Southern Railway locomotives remembered

Steam locomotive hauling a freight train.

Southern Railway locomotives: It’s time to celebrate the sleek lines and power of Southern Railway locomotives. Please enjoy this photo gallery selected from files in Kalmbach Media‘s David P. Morgan Library. Each month since October 2019, Classic Trains editors have selected one Fallen Flag to honor. A Fallen Flag is a railroad whose name and […]

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Kansas City Southern 2-10-4

Kansas city Souther last steam locomotive

Kansas City Southern’s last new steam locomotives were 10 class J 2-10-4s built by Lima in 1937. As this postwar photo of No. 905 indicates, they were massive machines — those are 70-inch drivers under that giant boiler. Harold K. Vollrath photo […]

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Tom Barker’s S gauge layout in action

Tom Barkers S gauge layout

Tom Barker’s S gauge layout is inspired by a vintage American Flyer dealer display. It features a lot of action and fun! It appears in the July-August issue of Classic Toy Trains. Subscribers can see how he built the circular four-tier structure that’s the centerpiece of the layout here. […]

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Tom Barker’s S gauge layout in action

Tom Barkers S gauge layout

Tom Barker’s S gauge layout is inspired by a vintage American Flyer dealer display. It features a lot of action and fun! It appears in the July-August issue of Classic Toy Trains. Subscribers can see how he built the circular four-tier structure that’s the centerpiece of the layout here. […]

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QJ makes last trips before rebuilding

black Chinese-built steam locomotive

SILVIS, Ill. — Chinese-built No. 6988, a QJ 2-10-2, traveled the Iowa Interstate Railroad on Saturday, June 11, and Sunday, June 12, 2022, for a final time before its FRA 15-year inspection and rebuilding. Although the locomotive’s certification has expired the FRA granted a one-time extension for the two trips. The QJs — Nos. 6988 […]

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Lionel’s no. 700E scale Hudson locomotive

Model of black steam locomotive

The latest video by Roger Carp, senior editor at Classic Toy Trains magazine, focuses on one of the greatest and most celebrated toy trains ever produced in America. In anticipation of the release of Lionel Trains of the 1940s, the new special-interest publication from CTT, Professor Carp looks closely at the Lionel no. 700E O […]

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Lionel’s no. 700E scale Hudson locomotive

Model of black steam locomotive

The latest video by Roger Carp, senior editor at Classic Toy Trains magazine, focuses on one of the greatest and most celebrated toy trains ever produced in America. In anticipation of the release of Lionel Trains of the 1940s, the new special-interest publication from CTT, Professor Carp looks closely at the Lionel no. 700E O […]

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Doubleheaded Pennsy 2-10-4s

Pennsylvania Railroad coal train

Pennsylvania class J1 Texas types 6486 and 6488 move Lake Erie-bound coal north out of Columbus, Ohio, in September 1955. PRR’s 125-strong J1 fleet of 1942–44, based on a Chesapeake & Ohio design, accounted for more than a quarter of all 2-10-4s built. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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Stories working as a railroad fireman

  Working as a railroad fireman: It was the end of summer. Billy, Wimpy, and I had finished cleaning up after the last threshing job and watched Mr. Hedrick slowly drive the rig out to the road and head west to the winter storage building behind his blacksmith shop. The rig consisted of a Huber […]

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