A conventional two-cylinder locomotive like this one exhausts four times per wheel revolution. This is thanks to the position of the valves. Library of Congress Q At low speed, the four “chuffs” a steam engine makes per wheel rotation all sound the same to me, but at higher speed I think I hear a four-beat […]
A pair of Rock Island BL2s, with an F7B between them, led the “Fat Stock Special” one night in 1956. Monty Powell In November 1956 I was a management trainee on the Rock Island Railroad in Rock Island, Ill. A special movement known as “the Fat Stock Special,” which originated in western Iowa, was coming […]
The California State Railroad Museum will host a number of events in 2019 to mark the completion of the first transcontinental railroad. CSRM SACRAMENTO – In 2019, the California State Railroad Museum & Foundation are proud to present a series of exciting events, activities and exhibits to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the completion of […]
Passenger car end details were pretty standard and most followed the pattern used on sleeping cars built by the Pullman Co. The car in the photo is Crystal Point, a Pullman 3-compartment, 2-drawing-room, observation lounge assigned to the Milwaukee Road’s Olympian Hiawatha in 1947. A number of details are visible that appear on most cars […]
The Portage Railway: An Illustrated History of the Huntsville & Lake of Bays Railway by Jeff Young and Peter Foley Available from: Credit Valley Railway Company 2900 Argentia Road, Unit 24 Mississauga ON L5N 7X9 Canada www.cvrco.ca 12 1/4″ x 9 1/4″; 204 pages, including 10 9″ x 18 1/2″ foldout drawings; hardbound The Huntsville […]
Just out of Boston’s North Station, three Boston & Maine trains have crossed the Charles River drawbridges and approach the Charlestown Avenue bridge in mid-1947. From left: a 4-6-2 with a beach special, an E7 with the Alouette for Montreal via Canadian Pacific, and another 4-6-2 on the Boston section of the Green Mountain Flyer, bound for […]
A CSX Transportation freight passes Marion (Ohio) Union Station. The site is now a museum with a restored interlocking tower. Brian Schmidt Q Why is the word “Union” used so often in the names of passenger stations and terminals? For example, Cincinnati Union Terminal, St. Louis Union Station, or Denver Union Station. Is there a […]
Sharing the joys of toy trains at Christmas […]
John Gruber MADISON, Wis. — In the world of railroad photography, few practitioners have had an impact as profound as that of John Gruber. He arrived in the 1960s with a daring new approach to photographing the railroad scene, then went on to found the leading organization devoted to preserving and promoting the art form. […]
“Southern Pacific Local Freight crosses Intracoastal Waterway in Houma, Louisiana, 1951,” from the “Unseen Link” exhibit. Courtesy O. Winston Link Museum ROANOKE, Va. — The O. Winston Link Museum is now featuring an exhibit of rarely seen images by the famed rail photographer. “Unseen Link,” which opened on Sept. 14 and runs through Nov. 6, […]
An old GE doodlebug provided passenger services on the Apalachicola Northern in the 1940s. Classic Trains coll. I’m clutching the grab iron on the back of a steam locomotive cab, my feet on the apron between the engine and tender. I’m vibrating head to toe, with the heat from the boiler all over me. How […]
Join Trains for a ride on a former Northern Pacific triple-combine express car as a retired mail car clerk, a historical interpreter, and a reporter meet to catch a mail bag full of history on a moving train on the Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway in October 2017. Only from Trains! […]
