Mileposts - Classic Trains Magazine - Railroad History, Vintage Train Videos, Steam Locomotives, Forums

4

Riding the cab of Clinchfield 800

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

Amid all the sound and fury over what CSX is doing these days under E. Hunter Harrison, it was nice this week to see the railroad make some positive news, and for the most positive of reasons. On Monday, the railroad unveiled Clinchfield F7 No. 800, fully restored to its original 1948 appearance by shop forces in Huntington, W.Va. The beautiful, fully operational F unit, gleaming in its original gray-and-yellow livery, will be on the head end of CSX’s annual Santa Train on November 18 whe...

6

Fifty years of the Palmdale cutoff

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

A random search the other day through back issues of Trains magazine brought me up short. There, on page 8 of the October 1967 issue, was a photo of Southern Pacific SD40 No. 8478, about to punch through a banner at Palmdale, Calif., heralding the opening of the brand new Colton-Palmdale Cutoff, a shortcut around Los Angeles via Cajon Pass. Fifty years! It’s a bit hard to believe. I can remember when news coverage of the opening was proof that at least some railroads could embrace the fut...

9

Richard J. Cook made powerful photographs

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

A few days ago I was spending some time in the Classic Trains library, leafing through some folders in the photo archives, when an old familiar name, stamped on the back in customary red italic, jumped out at me: Richard J. Cook. Dick Cook! He’s one of my all-time favorites, in my opinion a major figure in the world of postwar railroad photography. Although perhaps not as famous as Phil Hastings or Jim Shaughnessy or Dick Steinheimer or some others in the pantheon, Cook was a craftsman wh...

11

Izaak Walton Inn lives up to its reputation

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

What makes a great railfan hotel? It seems to me the criteria should be pretty simple. After checking off things like creature comforts, cleanliness, and good food — the basics about which there should be little debate — you’re basically left with one question: are there lots of trains, and are they easily seen, felt, and heard? I can think of a lot of places that basically qualify. One of my favorites is La Posada, the beautiful Fred Harvey remake in Winslow, Ariz., hard by t...

5

Bringing light back to Chicago Union Station

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

Chicago likes to brag about its architectural heritage, and for good reason. The city nurtured some of the greats, among them Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, Daniel Burnham, and, in the postwar era, the powerful international firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (think “Sears Tower”). Chicago’s great buildings — from the Monadnock Building to the Auditorium Theater to Tribune Tower to Wright’s Oak Park homes — are staples of its popular architectural to...

9

Great Northern 2584 and those flying pumps

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

The Amtrak depot at Havre, Mont., isn’t known for its charms — the building it shares with BNSF is a long, rudimentary brick box. But Empire Builder passengers taking a fresh-air break should spend a few minutes at the west end of the station, where they’ll find something more interesting — a thoroughbred horse with the face of a bulldog. The thoroughbred is Great Northern 4-8-4 No. 2584, built in 1930, a beautiful example of front-line steam power that still had one foo...

7

What Jerry Joe gave us

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

Jerry Joe Jacobson was like some kind of magical railroad elf, sprinkling fairy dust on all kinds of railroad people, especially those of the steam persuasion. That includes me. Jerry Joe, the one-time Ohio shortline magnate and sponsor of the incredible Age of Steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek, died last week at age 74 after a long illness. Although his passing was not a surprise, it still stung a lot of people, and tributes have been pouring in all over social media. Steam locomotive owners and...

13

Steinheimer, Peggy Lee, and one photograph’s backstory

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

The photograph by Richard Steinheimer is typically masterful. A stout, resolute woman, the Midland Continental Railroad’s agent at Millarton, N.Dak., stands firmly on the station platform. Her gaze is fixed on some point across a frozen, barren horizon. She projects a defiant air — a tough old railroader who can take anything the Dakota prairie can dish out. It’s an iconic image, to be sure, the kind of photograph Stein made all the time. It appeared in print at least twice, o...

6

Harvey echoes the Great Flood of 1927

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

The impact of flooding from Tropical Storm Harvey in southeast Texas and western Louisiana will be felt for months and years. The toll in human lives and injuries, the damage to homes and infrastructure, the threat to the environment — all seem beyond assessment. Simply put, Harvey was a devastating calamity. Less appalling perhaps, but no less painful to its dependents, is the damage to railroading in the region. BNSF suspended all service in and out of Houston. Union Pacific closed 500 ...

14

Reviving the legend of the South Park

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

Thanks to the magical world of the narrow gauge, Colorado might be the capital of railroading’s romantic lost causes. One of the most beloved was the Denver, South Park & Pacific, a railroad as quaint as its corporate name was overly ambitious. Organized in 1872 and championed by then Colorado territorial Gov. John Evans (Colorado became a state in 1876), the DSP&P reached southwesterly from Denver, climbing the Platte River canyon to the high plain known as South Park at Como, wh...

4

I’m pulling for Chesapeake & Ohio 1309

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

Of all the strange plot twists in the story of steam’s final years, one of my favorites is the Chesapeake & Ohio’s decision in 1948 to buy 2-6-6-2s from Baldwin to shore up its operations in West Virginia coal country. Think about that for a moment. That year, most American railroads were buying vast quantities of new diesels from Electro-Motive, Alco, and other manufacturers. Steam was clearly on the way out, no matter how well a New York Central poppet-valve Niagara or Norfolk...

6

Jim Shaughnessy: still the master

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

Although I got to know him well only fairly recently, my admiration for master photographer Jim Shaughnessy goes back 52 years, to the very first issue of my very first subscription to Trains magazine. That would be November 1965, the memorable 25th anniversary edition of the magazine, in which Editor David P. Morgan reviewed a quarter-century of railroading in a series of short essays, each accompanied by the work of some of the finest photographers of the era. One picture in particular caugh...

6

For a moment, GCT again means “intercity”

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

One of the most interesting bits of news to come out of the Northeast this summer is the temporary reassignment of some New York–Albany/Rensselaer Empire Service trains to Grand Central Terminal while Amtrak performs critical track work at Penn Station Suddenly, if briefly, you can board a passenger train from the hallowed, subterranean platforms of GCT and actually stay on the same train beyond Poughkeepsie. Somewhere the ghosts of William White and Lucius Beebe are smiling. The m...

4

Erie’s memorable machines

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

I’d visited a number of big railroad facilities by the time I first set eyes on General Electric’s sprawling factory complex in Erie, Pa., in the late 1990s, but I was still awestruck by the view driving along E. Lake Road in the city’s Lawrence Park neighborhood. There, spread over hundreds of acres, were more than 20 separate buildings, some of them gigantic, all linked in various ways for the singular purpose of building locomotives. It’s what I imagined Baldwin in Ed...

11

Twelve wheels are better than eight

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

Anyone who’s had the chance to ride at the back of an open-platform observation car knows there’s nothing like it. I don’t get to enjoy it very often, but when I do I relish that sensation of well-being as I watch the track unspool behind me. It’s hard to describe, yet the experience is hypnotic. That goes double when the clattering sounds you hear beneath your feet are the muffled, rhythmic triplets of a 12-wheel heavyweight car. I felt that familiar rush last weekend ...

6

Beertown made railroad passenger cars, too

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

Last week I had the chance to witness something that doesn’t happen much in Milwaukee anymore: a railroad industry press conference. Sixty years ago, that wouldn’t have been big news. In mid-century, the brewing capital was home to one of the largest railroad complexes in the U.S., the Milwaukee Road’s West Milwaukee shops. The city also was the backdrop for one of the fiercest passenger-train rivalries in history, that of the Milwaukee’s Hiawathas and the Chic...

2

Bill Withuhn: An appreciation

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

In November 2009, author Pete Hansen wrote a profile of Smithsonian transportation curator William L. Withuhn for Trains magazine. It was a sprawling story about a sprawling career, suitably titled “The Indispensable Man.” Quite a claim to make about someone, but in the case of Bill Withuhn, it fit. There were so many things to call him: historian, museum professional, locomotive engineer, dealmaker, bureaucrat, journalist. He was a supreme multi-tasker long before it became an ever...

13

Unfinished business on my list of sacred places

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to stand in famous places. Some of that came from my parents, who loved to do “heritage tourism” long before the term was invented. Within the tight limits of a family budget of the early 1960s, the six of us got to see Independence Hall, Gettysburg, Fort Niagara, and a few more notable spots in the East. I began to dream about railroad places around 1961, when I was 10. One day my mother returned from the library with a little book s...

6

Abbey saved some of his best for the Santa Fe

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

Of all the truly great railroad photographers of the 1950s and ’60s, none was more versatile, in my mind, than Wallace W. Abbey. “Multi-faceted” doesn’t begin to describe the man. At one time or another Wally was a newspaper reporter, railroad HQ file clerk, magazine editor, diesel mechanic’s helper, interlocking tower operator, railroad public relations executive, and probably one or two I’m missing. For those who need an introduction, Wally, who died in 20...

6

Fred Frailey rediscovers his roots

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

My good friend Fred Frailey probably won’t be offended if I say he’s my second-favorite railroad writer. That’s because his No. 1 is the same as mine: David P. Morgan, of course, the longtime editor of Trains. As Fred has often said (and I’m proud to repeat), “I graduated from the David P. Morgan School of Journalism.” But I’m being honest when I say Fred is a close second. The man is that good. As a railroad writer, he’s a stylist in the manner o...

11

Big Sky Blue and the cool school of design

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

With the release last week of a new 50th-anniversary boxed set of The Beatles’ monumental Sgt. Pepper album, it seems everyone is talking about the summer of 1967. Me too. I had just turned 16 that June, so the “Summer of Love,” as it came to be known, was memorable, mostly for girls and music. I remember we played the grooves off Sgt. Pepper, not to mention the debut albums of Jimi Hendrix and the Doors. When I wasn’t stocking grocery shelves at Tony’s Market, I t...

9

NYC 2933’s fresh look is more than just a paint job

Posted 6 years ago by Kevin Keefe

Of all the Class I railroads that got rid of nearly every steam locomotive in the 1950s, perhaps none attracted as much vitriol as the New York Central. The Central fielded not only an expansive roster (more than 3,600 engines at the end of World War II), it also boasted what many would consider the most famous of all locomotives, the J-class 4-6-4 Hudson. That every last one of these thoroughbred machines was reduced to scrap has, for some, meant a special place in preservation hell for NYC an...

12

10 very special steam fantrips

Posted 7 years ago by Kevin Keefe

It’s been a good spring for mainline steam, what with early performances already by Norfolk & Western 611, Union Pacific 844, and Milwaukee Road 261. There’s much more to come this summer. The staff over at Trains is marking the season with Big Steam is Back, a new special-edition magazine and companion video. All this excitement has got me in a nostalgic mood, thinking about a lot of trips I took over the last 40 years when “big steam was back” the first or second o...

13

PRR 4935, the first true heritage unit

Posted 7 years ago by Kevin Keefe

Everybody started pinching themselves several years ago when “heritage units,” resplendent in long-retired paint schemes, began arriving from the shops of Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, and Amtrak. Nothing draws photographers to trackside like word that the NS “Wabash” unit or the UP “Katy” diesel is in town. It’s been an amazing gesture by all three railroads. UP fielded six Commemorative Locomotives, of them all SD70ACe units, painted in liveries ho...

2

St. Paul Union Depot: a big-city station done right

Posted 7 years ago by Kevin Keefe

It’s an understatement to say that big American cities have a mixed record when it comes to finding new uses for their grand train stations. If anything good happens, the emphasis usually is on mere preservation and not transportation. Some of our best historic terminals have found new life as commercial or cultural institutions. Three of the best examples are Kansas City, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati, all of which have found new missions as commercial properties and museums, even as they...

8

Reboot for a classic ‘California Zephyr’ book

Posted 7 years ago by Kevin Keefe

You know a train is great when it gets the spotlight in a single-subject, hardcover book. Not many name trains from the classic era have such status. New York Central’s Twentieth Century Limited earned it, of course, twice. Santa Fe’s Super Chief comes to mind. There are a few others. Then there’s the California Zephyr, that svelte, stainless-steel domeliner that made a glittering splash in the postwar streamliner era. The CZ got its first full-dress book in 1975 with Karl Zim...

2

When a new locomotive comes to town

Posted 7 years ago by Kevin Keefe

Last week I found myself driving down Milwaukee’s lakefront to participate in a rite that goes back at least 80 years: the introduction of a new passenger locomotive at the downtown depot. The city was oblivious, however. There were no news reporters at the station, no politicians, no high-ranking railroad officials. Just me, my friend Craig Willett (a retired Amtrak engineer), a few current Amtrak employees, and a sparkling new example of the latest in motive power, gleaming in the soft ...

13

'Tornado' and the magic of high-speed steam

Posted 7 years ago by Kevin Keefe

Last week the steam preservation world was abuzz with the news that Britain’s ultimate steam star — A1-class 4-6-2 Tornado — had reached 100 mph on April 12 in a special trial run between Doncaster and Newcastle on the East Coast Main Line. The news was sensational on both sides of the Atlantic, where hitting the “century mark” is seen as an almost magical feat for a steam locomotive. That fascination goes back to the late 19th century, and judging from the reactio...

6

Getting wistful about Atlanta & West Point 290

Posted 7 years ago by Kevin Keefe

It’s shaping up to be a good year for mainline steam locomotives. This month, Union Pacific 4-8-4 No. 844 is back in action. Just this past weekend, Norfolk Southern drew crowds again with Norfolk & Western 4-8-4 No. 611. Nickel Plate 2-8-4 No. 765 and Milwaukee Road 4-8-4 No. 261 both have trips scheduled for summer. Perhaps best of all, Western Maryland Scenic plans to unveil fully restored Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-2 No. 1309 later in the summer. Are we back to the go-go 1990s? I...

4

Fifty years of the NTSB

Posted 7 years ago by Kevin Keefe

In a season when everyone, it seems, has a problem with some aspect of the U.S. government, it might seem foolhardy to hold up a federal agency as an object of near-unanimous respect, even admiration. But I’m going to do that anyway, because this week marks the 50th anniversary of the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB opened for business on April 1, 1967, after years of preparation by legions of politicians, bureaucrats, and transportation professionals, all with a goal of cr...

Riding the cab of Clinchfield 800

Fifty years of the Palmdale cutoff

Richard J. Cook made powerful photographs

Izaak Walton Inn lives up to its reputation

Bringing light back to Chicago Union Station

Great Northern 2584 and those flying pumps

What Jerry Joe gave us

Steinheimer, Peggy Lee, and one photograph’s backstory

Harvey echoes the Great Flood of 1927

Reviving the legend of the South Park

I’m pulling for Chesapeake & Ohio 1309

Jim Shaughnessy: still the master

For a moment, GCT again means “intercity”

Erie’s memorable machines

Twelve wheels are better than eight

Beertown made railroad passenger cars, too

Bill Withuhn: An appreciation

Unfinished business on my list of sacred places

Abbey saved some of his best for the Santa Fe

Fred Frailey rediscovers his roots

Big Sky Blue and the cool school of design

NYC 2933’s fresh look is more than just a paint job

10 very special steam fantrips

PRR 4935, the first true heritage unit

St. Paul Union Depot: a big-city station done right

Reboot for a classic ‘California Zephyr’ book

When a new locomotive comes to town

'Tornado' and the magic of high-speed steam

Getting wistful about Atlanta & West Point 290

Fifty years of the NTSB

SUBSCRIBER & MEMBER LOGIN

Recent Posts

FREE NEWSLETTER SIGNUP