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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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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Conrail passenger trains: A small chapter for a big blue railroad

Conrail passenger trains: Conrail and Burlington Northern passenger trains in a Chicago rail yard.

Conrail passenger trains are probably the least known of all the aspects of the big blue railroad’s operations over time. As Conrail is the Fallen Flag Railroad of the Month for April 2022, please enjoy these Conrail passenger trains images from Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library. Conrail started operations April 1, 1976 taking over […]

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Local train on the old BR&P

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

A Baltimore & Ohio class P-6 Pacific passes CM Tower at Du Bois, Pa., with Pittsburgh–Buffalo train 252 in September 1955. This is the old Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh, which became part of B&O in 1932. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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EMC delivers first doodlebug motorcar

Gas-powered doodlebug motorcar with trailer for Gulf, Mobile & Ohio

The breakthrough The first Electro-Motive doodlebug motorcar to be delivered went to the Chicago Great Western in August 1924. Right from the first run, founder Hal Hamilton’s expectation that railroads would overload the equipment was confirmed. The gas-electric car and its transmission system had been rated and advertised as being capable of handling a 35-ton […]

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Conrail history remembered

Blue diesel locomotives with train of open hoppers

Conrail history starts with Penn Central’s bankruptcy in 1970, a collapse that upset the entire railroad industry. Something had to be done — Penn Central could not simply be liquidated. It operated one-third of the nation’s passenger trains and was the principal freight carrier in the Northeast. Without PC, the industries of the area would […]

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