CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Union Pacific has released details of its excursion later this month with Big Boy No. 4014. In a message to members of its Steam Club, the Railroad says the 4-8-8-4 will depart Cheyenne for Denver on Thursday, July 28, at 10 a.m., with an intermediate stop in Greeley, Colo. The locomotive will […]
Type of Train: Steam Locomotive
Reading & Northern plans steam doubleheader for Aug. 13 excursion
PORT CLINTON, Pa. — The Reading & Northern has announced plans to run a steam doubleheader — with 4-8-4 No. 2102 and 4-6-2 No. 425 — on its sold-out Iron Horse Rambles excursion Aug. 13. In a Facebook post, the railroad says this will be its first steam doubleheader since 1988. The doubleheader was made […]
Polished Ps-4
Southern Railway 4-6-2 1395, one of the road’s class Ps-4 passenger engines revered for their handsome lines and green-and-gold livery, takes a passenger train out of Washington, D.C., in the late 1930s or ’40s. Walter H. Thrall photo […]
A postwar Lionel haul unboxing
A postwar Lionel haul unboxing featuring Roger “Professor” Carp and CTT editor Hal Miller. The trains belong to a co-worker who received them from her father. He received his first Lionel train in 1941 – in fact, we have his original no. 1089 set box! Have a look at some of the well-loved and time-worn […]
Nocturnal steam at Cincinnati
New York Central 4-8-4 6000 (left, the first of NYC’s famous Niagaras) and Baltimore & Ohio 4-6-2 5313 (one of B&O’s famous “President” Pacifics) simmer near Cincinnati Union Terminal one evening in September 1954. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Why I love the 2-8-4 Berkshire locomotive
Berkshire 2-8-4 locomotive: When I was a kid, my dad once showed me his childhood Lionel set. He had a Lionel no. 726RR Berkshire set with a few extra pieces stored in a metal crate. I never got to see it set up or operate, unfortunately. I had no idea what a Berkshire was back […]
Kitbashing a large-scale Pacific for Jersey Central’s Bullet passenger train
Kitbashing a large-scale Pacific from a broken Aristo-Craft model wasn’t easy, but the result has been worth the work. My family has a history of model railroading spanning three generations. My grandfather modeled O scale as a child in the 1940s and passed that love along to my father in the 1970s, and who got […]
Clinchfield on Copper Creek
Pacific 153 leads the Clinchfield Railroad’s daily passenger train from Spartanburg, S.C., to Elkhorn City, Ky., across the landmark Copper Creek Viaduct near Speers Ferry, Va., on May 28, 1952. The lower trestle carries Southern Railway’s Bristol–Appalachia, Va., line over the creek. Ed Theisinger photo […]
Destination: the cutting torch
Nine Milwaukee Road steam locomotives move east out of Marion, Iowa, on April 5, 1954, en route to an appointment with the scrappers. A 4-8-4 hauls the grim assemblage, but dieselization is around the corner. Robert Laker photo […]
Four railroad themed novels for summer reading
You might enjoy these four railroad themed novels on your summer travels. Rene Schweitzer details these four works of fiction that you may have overlooked. The Christmas Train David Baldacci Genre: Fiction First published: 2004 Journalist Tom Langdon, due to an “incident” at an airport, is banned from flying commercial airlines and takes Amtrak […]
B&O Pacific entering Howard Street Tunnel
Baltimore & Ohio’s first P-7 Pacific, No. 5300 (originally named President Washington) is about to enter Howard Street Tunnel as it departs Mount Royal Station in Baltimore with train 21, the Washingtonian, in 1952. The 4-6-2 would soon be retired to the B&O’s museum in Baltimore, where it resides today. James P. Gallagher photo […]
Big Boy West Coast tour off; Denver-Cheyenne excursion announced
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The planned Pacific Northwest tour of Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 is off for 2022, the railroad announced in a Thursday afternoon email to members of its Steam Club. But the locomotive will make an outing to Denver later this month to pull an excursion benefitting the Union Pacific Museum. The […]