Dec 1958 SOO what makes it run so fast. pretty much have every issue from then on. I am retired Soo/CP employee. Use to help unload cream in Bismarck that went over to the Mandan creamry.
Herdebu
April 1971[:D] older than Amtrak!
Speaking of older than Amtrak, I rode the last eastbound City of LA, and then rode sleepercoach on Amtrak’s Broadway to NY, probably the second night of that operation.
My oldest issue is a January 1985 issue about Conrail titled: Still the world’s busiest mountain railroad. And it is STILL one of my favorite Train’s magazines, only second behind Conrail: Mission Accomplished (Train’s farewell to Conrail in 1999).
Mine is the June 1961 issue, with a then fairly rare color cover of an East Broad Top locomotive; the story was “Where to ride behind steam this summer!” And in those days, the answer was “hardly anywhere, really.” We may miss main-line steam excursions, but overall we are still way better off than we were then.
I just happened across the mag at a local hobby store, and all of a sudden it hit me - I was 8 - that apparently I was a rail fan.
By the way, I have searched long and hard for the SECOND issue I once had. I guess it would be July 1961. The cover story was on the Milwaukee Road’s Pioneer Ltd. If anyone here could put me in the way of a replacement copy, I’d be grateful.
Larry
It is listed at $4.00 at www.railpub.com
I don’t know anything about this company, they look okay.
Complete set, including the promotional “Vol. 1, No. 0” referenced above. And unlike most folks who could claim that, mine are all over helter-skelter, as opposed to neatly bindered in order. Also have a complete set of Railfan/R&R, complete Locomotive & Railway Preservation, and near-complete Passenger Train Journal, as well as most of Railpace’s production.
The Maryland Rail Heritage Library at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum has complete sets of all the above plus far more, such as Rails Northeast, Model Railroader, etc.
Now let’s try for old. Britain’s Railway Magazine has been in production since 1896–and complete sets turn up there, bindered, for five-figure prices in US dollars! I have several copies of that magazine from the 1910s and 1920s. The oldest I have laid hands on, however, is Railway Times, an “industry newspaper” that the MRHL has in bound volumes dating back to 1839!
I have issues going back to 1948, but I have a solid set from 1958 until today. The first issue of Trains that I bought new was October 1974.
I have them all, starting with the Special Preview edition (Vol 1 No.0), which was only 12 pages in length and cost a quarter. (I paid $35 for it over 20 years ago.) I had them custom bound up thru 1984, but since then, I’ve not been able to find a binder, and have just let them accumulate in plastic storage bins. I want to have them all bound because I envision using them like a set of encyclopedias for reference, since they basically tell the story of America’s railroads photographically, and in great detail.
November 1947 is my oldest issue. I did not start collecting Trains until late 1969 and anything older than that was either a gift or something I have found at a train show. Roy Scoby of Peoria, Illinois gave me his Trains collection dating from late 1947 to 1953. That really got me started on the older issues.
some 1969 issue featuring classic rail ads.
July 1980. Very good report on Rock Island dispatching. Have only missed one issue in 25 yrs.
August, 1969. Just wondering, is there anyone out there with a “lifetime” subscription to Trains? Seems to me that some of the older issues came with that information printed with the publishing info.