Great Lakes outpost Chesapeake & Ohio SW9 No. 5251 idles by the carferry City of Midland 41 in Milwaukee in 1978. The C&O’s Milwaukee trackage was reached only by the carferries across Lake Michigan. Brian Buchanan photo […]
Great Lakes outpost
Dominion
Dominion Oil-fired Canadian Pacific G3 4-6-2 Pacific 2388 awaits departure from Vancouver with the Dominion on a June 1952 evening; the Mountaineer left an hour earlier. John C. Illman photo […]
Illinois Central Railroad freight trains photo gallery
All through July 2021, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the grit and glory of the Illinois Central Railroad. Please enjoy this photo gallery of IC freight selected from the image archive of Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library. Only from Classic Trains! […]
Riding a caboose in central Illinois in the mid-20th century
In the late 1960s and in to the ’70s, I had numerous rides on Toledo, Peoria & Western freight trains in both directions out of Peoria, Ill., where I grew up. The TP&W interchanged with the Pennsylvania Railroad and its successors 108 miles east at Effner, Ind., and with the Santa Fe 114 miles west […]
Sunset on the swamp
Sunset on the swamp Framed by trees heavy with Spanish moss, the eastbound Southern Pacific Sunset Limited crosses a bayou near Morgan City, La., about 80 miles west of New Orleans, in 1958. Diesels and streamlined cars came in 1950. Classic Trains collection […]
Altamont Pass(enger)
Altamont Pass(enger) During its 924 miles on the Western Pacific, the westbound California Zephyr passes through the barren hills of Altamont Pass, Calif., on March 15, 1953. W. E. Malloy Jr. photo […]
Steel-side classic
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 […]
Detroit diesels
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 […]
Vest pocket streamliner
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 […]
Collection 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 […]
Illinois Central Railroad: passenger trains
All through July 2021, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the style, heritage, and grit that was the IC. Please enjoy an image gallery of Illinois Central Railroad passenger trains, originally published in July 2018. Only from Classic Trains! […]
1950s Pennsylvania Railroad railfan trip goes on despite ripping down the catenary
On August 4, 1957, the Pennsylvania Railroad dispatched an eight-car train of MP54 multiple-unit cars from Penn Station, New York. Aboard the excursion were hundreds of railfans anticipating a day of riding mostly freight-only trackage to the western extremity of PRR catenary at Enola Yard across the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg, Pa. The exotic routing […]
