Classic Trains

CELEBRATE THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN RAILROADING – WHEN GIANT STEAM LOCOMOTIVES, COLORFUL DIESELS AND STEAMLINERS SHARED THE RAILS. CLASSIC TRAINS COVERS THE 1930’S THROUGH THE 1970’S WITH REMARKABLE PHOTOGRAPHY, DETAILED REPORTING AND FIRST-HAND ACCOUNTS FROM PEOPLE WHO WORKED THE GREAT PASSENGER AND FREIGHT TRAINS.

Camelot in Dairyland

Classic Trains

Head End

Jack Elwood, cover model • Letters from readers on our Summer 2021 issue

Up from Oklahoma

Why K4 1361 matters • Altoona’s 4-6-2 isn’t just another restoration project

The little charmer, the Steam Queen, and the big top • As the North Western’s “goodwill ambassador,” Ten-Wheeler 1385 thrilled thousands in the 1980s

Hellooo, Texas! Or, how I became a “Fiddler” • A ROCK ISLAND ENGINEER FINDS REFUGE ON THE COTTON BELT

Where Southern & N&W Met • Straddling the Virginia-Tennessee state line, Bristol was a showcase of steam and classic diesels in the late 1950s

HIGHEST RAILS IN NEWYORK • THE MASSIVE HELL GATE BRIDGE WAS A TOWERING STAGE FOR PENN CENTRAL AND AMTRAK ACTION IN THE 1970s

The versatile Milwaukee Road Little Joe • THE 89-FOOT, 266-TON ELECTRICS WERE MORE THAN JUST BRAWNY FREIGHT HAULERS

Boston & Maine at White River Jct., Vt. • A steam-powered, heavyweight passenger train passes freight JS4 departing the yard with an A-B set of F units

TRANSITION at TEMPLETON • WHEN THE PAST MASQUERADED AS THE FUTURE IN THE CABS OF TWO EARLY AMTRAK TRAINS

Finding FMs in Mexico • An admirer of Fairbanks-Morse locomotives encounters them south of the border

Plowing snow for Conrail • Despite cold weather and long hours, a young engineering trainee loved “working on the railroad”

View from a caboose • A ride on the rear of a Toledo, Peoria & Western freight was an education in the rigors of railroading

Next Issue

R&LHS turns 100 • It’s the granddaddy of all U.S. rail-history organizations

Utah’s local line

Southern at Knoxville