A fan for life? Mileposts  Commentary by Kevin P. Keefe The Way It Was  Tales from railfans and railroaders Car Stop  Locals in the Lehigh Valley Bumping Post  Toledo’s […]

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NYC Pacemaker freight

New York Central Railroad Pacemaker train in Massachusetts

The Boston–Albany section of New York Central’s Pacemaker train for express freight service pauses at Worcester, Mass., to pick up cars in August 1949. The distinctive vermillion-and-gray boxcars were for on-line use only. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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Polished Ps-4

Southern Railway 4-6-2 in Washington, D.C.

Southern Railway 4-6-2 1395, one of the road’s class Ps-4 passenger engines revered for their handsome lines and green-and-gold livery, takes a passenger train out of Washington, D.C., in the late 1930s or ’40s. Walter H. Thrall photo […]

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Rio Grande GP30 No. 3008

Denver and Rio Grande Western EMD GP30

The Denver & Rio Grande Western was an early customer for EMD’s GP30, buying 28 of them during 1962-63. They were the first road units delivered in plain black with “Grande gold” striping on the ends and frame. Hillard N. Proctor photo […]

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Gulf Mobile and Ohio passenger trains

GP1606011

Gulf Mobile and Ohio passenger trains: The Gulf Mobile and Ohio is Classic Trains’ railroad of the month for July 2022. All this month you’ll find interesting articles detailing the history of the GM&O in text and photographs. Please enjoy this Gulf Mobile and Ohio passenger trains photo gallery, originally published in June 2016 and […]

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Nocturnal steam at Cincinnati

New York Central Railroad 4-8-4 and Baltimore and Ohio 4-6-2 at Cincinnati Union Terminal

New York Central 4-8-4 6000 (left, the first of NYC’s famous Niagaras) and Baltimore & Ohio 4-6-2 5313 (one of B&O’s famous “President” Pacifics) simmer near Cincinnati Union Terminal one evening in September 1954. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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Electric Railways of North America in Color, Vol. 1 book review

Electric Railways of North America book cover

Electric railroads served a variety of purposes in North America: carrying commuters, industrial switching, and mainline freight and passenger service. From coal-hauling, six-axle, red-white-and-blue motors in British Columbia to plain green electric m.u. cars in New Jersey, there can be broad interest in electric railroads.   Noted railfan Matthew Herson has lended his photographic collection […]

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Gulf Mobile and Ohio remembered

Overhead view of four Gulf Mobile and Ohio diesel locomotives with freight train on S curve with multiple power lines

Gulf Mobile and Ohio remembered: The “modern merger movement” is often said to have begun in 1957 when Louisville & Nashville absorbed the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis, in which the L&N had a three-quarters ownership. Some would argue that three similar 1947 mergers — Denver & Salt Lake into Denver & Rio Grande Western; […]

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Long Island’s Morris Park engine terminal

Long Island Rail Road Morris Park engine terminal

Consolidation 111 moves away from the coal dock at the Long Island Rail Road’s Morris Park engine terminal near Jamaica in the early 1940s. Also in the scene are (from left) an engine dating from before the Pennsylvania Railroad gained control of the LIRR in 1900, a PRR-design LIRR G5s 4-6-0, and a PRR K2s […]

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