New York Central J-1 4-6-4 5249 eases off the turntable at Harmon, N.Y., the point 33 miles up the Hudson River from Grand Central Terminal where for decades NYC exchanged steam for electric locomotives. Ed Nowak photo […]
Hudson at Harmon
Section: Railroads
End of the line for a Southern 2-8-8-2
Southern Railway 2-8-8-2 4021, running boards and driving wheels trimmed in white, looks sharp at Appalachia, Va., on the afternoon of May 27, 1952. But a close look reveals that her main rods have been taken down in preparation for being hauled away for scrap. Ed Theisinger photo […]
St Louis-San Francisco passenger trains remembered
St. Louis-San Francisco passenger trains are part of Classic Trains‘ editors’ celebration of the Frisco all through May 2022. Please enjoy this photo gallery of Frisco passenger trains selected from Kalmbach Media‘s David P. Morgan Library. Since October 2019, Classic Trains’ editors have celebrated a different Fallen Flag, that is, a Class I railroad that […]
Union Pacific Challenger ruled the Overland Route
Union Pacific Challenger: Railroad slogans are one of the industry’s lost arts. The old ad men and promoters who came up with them were geniuses. Remember when phrases like Water Level Route or Main Line of Mid-America told you so much about a particular railroad? The best ones spoke of far-flung places, and how to […]
EL freights meet
Erie Lackawanna’s hottest freight trains, eastbound NE-74 (left, powered by SD45s) and westbound CX-99, meet on former Erie trackage beside the Delaware River at Rood’s Creek, N.Y., in the early 1970s. J. J. Young Jr. photo […]
Diesels with trolley poles
Diesels with trolley poles: Interurban railways usually had some form of freight traffic supplementing their passenger business, but almost none could come close to the Pacific Electric Railway, Southern California’s premier streetcar system. A subsidiary of Southern Pacific, even after the company gave up hauling passengers, freight service continued at a brisk pace up to […]
EMD DDA40X Centennial
EMD DDA40X: In 1968, Union Pacific purchased 50 20-cylinder, 3,600 hp EMD SD45s for high-speed service. However, the units did not meet management’s expectations in that role. So, UP commissioned EMD to design and build a locomotive that would develop more horsepower than the DD35, U50, or C855 models. The result was the largest double-diesel […]
Christmas mail rush on the UP
A long string of Pacific Fruit Express reefers is being loaded with mail at right as workers sort mail bags at the Union Pacific Transfer in Council Bluffs, Iowa, during the 1951 Christmas rush. At busy times like this, all available equipment was pressed into mail service. Union Pacific Museum photo […]
Conrail Business & Research Trains book review
Between the years 1976 and 1999, Conrail business trains operated for three purposes: to enable railroad executives to travel the right-of-way for close track inspection, to look at rail facilities, and to entertain customers over Conrail lines to improve business potential and customer service. This nearly all-color, very well done 416-page, four-pound volume covers the […]
Burlington suburban coach
The 124 open-platform coaches the Burlington Route used in Chicago–Downers Grove–Aurora commuter service were Spartan conveyances. No. 7165 stands between runs at Aurora in February 1946. Henry J. McCord photo […]
Big Emma on empties
Louisville & Nashville class M-1 2-8-4 No. 1950 — a “Big Emma” — rolls empty coal hopper cars at Hargett, Ky., on May 23, 1952. Ed Theisinger photo […]
St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad remembered
The St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad was a survivor and an innovator. It weathered some very rough times, including at least five bankruptcies. It started running unit coal trains from Fort Smith, Ark., the city across the Arkansas River from my hometown of Van Buren, in the 1930s. It helped move Texas and Oklahoma oil east […]
