Nashville Steam lift scheduled for June 17

Steam engine being worked on in shop building

NASHVILLE — Former Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis 4-8-4 No. 576 will get a big boost next week, thanks to two cranes that will suspend its 220,000 pounds about eight feet in the air. The locomotive’s wheels and trucks – the same ones made famous as a backdrop to a photograph of Johnny Cash on […]

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The story of smoke: trial and error at Lionel

Cover of 1947 Lionel consumer catalog

The year 1946, when both the A.C. Gilbert Co. and the Lionel Corp. brought out their first full lines of electric trains for the postwar era, saw both heralding new locomotives equipped with a mechanism capable of producing smoke. Another milestone in the quest to market more realistic miniatures had been achieved. Truth be told, […]

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Pennsy power

Steam and diesel locomotives park side-by-side

Pennsy power A Pennsylvania Railroad M1 4-8-2 and a pair of PA passenger diesels, both assigned to helper service, are seen at Ralston, Pa., on a damp May 4, 1957. Note the crewman climbing the steam locomotive. Jim Shaughnessy photo […]

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U.S. Sugar interested in acquiring second steam locomotive

Steam locomotive on display behind fence

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — U.S. Sugar Corp. is interested in buying and restoring to operation an Atlantic Coast Line steam locomotive currently on display in Jacksonville, the Jacksonville Daily Record reports. Locomotive No. 1504, a class P-5-A 4-6-2 built by Alco in 1919, would be declared surplus by the city council, which would also rescind its […]

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Articulated study

Steam locomotive parked by serving facilities

Articulated study Pittsburgh & West Virginia 1102, from the first group of 2-6-6-4s, is in as-built condition at Rook, Pa., in May 1940, with footboards and tender booster. The 132-mile railroad had seven such locomotive. Nos. 1100–1102, built 1934, had boosters on rear tender truck, which were removed in 1944. Harold K. Vollrath collection […]

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Canadian contrasts

Streamlined steam locomotive in front of box-like diesel locomotive

Canadian contrasts Canadian National U-4-a 6404’s rounded contours contrast with the angular lines of a nearby SW1200RS diesel switcher, although the 4-8-4’s traditional-style signal/marker lamps, boxy numberboards, and spoked engine-truck wheels detract from its streamlined appearance. Jim Shaughnessy photo […]

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Digest: N&W 611 makes move to Strasburg

Streamlined steam locomotive

N&W 611 heads to Strasburg for lengthy stay Its stoker repaired, Norfolk & Western Class J steam locomotive No. 611 made the move from the Virginia Museum of Transportation on Monday and is slated to begin operation at Pennsylvania’s Strasburg Rail Road this Saturday, May 29. For security reasons, the museum did not announce a […]

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Northern Pacific Railway locomotives

  All through May 2021, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the style, glamour and grit of the Northern Pacific Railway. Please enjoy this NP locomotive photo gallery sourced from the archives of the David P. Morgan Library at Kalmbach Media. Only from Classic Trains! […]

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Illinois steam survivor

Profile of steam-powered freight train on truss bridge over wide river

Illinois steam survivor Wabash 2-6-0 576 creeps west across the Illinois River at Meredosia, Ill., in September 1954. The bridge famously limited the use of diesel locomotives on the railroad’s branch to Keokuk, making this operation a late era Midwest steam outpost. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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Lionel’s Vision Line GS is just spectacular

CTT Lionel Vision line GS

Lionel’s 2020 Vol. 1 catalog celebrated the firm’s 120th anniversary, and what a catalog it was. For me, the most distinctive offering wasn’t a single locomotive, but a single style of locomotive: The Southern Pacific’s venerable GS (General Service or Golden State) line of 4-8-4 Northern steam engines. I don’t believe any manufacturer (in any […]

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