Classic Trains Summer 2016

The Great Northeast Railroad Debacle
By Don Phillips
One of history's great scams — Penn Central — caused a crisis whose solution led to the rebirth of American railroading

Diversity and Adversity: The Locomotives of Penn Central
By Robert J. Yanosey
How some 4,400 locomotives of almost 100 types from 3 railroads came under 1 big, black umbrella

The Lehigh Valley in Three Acts
By Jeremy Plant
From college years to a military hitch to the eve of Conrail, I gained different perspectives on a fascinating railroad

Crossroads of the Jersey Central
By John A. Yohannan
Elizabethport, N.J., was a great place for a boy to watch trains in the 1930s, when steam was king and a track-elevation project was transforming the area

Bee-Line for Profit
By Dale W. Woodland
The Reading was years ahead of its time when it introduced a new service concept in 1967

Phoebe Snow: The Lady and the Train
By William S. Young
DL&W's 1900s advertising "lady in white" came back as a 1949 streamliner, then was revived by Erie Lackawanna

From RS3s to C420s
By Richard W. Jahn
Little Lehigh & Hudson River bought the first examples of a distinctive Alco second-generation model

Photo Section
Milwaukee 4-6-4; Western logging steam, in color; Texas 4-4-0s in the '40s and '50s

Bird's-Eye View: Portland, Ore., Under Water in 1948
By Peter A. Keller
A May '48 Columbia River flood also rose the Willamette around Union Station

Ingles Color Classics: By Railfans, for Railfans
By J. David Ingles
High on my "favorite steam excursions" list is a 1961 weekend in western Illinois behind CB&Q 2-8-2 4960

What's in a Photograph? Narrow-gauge Mikados at Antonito, Colo.
By Jerry A. Pinkepank
Denver & Rio Grande Western engines of two classes meet on dual-gauge track, February 2, 1958

2 Hours on Raton: My Most Exciting Morning
By Bruce F. Wilson
A teen talks his family into a lengthy overnight stop in July 1948
Reading, writing, railroading
 
By John Roskoski
In a remote depot on SP's Coast Line, a husband and wife moved trains and taught school to the sectionmen's kids

On Riding the "Saint J. & L.C."
By Roy Kiggins
Spartan beauty and gritty perseverance marked this legendary cross-Vermont line