Big Boy in Texas and Mid-South photo gallery, August 2021

Big Boy locomotive moving over a rural grade crossing.

  Trains contributors Steve Smedley and Sol Tucker present some of their choice images from chasing Union Pacific Big Boy in Texas and the Mid-South. Big Boy’s 2021 trip from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to New Orleans and back is the locomotive’s first excursion since 2019. For more information, see the Union Pacific steam schedule online. Also, […]

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Union Pacific Challengers as they appeared in service

Challenger locomotive hauling a freight train on the plains.

Union Pacific Challengers in service were one of the great sights of American railroading in the 1940s and 1950s, when they were near the pinnacle of super-powered steam. Please enjoy this digitized 8mm video originally take by Dick Wallin in 1959 east of Cheyenne, Wyo. Only from Classic Trains! […]

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LGB extends raffle until Aug. 31, 2021

Watercolor painting of Santa Fe's Super Chief train

LGB (Märklin), 1406 Creek Trail Dr, Jefferson City, MO 65109, is giving away an original James R. Mann watercolor of the Santa Fe Super Chief to celebrate the release of its Santa Fe A and B-units. The company is extending the raffle for the painting until Aug. 31, 2021. Mann’s painting will have the same […]

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Distinctive Canadian grain hoppers near end of the line

Cylindrical grain hopper cars off wheels, on ground

WELLAND, Ontario — The Canadian grain scene is starting to become a lot less cylindrical. For the last 50 years Canadian Wheat Board cylindrical covered hoppers have dominated Canadian rails as the main way prairie farmers moved large grain shipments to coastal ports for export. But with Canadian National and Canadian Pacific investing in new […]

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How to visit Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum

steam passenger train in Tennessee

Visiting Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum If you took a major Class I railroad in the early 1950s, shrunk it, and set it aside to show people today what a section of big-time, steam-era railroading was all about, you’d create Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. Set on a portion of Southern Railway’s original main line into Chattanooga, […]

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How to visit the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad

Visiting the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Chama, New Mexico, might be some of the most sacred ground for 1920s railroad and steam locomotive enthusiasts. That’s the western end of the mighty Cumbres & Toltec Scenic, and it’s the site of an authentic shop, yard, and depot. It’s the start of the dramatic eastbound climb across […]

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Kansas City, Mo., is one of America’s top rail hubs

Locomotive hauls a train on yard tracks under a bridge backlit by low angle sunlight.

  Who realizes that Kansas City is one of the U.S.’s main rail hubs, the second busiest and second by annual tonnage? Chicago wins by a small margin. While declines in coal shipments have likely ended Kansas City’s three-decade dominance in rail tonnage, the difference between the two cities remains about 3%, says the Association […]

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Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum photo gallery

Steam locomotive exhausts steam near the ground

Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, one of the sacred places of American railway preservation, recently celebrated its 60th anniversary with special operations of legendary Southern Railway steam locomotives Nos. 4501 and 630 and night photo sessions. Sol S. Tucker photographed the activities for Trains the weekend of Oct. 23 and 24, 2021. Nos. 4501 and 630 […]

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Pullman: America’s Hotel on Wheels – DVD Preview

Black and white image of craftsmen wearing ties and in a woodshop.

In the golden age of long-distance train travel, Pullman trains offered impeccable overnight services that were second to none. In this Classic Trains special preview video, learn more about America’s Hotel on Wheels through first-person recollections, detailed explanation of car routing, and examination of the various Pullman car types. Enjoy, and then order the full-length […]

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Trains Magazine – Trains News Wire, Railroad News, Railroad Industry News, Web Cams, and Forms

FULL SCREEN Kevin Burkholder Commemorative GP40-2W No. 311 passes the old depot in Wallingford, Vt., in fresh snowfall on Feb. 13, 2014. FULL SCREEN Scott A. Hartley Ogdensburg Bridge & Port Authority SW900 No. 14 is seen at the Norfolk, N.Y., enginehouse on Oct. 9, 2013. FULL SCREEN Kevin Burkholder Vermont Railway GP38-2 No. 202 […]

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Trains Magazine – Trains News Wire, Railroad News, Railroad Industry News, Web Cams, and Forms

FULL SCREEN Brian Schmidt Eastbound containers on Q016 pass F Tower in Fostoria on a cloudless summer morning in July 2011. FULL SCREEN Brian Schmidt Eastbound containers pass the Wood Street diamond with CSX on train No. 234 in July 2011. FULL SCREEN Brian Schmidt CSX AC44CW No. 262 leads freight west through Fostoria in […]

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