Join CTT Senior Editor Roger Carp, a.k.a. Professor Carp, as he shares insights on a post-war era Lionel Trains O gauge operating car. Learn about the history of the famed Automatic Refrigerated Milk Car and Platform, plus tips for making the car work properly! For even more info on the Milk Car, read the February 2021 […]
Era: 1946 - 1970
Little Mogul on the prairie
Wabash 2-6-0 573 heads a train on the road’s Keokuk (Iowa) branch just west of Carthage, Ill., on October 18, 1953. Although the road had announced it was 100 percent dieselized, it kept three Moguls to work this line, which included a bridge over the Illinois River that could not even support SW1 diesels. Photo […]
GG1 on the Main Line
A Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 thunders through Haverford, 9 miles west of Philadelphia on the Main Line, with the Admiral from Chicago in 1966. Photo by Paul J. McGonigal […]
Servicing the ‘Scout’
In the late 1940s or early ’50s, a worker at Santa Fe’s Los Angeles coach yard steam-cleans the air-conditioning equipment on the underside of a coach assigned to the Scout. Photo by Santa Fe […]
Hump engines at Willard
Bumped by diesels from front-line road-freight assignments, two S-1 2-10-2s work as hump engines at Baltimore & Ohio’s big yard at Willard, Ohio, in September 1955. Photo by Philip R. Hastings […]
HO scale Royal Gorge Route
The layout at a glance Name: Royal Gorge Route Layout owner: Florida Scale Rails club Scale: HO (1:87.1) Size: 8 x 12 feet Prototype: Denver & Rio Grande Western (standard and HOn3 narrow gauge); Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; and Union Pacific Locale: Colorado Era: 1930s to ’60s Mainline run: 75 feet Minimum radius: 22″ […]
HO scale Midwest Lines
The layout at a glance Name: Midwest Lines Layout owner: Rolf Plachter Scale: HO (1:87.1) Size: 33 x 52 feet Prototype: freelanced, inspired by Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; Rock Island; and Union Pacific Locale: Denver to Milwaukee Era: mid-1960s Style: around-the-walls Mainline run: 400 feet Minimum radius: 36″ Minimum turnout: no. 4 Maximum grade: 2 […]
Push-pull pioneer
In the mid-1950s, Chicago & North Western and Pullman-Standard collaborated on the first fleet of push-pull commuter cars in North America. First used on C&NW’s Chicago suburban lines, the concept has spread throughout the U.S. and Canada. Photo by Pullman-Standard […]
Motorcoach surprise
Even relatively pro-passenger roads like the Burlington could get ugly about train-offs. Immediately upon receiving permission to drop Omaha–Billings train 41 (pictured near Osage, Wyo., on May 28, 1969), the road halted it mid-run and bused its riders onward. Photo by Bob Johnston […]
Dominguez Junction
In 1960, a Pacific Electric car approaches Dominguez Junction where the Southern California interurban’s Long Beach line crossed parent Southern Pacific’s Harbor Branch. Today, Blue Line light rail crosses SP successor Union Pacific overhead. Photo by Richard Francaviglia […]
Erie doodlebug
Erie doodlebug 5014, an Electro-Motive product of 1931, and a Stillwell coach are about 5 minutes into their Midvale–Jersey City run as train 530 as they pass Pompton Junction, N.J., on August 11, 1946. The Stillwell coaches were a trademark of the railroad. Photo by D. R. Connor […]
Ghost train
New York Central train 315 stands at Bellefontaine, Ohio, on July 16, 1960. The E7s still wear lightning stripes, but the train is already all mail and express cars with a single coach. On the eve of Amtrak in 1971, potentials passengers petitioned Penn Central to carry privately owned passenger cars on this run, which […]