The time I got to run ‘my unit’

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On June 15, 1972 — six years before author Olson’s ride on it — Illinois Central Gulf SD40 6000 pulls into Markham Yard at Homewood, Ill., with GP40 3011. J. David Ingles I have always had a thing for “class units,” that is, the first in a series, and “my engine” is Illinois Central 6000, […]

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Baltimore yards and rail lines, 1948

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It was an act of sheer audacity that made Baltimore the cradle of American railroading. Baltimore’s topography of hills broken by short, steep valleys was exactly wrong for a canal, and the city’s outlet to the west, the National Road, was expensive and slow. So city leaders proposed a railroad, the Baltimore & Ohio, to […]

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Win a few, lose a few

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Empty refrigerator cars race across the Union Pacific in Nebraska in the early ’50s. A UP conductor in Idaho talked his way out of a jam when his reefer train blocked a crossing, but got into trouble when he tried to enter the produce business himself. Linn H. Westcott Within any group, whether depicted in […]

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Beyond the training program

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N&W four- and six-motor EMDs rest at Crewe, Va., in 1981, three years after author Siik became acquainted with similar units during a strike on former Nickel Plate lines in Ohio. Curt Tillotson Jr. It happened nearly four decades ago, but still fresh are my memories of following the ghosts of 2-8-4 Berkshires and Bluebird […]

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Remembering the C&NW in Madison

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Running left-handed per C&NW practice, E-class Pacific 1634 skirts Lake Monona as she departs Madison with the evening local to Chicago. Frank Rogers Back in the days when there were enough railroad companies to make train-watching really interesting, Madison, Wis., was served by three: the Milwaukee Road, the Chicago & North Western, and the Illinois […]

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Video Review: 20th Century Limited

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20th Century Limited Kalmbach Publishing, P.O. Box 1612, Waukesha, WI 53187-1612. 56 minutes kalmbachhobbystore.com Just under 50 years ago, a famous train ended a 65-year run as the premier conveyance linking New York and Chicago. Operated by the New York Central Railroad, the 20th Century Limited was launched in 1902 during the “the age of […]

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New York, Ontario & Western – Image Gallery

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FULL SCREEN Robert F. Collins, John R. Taibi coll. Mountaineer 4-8-2 405 with Walton, N.Y.–Weehawken, N.J., Mountaineer at Winterton, N.Y., 1939. FULL SCREEN Donald W. Furler Train 3 2-6-0 255 with first section of Weehawken–Sidney, N.Y., train 3 at Burnside, N.Y., August 1942. FULL SCREEN Wayne Brumbaugh Train 1 4-8-2 with Weehawken–Walton train 1 at […]

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PRR E8 diesels in green

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Pennsylvania Railroad E8 5767 and a sister bring a westbound train to a halt at Canton, Ohio, in September 1952. Some of PRR’s E8s, like these, were delivered in PRR’s traditional dark green locomotive color with gold pinstripes; others came in Tuscan red, which the road adopted for passenger diesels in 1952. John B. Corns […]

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