INDIANAPOLIS — After a pandemic cancellation in 2020 and a modified form of operation in 2021, the Indiana Rail Road’s Santa Train returns to its traditional format this weekend, making 12 stops over three days Friday through Sunday, Dec. 2-4. The train’s stops will offer guests the chance to visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus, […]
Missouri-Kansas-Texas logo underwent subtle changes throughout the railroad’s history. But its origin is more interesting than these iterative changes. In his history of the Katy, J. Parker Lamb mentions the different incarnations of Katy’s corporate herald over the years, but where did the road’s uniquely shaped emblem come from? According to Freeman Hubbard in his […]
The biggest steam switcher stood head and shoulders above the rest. In the steam era, switch engines came in basically three sizes: 0-4-0, 0-6-0, and 0-8-0. They ranged from diminutive shop switchers — typically 0-4-0s, pretty much a pre-1900 machine — to huge switchers such as Indiana Harbor Belt’s three U-4a class 0-8-0s […]
The small east-central Illinois town of Tuscola hosted an at-grade crossing of three railroads: Illinois Central (double-track, now Canadian National), Baltimore & Ohio (lower left, now CSX), and Chicago & Eastern Illinois (lower right, now UP). Gordon E. Lloyd photo […]
The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad is perhaps best summed up by two words: deterioration and reconstruction. Seldom has a railroad managed to survive the number of disasters, both natural and contrived, that befell the Katy. Its 1865 charter was for the Union Pacific Southern Branch. Although it connected with the Kansas Pacific (merged by UP in 1880) […]
Missouri-Kansas-Texas locomotives were modernized under the watch of President Matthew Sloan in the 1930s. They were mostly built before World War I, with higher boiler pressures and superheaters. As a light-rail granger road set in mostly prairie country, Katy needed only modernized engines. Premier mainline power was 154 Mikados and 62 Pacifies, with yard work […]
PORTER, Ind. — The agency overseeing South Shore Line commuter rail operation has approved a contract for engineering work to relocate the rail terminal at the South Bend International Airport, as well as design a new rail route into the airport. The Times of Northwest Indiana reports that the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, at […]
CHICAGO — Commuter operator Metra will add 18 trains — nine inbound and nine outbound — to its Union Pacific-West schedule on Monday, Dec., 5 while also adjusting to a “memory schedule” offering more consistent arrival and departure times in off-peak periods. Metra will make minor changes to its UP North schedule on the same […]
Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Alco PA No. 292 leads local train 11 to St. Louis across PRR’s Chicago River drawbridge and onto home rails at 21st Street, Chicago, in October 1950. This unit powered the 1947 Freedom Train, evidenced by the plaque just ahead of the ladder to the cab. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]
The Lionel Legacy ES44AC has returned quickly the train-maker’s catalog with new road names. It seems that when tooling sells well, we’ll certainly see it again sooner rather than later. Judging by the model’s re-issue for 2022 after being last offered 2019, it can be assumed that they are popular with collectors of modern motive […]
FORT WAYNE, Ind. — The Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society has acquired a Canadian Pacific Park-series dome-lounge-observation car built in 1954 for use in excursion service. While plans are for the car to undergo an extensive restoration, it will initially enter service as part of the society’s Indiana Rail Experience program on the Indiana Northeastern […]
CINCINNATI — Norfolk Southern has agreed to purchase the assets of the Cincinnati Southern Railway, the municipally owned railroad that forms the 336-mile Chattanooga-Cincinnati backbone of NS’s key corridor linking Chicago with Atlanta and the Southeast. Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, the municipal railway board, and NS today announced the proposed sale of the Cincinnati Southern […]
