Steel-side classic

Three-quarter view of steel-constructed refrigerator rail car

Steel-side classic Pacific Fruit Express’s largest class of steel reefers was the 5,000 cars of R-40-23 starting in 1947. They had improved Dreadnaught ends, fans, and steel running boards. Mainline Photos photo […]

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Detroit diesels

Black diesel locomotives haul freight train toward diamond crossing

Detroit diesels In March 1965 near Detroit, New York Central GP40 3039 leads two sisters south on the Dearborn Branch as they approach the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton crossing at Schaefer Tower. Henry G. Goerke photo […]

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Vest pocket streamliner

Streamlined passenger train stopped at station

Vest pocket streamliner Union Pacific’s original streamliner, the little M-10000 of February 1934, is at Chatsworth, Calif., on the Southern Pacific during its national tour. Gerald M. Best photo […]

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Collection elevator

Aerial view of boxcars loading at wooden grain elevator

Collection elevator This small collection elevator near Bayneville, Kans., typical of the thousands of wooden country elevators that were once common across the Midwest and West, is loading a boxcar, while two trucks wait with incoming wheat at the start of the grain rush in June 1952. The small elevator isn’t as wide as the […]

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Steam queen

Streamlined steam locomotive with passenger train at speed

Steam queen For a few years in the late 1930s, the steam queens of New Haven’s Shore Line were 10 class I-5 4-6-4s. The handsome Hudsons’ wheel-balance woes prompted NH to begin acquiring a fleet of 60 DL109 diesels in 1941. Here, an I-5 roars west with the Merchants Limited at Sharon, Mass. Wayne Brumbaugh […]

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Postwar ‘El Cap’

Passengers resting in coach seats

Postwar ‘El Cap’ A Santa Fe publicity photo shows the inside the postwar El Capitan. In 1956, the all-coach train was re-equipped with innovative new “Hi-Level” double-deck cars. Santa Fe photo […]

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Black Fork Gorge

Steam locomotives on a coal train rounding a curve on a hillside

Black Fork Gorge Seven Western Maryland 2-8-0s — two up front, three at midtrain, and two ahead of the caboose — urge a 78-car eastbound train up the twisting grade through the Black Fork Gorge toward Thomas, W.Va. Edward Theisinger photo […]

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Modeling from postcards

Black-and-white aerial view of Crookston, Minn., looking east in the late 1920s.

Welcome to the first of a three-part series where I’ll show you the various modeling information you can learn from postcards. The cards in this series are all from Crookston, Minn., my hometown and the focus of my modeling research. Similar postcards can be found for most communities. Online auction websites like eBay are a […]

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Williamsport-bound

Smoking steam locomotive passes interlocking tower with train

Williamsport-bound At Fassett, Pa., just south of the New York state line, I1 4315 gets a roll on a Williamsport-bound freight. Rugged, simple, powerful, and compact, the I1’s served for four decades. Jim Shaughnessy photo […]

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Oakland Pier

Passenger train observation car parked inside station shed

Oakland Pier The California Zephyr’s signature sleeper-observation-dome car, complete with neon tail sign, gleams in Southern Pacific’s Oakland Pier station 10 minutes before departure on June 15, 1958. John C. Illman photo […]

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