Previews
Previews from the pages of the all new Railroads Illustrated Annual! Get inspired by 100 pages of creative railroad photography from yesterday and today.
November 29, 2017
Triumphant Return to Tehachapi
Shared by Union Pacific and BNSF Railway, California’s Tehachapi Loop still holds fascination for generations of railroad photographers. Steve Jessup returns to his home turf to explore the famous mountain crossing.
February 17, 2017
Of Late, I Think of Loyall
The hospitality that we received that cold, dreary February day in 1991 set the stage for a long love affair with Loyall and a long relationship with many of the men who worked there.
December 9, 2016
Stockton’s Street Runners
Much of Stockton’s local flavor is attributed to the short lines. Their routes, laid out more than a century ago, slice and dice their way through neighborhoods, using alleyways, private rights-of-way, city roads, and residential streets to reach their destinations.
November 17, 2016
Growing Up in Coal Country
My earliest railfan memories are of seeing endless coal trains rolling over former Norfolk & Western and Virginian trackage. Growing up, I spent most of my time close to home along Norfolk Southern’s Christiansburg District between Roanoke, Va., and Bluefield, W.Va. Back in the early 2000s, it was nothing for my dad and me to see 10 to 15 trains climbing Christiansburg Mountain in a single afternoon.
October 10, 2016
Western Canada Odyssey
Following a frigid and snowy winter in Northern Virginia, my wife Teresa and I decided to take a much-needed vacation in May 2015 to an intriguing destination to enjoy some spectacular scenery, wildlife viewing, and of course, lots of rail photography. After exploring several options, we decided to head to western Canada, taking VIA Rail’s outstanding Canadian from Toronto.
September 25, 2016
Northern Alco Adventure
In 2001 Cartier had ordered 12 new General Electric AC4400CW locomotives for delivery the following spring. I elected to make the pilgrimage to remote northeastern Canada to shoot the mining firm’s 21 large six-axle Montreal Locomotive Works M636 models, three Alco C636 units, and a lone C630.
August 29, 2016
Riding Mixed Trains in the Southwest
What does the phrase “mixed train” bring to mind? Perhaps a small locomotive, a few boxcars, and an old wooden coach? In the 1960s and 1970s, I rode some mixed trains that did not quite fit that image.
February 25, 2016
CSX Peninsula Subdivision
Change is present in every facet of our lives; it is inevitable. When I received new assignment at Langley AFB in Hampton, Va., it gave me the chance to discover CSX’s Peninsula Subdivision, its coal heritage, and some changes the railroad endured itself. From a native Westerner, I found what was most impressive of all was the subdivision’s coal prowess. That prowess dates back to the railway’s inception nearly 134 years ago.
January 11, 2016
Southern Ontario’s F-Unit Revival
In 2012, news quickly spread that Ontario Southland Railway had picked up a former VIA Rail FP9 and planned to put it in service. As if the news couldn’t get any better, word came a year later that another pair of long-retired FP9s had arrived on the property. OSR’s shops have done a lot of painstaking work to get the “three amigos” operational again, including searching for many hard-to-locate parts.
October 30, 2015
Seaboard System: Not a Temporary Railroad
My discontent with Seaboard System came from the fact it erased some familiar railroad names that had been a part of my younger life, particularly Louisville & Nashville and the Clinchfield…
