Canadian Pacific’s predecessors

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Some men go to war for their country. Others build railroads. In both ventures, there is sacrifice, struggle, and honor. The driving of the Canadian Pacific’s final spike at Craigellachie, B.C., in 1885 marked a defining moment in Canada’s transformation from a vast swath of land into a nation — a political and economic engine […]

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First Southern Pacific SD45 gets makeover at Utah museum NEWSWIRE

FULL SCREEN Chris Fussell FULL SCREEN Chris Fussell FULL SCREEN Chris Fussell FULL SCREEN Chris Fussell FULL SCREEN Chris Fussell FULL SCREEN Chris Fussell OGDEN, Utah – The first Southern Pacific SD45 built is getting a facelift at the Utah State Railroad Museum. Volunteers there have recently started installing SP’s unique light kit on the […]

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Super Bowl Sunday on the Santa Fe

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At frosty Higgins, Texas, on the Santa Fe, author Metzger’s crane parts sit sidetracked as SD40-2s pass with a freight. Bill Metzger While my hometown Pittsburgh Steelers were playing the Seattle Seahawks in the 2007 Super Bowl, I got to thinking about where I was the last time the Steelers won football’s biggest game. It […]

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A hard way to make a living

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Illinois Central 2-8-2 Mikado 1544 is eastbound at Villa Park, Ill., on a cold day in 1951. Henry M. Stange Some years ago, after a reunion of my old 10th Engineer Battalion at Springfield, Ill., I boarded Amtrak’s Statehouse for Chicago. I’d never ridden the former Chicago & Alton before, but I was eager to […]

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Mixed train through the muskeg

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Near Conklin, Alberta, NAR mixed train 77 ambles toward Fort McMurray on June 26, 1972, the second day of author Armstrong’s four-day adventure. James B. Armstrong At 5 o’clock every Sunday and Wednesday evening, mixed train No. 75 would trundle slowly out of Dunvegan Yards (Edmonton), headquarters and southern terminus of the Northern Alberta Railways, […]

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Whatever happened to the anthracite roads?

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The Northeast was laced with anthracite roads — those carriers that made a name for themselves hauling hard coal out of the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania. With its high heat value, clean-burning anthracite was far superior to wood for warming homes and offices, and moving this coal by rail fueled the growth of the East’s […]

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Kindnesses on the Omaha Road

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Omaha Road 4-6-2 No. 500 departs Minneapolis with a train for Superior, Wis., in August 1950. Bob Borcherding At nearly 70 years of age, I am still enthralled at the passage of trains. Today’s trains—often featuring high-horsepower diesel locomotives, radio-controlled helpers, rotary-dump coal cars by the unit-trainload, and containers carrying products from halfway around the […]

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Book Review: Rock Island Requiem: The Collapse of a Mighty Fine Line

Rock Island Requiem

Rock Island Requiem: The Collapse of a Mighty Fine Line By Gregory L. Schneider University Press of Kansas, 2502 Westbrooke Cir., Lawrence, KS 66045; 392 pages, 26 photos; hardcover, 6.125 x 9.25 in.; $37.50 This impressive volume chronicles the long, sad decline of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, and illustrates how federal regulation […]

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What kind of day did you have?

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Bystanders inspect a sedan deluged with coke during a derailment of an L&N train in Chattanooga. C. K. Marsh Jr. One day in 1965, a friend and I were searching for the obscure terminal of the Tennessee, Alabama & Georgia Railroad in the Alton Park section of Chattanooga. Coming up on a railroad crossing, we […]

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Designer of Conrail “can opener” logo dies NEWSWIRE

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Conrail-painted Norfolk Southern heritage unit No. 8098. Tom Danneman NEW YORK — Many never knew his name, but that didn’t change the mark he left on the rail industry. Literally. The designer of the famous Conrail “can opener” logo, Tony Palladino, has died at age 84, the New York Times reports. “People don’t want to […]

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