Santa Fe’s first 2-10-4 on Raton

Santa Fe Railway

Santa Fe No. 5000, the first 2-10-4 Texas type built for the road, and 2-10-2 No. 3873 climb the 3.5-percent grade on the north side of Raton Pass with a westbound freight extra on May 18, 1946. Pushing at the rear of the 37-car train is 2-10-2 No. 934. Preston George photo […]

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Santa Fe 4-4-2 crossing stone culvert

Colorado and Southern Railway

Santa Fe 4-4-2 No. 1440 leads the Colorado & Southern’s southbound Pike’s Peak Special over a stone culvert on the “Joint Line” between Denver and Colorado Springs in 1910. The C&S train is operating on trackage rights over the Santa Fe, which shares the route with the Denver & Rio Grande. L. C. McClure photo […]

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Ps-4 perfection

Southern Railway

Southern Railway Ps-4 Pacific 1395 departs Alexandria, Va., with the Atlanta-New Orleans Express in June 1937. Painted a striking green with gold trim, the 64 well-proportioned Ps-4 engines were among the most celebrated of all 4-6-2 classes. Walter H. Thrall Jr. photo […]

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Palatial stock car

Northern Pacific Railway

Northern Pacific 84300 is one of 22 double-deck, 86-foot “Big Pig Palace” cars built for NP by Ortner Freight Car in 1966. Ortner also built 61 similar cars for three private firms. They were among the last stock cars built in America. Ortner Freight Car photo […]

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North Western’s RDC experiment

Chicago and North Western Railroad

Chicago & North Western experimented with the self-propelled Budd Rail Diesel Car for commuter service, but never really embraced the concept, buying only these three cars — two RDC1s and an RDC2 — and eventually swapping them to the Chesapeake & Ohio for three intercity coaches. Bob Borcherding photo […]

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EMD Model 40 profile: Diesels That Didn’t

Men look at EMD Model 40 centercab diesel locomotive coupled to train cars

We all love the unusual — something that departs from our perceived norm. In railroading, it’s an Alco showing up on an otherwise all-Electro-Motive locomotive roster, or perhaps a slight variation of a paint scheme that catches our eye. Or it could be an EMD Model 40. A total of 11 were built between 1940 […]

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MoPac express boxcar

Missouri Pacific Railroad

Missouri Pacific rebuilt several older boxcars for merchandise service, adding steel sides and a blue-and-gray paint scheme. The lettering at upper left reads “For merchandise loading only between M.P. lines and T&P freight houses—do not interchange with other lines.” Missouri Pacific photo […]

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Steam’s Lost Empire III

Steam's Lost Empire III Classic Trains Magazine

Paradise lost – and found Picture it: Orbisonia, 1941. The shop and yard of Pennsylvania’s narrow gauge East Broad Top are humming with activity during William Moedinger’s visit for Trains magazine (see page 6). In 2022 you’ll be able to relive those times with the revived East Broad Top operation. Nonprofit EBT Foundation Inc. expects […]

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Milwaukee Road local to Madison

Milwaukee Road

A few minutes out of Milwaukee, CMStP&P Pacific 192 rolls into suburban Wauwatosa, Wis., with train 23, an afternoon local to Madison in September 1954. Watching the action by the station steps is Trains magazine Editor David P. Morgan. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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M.U. train at Spuyten Duyvil

New York Central Railroad

Bound for Grand Central Terminal, a New York Central M.U. train passes under the Henry Hudson Parkway bridge at Spuyten Duyvil, N.Y., in the late 1940s or early ’50s. In the background, NYC’s line down the West Side of Manhattan bridges the Harlem River where the Harlem meets the Hudson. Herbert H. Harwood Jr. photo […]

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