NYC’s Mercury departs Chicago

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In Chicago, trains of New York Central subsidiary Michigan Central generally used Illinois Central’s lakefront Central Station. Here a Hudson starts the Chicago Mercury on its run to Detroit. The terminal’s arched trainshed was removed in the early 1940s. Richard Luryman photo […]

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B&O Pacific in a hurry

Smoking steam locomotive with passenger train by wooden station

Baltimore & Ohio class P-5 No. 5227, a USRA light Pacific, hurries through North Bend, Ohio, with overnight St. Louis–Cincinnati local train 30 in September 1954. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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Pullman family vacation

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In a classic postwar publicity photo on a new Chesapeake & Ohio sleeping car, a family enjoys the comforts of a pair of double bedrooms with the dividing partition drawn back to create one large space containing four beds. C&O photo […]

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On the old BR&P

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At Du Bois, Pa., on Baltimore & Ohio’s former Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh lines, a B&O Pacific swings by Tower CM with Pittsburgh–Buffalo train 252, discontinued not long after this September 1955 photo. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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Gulf, Mobile and Ohio locomotives remembered

Streamlined diesel locomotive seen from low angle

Please enjoy this photo gallery of Gulf, Mobile and Ohio locomotives selected from files in Kalmbach Media‘s David P. Morgan Library.     The Gulf, Mobile and Ohio was one of the first major railroads to completely dieselize, with the last steam locomotive dropping its fire in October 1949. The GM&O was an early Alco customer, […]

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Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad freight trains remembered

Red and white diesel locomotives with freight train

Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad freight trains remembered: All through July 2022, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the grit, panache, and charm that was the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio.     As part of the celebration, please enjoy this freight train photo gallery as the perfect accompaniment.   Each month since October 2019, Classic Trains editors have showcase one “Fallen Flag” […]

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‘Pittsburgh: Streetcar City’ book review

Cover of Pittsburgh: Streetcar City book in color

The new book “Pittsburgh: Streetcar City” looks at the Steel City’s rail transit. Pittsburgh’s trolley system rose to fame as one of the last operations to use original PCC cars in the U.S. Beyond the equipment, however, Pittsburgh’s system offered a smorgasbord of variety: incline elevators, operation on public streets and private rights-of-way, tunnels, bridges, […]

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Rock Island perishable traffic in the 1970s

Blue and white diesel locomotives with refrigerated freight cars for Rock Island perishable traffic

Rock Island perishable traffic: One thing you learn quickly as a new railroad employee is that if you can hold a regular job, it’s because nobody else wants it. In 1973 Rock Island perishable traffic stopped icing at Silvis, Ill. This coincided with Pacific Fruit Express’s exit from the iced reefer business and represented the […]

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Virginian box-cab electrics

Virginian Railway box cab electric in Oakdale, Pa.

A trio of the Virginian Railway’s original box-cab electrics rolls downgrade with a freight at Oakdale, W.Va., in September 1953. The road electrified its main line between Mullens, W.Va., and Roanoke, Va., in the mid-1920s. Richard J. Cook photo […]

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