Mind-blowing Big Boy facts In the 1959 Union Pacific movie Last of the Giants the narrator comments, “ … There are no small parts on a Big Boy.” This is also true of the story that accompanies this colossus of the rails. As one digs into Big Boy’s details, everything — measurements, operating statistics, even […]
Spokane, Portland and Seattle freight trains remembered: All through August 2022, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the grit, panache, and charm that was the Spokane, Portland and Seattle. As part of the celebration, please enjoy this freight train photo gallery as the perfect accompaniment. Each month since October 2019, Classic Trains editors have showcase one “Fallen Flag” railroad — […]
Please enjoy this photo gallery of Spokane, Portland and Seattle locomotives selected from files in Kalmbach Media‘s David P. Morgan Library. The principal Spokane, Portland and Seattle locomotive shop was at Vancouver, Washington. Initially a roundhouse, it was supplemented with a four-track, three-level diesel shop in 1949 that replaced the roundhouse after the last […]
The Ingalls Shipbuilding 4S locomotive was a truly unique, one-of-a-kind diesel unit. The business world in general, and railroading in particular, is full of one-hit wonders. The concept is solid, the idea grand, the thinking sound. Yet, despite all the barometers showing the product should be a sales winner, through no fault of […]
A 4-6-2 Pacific leads a Milwaukee Road suburban train past the road’s Western Avenue coach yards in Chicago on an afternoon run from Union Station to Fox Lake, Ill., in 1948. Henry J. McCord photo […]
Dallas’s Union Terminal hosted trains from eight railroads and featured through tracks. The tracks at upper right lead to a coach yard. Historic American Engineering Record photo […]
Canadian National 4-8-4 6232 swings through Hamilton Junction, Ont., with a passenger extra for Hamilton in 1958, when steam was mostly gone from U.S. main lines but still going strong in parts of Canada. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
A crewman climbs aboard Chicago & North Western class H No. 3017 on Nov. 17, 1929, six days after the 4-8-4 arrived from Baldwin. The engine is being broken in on the main line west of Chicago. A. W. Johnson photo […]
Missouri Pacific 4102 and 4103 were Electro-Motive’s only model NW4 locomotives. Built in 1938 using 900 h.p. Winton 201A engines, road trucks, and other components from experimental box-cab passenger units 511 and 512, the steam-generator-equipped diesels possessed some of the characteristics of a road-switcher. Electro-Motive photo […]
On the eastern fringes of the Los Angeles area, a Union Pacific freight train is safely in a siding for a meet with train 1, the westbound Los Angeles Limited, powered by 4-8-4 No. 821 in the road’s postwar “greyhound” paint scheme. Fletcher Swan photo […]
Spokane Portland and Seattle passenger trains: All through August 2022, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history and heritage of Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway. The Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway was the product of sparring during 1905-1909 between “Empire Builder” James J. Hill of the Great Northern and Edward H. Harriman of the Union […]
Pennsy Santa train ride: There is an indelible link between kids, trains, and Christmas; even the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad found a way to offer a Santa train ride to kids. Growing up in 1950s Fort Wayne, Ind., I remember the Pennsylvania Railroad as a prominent player in the city’s life. Also prominent was Fort […]
