In the late 1940s the Pennsylvania Railroad produced a 24-page booklet entitled Modern Power for Today's Trains. The booklet features the railroad's new diesel locomotives, the GG-1 and P-5a electrics, and its most modern or representative steam types — the T-1 and Q-2 duplexes, the S-2 direct-drive turbine, the J-1 2-10-4 and the K-4s 4-6-2. Additional material includes a view of a diesel cab, scenes from the railroad's shops and a page touting its radio-telephone communication system.

My father's small railroadiana collection included a copy of the booklet, probably acquired during our family visit to the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1949. Our copy indicates a printing date of July 1949.

From the images below, select the pages that interest you, or use the navigation buttons to page through the entire booklet. For more interesting viewing, explore the links at left which will take you to our other rail-related web sites.

Dr. Richard Leonard