This coal hopper, seen in Butler, Wis., has a main body built from aluminum and a center sill made of steel. Freight-car makers use non-conductive materials to separate the metals and prevent galvanic corrosion. Steve Sweeney Q There are aluminum-body Talgos and aluminum-body coal cars, both with steel center sills. High school chemistry teaches that […]
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A special Brightline train is set to complete its more than 3,000-mile journey from California to south Florida this week. The train was on Florida East Coast rails for the first time today in Jacksonville, Fla., with FEC milepost 0 immediately behind the train. Eric Hendrickson JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The first new trainset for a […]
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Chicago is still the North American railroad capital, and Trains Magazine takes you there with this all-new DVD production. You’ll see heavy freights, fast passenger runs, and the transit system that takes a major city to work. Be sure to check out the companion issue: Chicago, America’s Railroad Capital. Both are available in January! […]
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Trains Magazine Assistant Editor Brian Schmidt takes you along for a look at the North Shore Scenic Railroad‘s operations in September 2016. The railroad, part of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum, operates excursion trains on its line between Duluth and Two Harbors, Minn., with historic equipment from the Upper Midwest’s fallen flags. You’ll see Duluth, […]
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It was an act of sheer audacity that made Baltimore the cradle of American railroading. Baltimore’s topography of hills broken by short, steep valleys was exactly wrong for a canal, and the city’s outlet to the west, the National Road, was expensive and slow. So city leaders proposed a railroad, the Baltimore & Ohio, to […]
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Santa Fe management ordered 23 GP60B units in 1991 for road service. Today, these four-axle veterans still ply BNSF Railway rails, but mostly on local jobs. Bob Miller Q I was watching railroad videos of the 1990s and saw locomotives without cabs in various consists. I rarely see these units on the main lines of […]
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The Metroliners: Trains that changed the course of American rail travel By Bruce Goldberg and David C. Warner White River Productions, P.O. Box 48, Bucklin, MO 64631; 124 pages, hardcover, 8 ½ x 11 inches; $59.95 shop.whiteriverproductions.com Recounting the history of the Northeast Corridor’s first premium service in a breezy narrative that knows what to […]
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Former Southern Pacific Budd rail diesel car SP-10 on a flat car in Texas on Nov. 17. RDC SP-10 Facebook page GALVESTON, Texas —Somewhere in the West this Thanksgiving, there is a Southern Pacific Budd rail diesel car on its way home. RDC SP-10 began the long journey from the Galveston Railroad Museum back to […]
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Viewliner II dining car Annapolis deadheads on the rear of the southbound Silver Meteor at Kissimmee, Fla., on Nov. 18. Scott A. Hartley MIAMI — Amtrak employees will soon train in the newest dining cars on the continent now that the first of 25 new Viewliner II dining cars has arrived at Amtrak’s Hialeah Maintenance […]
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Come along with Trains Magazine Editor Jim Wrinn as we look at this gem of the Music City. Nashville Union Station is a luxury boutique hotel in the heart of the city’s historic downtown. It’s also a magnificent railroad preservation project, and an excellent place to watch action on the adjacent CSX Transportation main line! […]
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