Fairbanks-Morse road-switcher

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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

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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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Beyond the byline with Kevin P. Keefe

man with glasses and red shirt

What was your first byline in Trains? Kevin Keefe: My first published piece in Trains was in the October 1975 issue, a two-page story in what was called the “Frontispiece” format, basically a single photo with some commentary. My story was called “Anonymity on the Pere Marquette,” a brief tribute to the Pere Marquette Railway’s […]

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Romance aboard Amtrak’s ‘Capitol Limited’

A diesel-powered passenger train crosses a long bridge over a river

Romance aboard Amtrak’s Capitol Limited: A bit of background is in order to set the stage for this romance aboard Amtrak’s Capitol Limited. For 27 years, my wife, Julie, worked as a children’s librarian. I met her in the library. Yes, you could say I went there to check her out. That was early in […]

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The first Dreyfuss Hudson

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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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Hiawatha near journey’s end

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Milwaukee Road’s Minneapolis–Chicago Morning Hiawatha crosses from track 1 to track 2 as it passes over the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern diamonds at Rondout, Ill., on April 10, 1971. The streamliner is 32 miles from its destination and 20 days from its final run. W. C. Christopher photo […]

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Oldest Amtrak locomotives

Black electric locomotive in profile

Amtrak inherited a menagerie of power at startup in 1971, but what were the oldest Amtrak locomotives?   During the period leading up to the advent of Amtrak in May 1971, it wasn’t uncommon to see passenger train equipment, both locomotives and cars, of significant seniority. Regarding what came behind the locomotives, heavyweight (typically pre-World […]

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Inside Amtrak’s Amfleet cars

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Amtrak Amfleet cars were the first of the National Passenger Railroad Corporation’s own passenger cars in the 1970s. They were and are, useful, flexible cars that have served the railroad for decades. Did you know these facts about Amfleet cars? The cars were initially billed as “the Amfleet,” but “the” was quickly dropped as trains […]

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