News Photos: RGS No. 20 arrives at Cumbres & Toltec

Smoke comes from stack of locomotive on trailer

ANTONITO, Colo. — The Colorado Railroad Museum’s Rio Grande Southern 4-6-0 No. 20 has arrived at the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad for its visit including a role in the upcoming Victorian Iron Horse Roundup. The locomotive, restored to operation in 2020,. arrived Sunday by truck from the museum in Golden, Colo. (The tender will […]

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Minnesota museum repairing firebox on DM&IR 2-8-0

Steam locomotive pulling vintage freight cars

DULUTH, Minn. — The Lake Superior Railroad Museum is moving ahead with repairs to return Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range 2-8-0 No. 332 to service. Repairs are being made to the firebox of the locomotive, where a crack had developed near an old weld. The museum plans to remove this and another existing weld in […]

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Santa Fe 3751 undergoes steam test

Fire in locomotive firebox

LOS ANGELES — More than three and a half years of labor-intensive work by the volunteers of the San Bernardino Railroad Historical Society was rewarded Aug. 7 as Santa Fe No. 3751 had a fire lit inside of it for the first time since December 2017. The event on a warm summer day in downtown […]

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Locomotives on Big Boy’s 2021 route

Steam locomotive with passenger train paused underneath a signal bridge in a black and white image.

  These are the steam locomotives on Big Boy’s 2021 route. In August and September 2021, Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 will travel from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to New Orleans through Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, among other places. Classic Trains offers this photo gallery of steam locomotives from railroading’s high-period, showcasing those […]

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West Point Route

Steam-powered heavyweight passenger train on curve

West Point Route Atlanta & West Point and Western Railway of Alabama — together known as the West Point Route — handle the Southern Crescent between Atlanta and Montgomery. On February 28, 1948, WofA 4-8-2 No. 185 heads a 13-car train 38 east at Hogansville, Ga. David W. Salter photo […]

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SMS 0-6-0 returns to steam

Front of steam locomotive

BRIDGEPORT, N.J. — A well-known 1960s and 1970s short line and tourist railroad steam locomotive is back. SMS Rail 0-6-0 No. 9, an Army brat built by Alco in 1942, test-fired Saturday for the first time following a 12-year restoration, just two days shy of when it was taken out of service in 1981. The […]

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Big Boy excursion from New Orleans nears sellout

Fence separates spectators from steaming and smoking steam locomotive on curve

NEW ORLEANS — Limited tickets remain for the Aug. 22 excursion from New Orleans to Plaquemine, La., to be pulled by UP Big Boy No. 4014. The excursion, the only one planned on this year’s Big Boy tour, is a fundraiser for the Union Pacific Museum in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The trip along the Mississippi […]

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Locomotive flue sheets are essential for steam engines

Looking down the nose of a steam locomotive and a honeycomb appearance of steel tubes.

Locomotive flue sheets are an important component in a steam locomotive’s design. The steam-generating part of every conventional steam locomotive consisted of three elements — the firebox where the fuel was burned to provide the heat, the boiler itself where water was converted into steam, and the smokebox where the exhaust from the engine was […]

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