The big picture

  A westbound Union Pacific manifest freight works its way toward Los Angeles in October 2013 in the “Blue Cut” section of California’s famed Cajon Pass. With the lead locomotives a mile away in the distance, you gain a better perspective of magnitude of the San Gabriel Mountains and the challenges railroads overcame more than […]

Read More…

NS unveils latest rebuilt AC44C6M, new paint scheme NEWSWIRE

4004

NS AC44C6M No. 4004 at the Juniata Shops in Altoona, Pa. Norfolk Southern Corp. ALTOONA, Pa. — Norfolk Southern’s latest DC to AC conversion locomotive has been released from the railroad’s Juniata shops in Altoona in a paint scheme slightly different than previous rebuilds. NS AC44C6M No. 4004 is part of the railroad’s DC to […]

Read More…

Relics

  A westbound Napoleon, Defiance & Western train crosses a short trestle over a country road near Antwerp, Ohio, on Oct. 17, 2014. Photo by Brian Schmidt […]

Read More…

Stadler wins big contract for Caltrain bilevel EMUs NEWSWIRE

Red and white Caltrain at station.

A recent photograph of a Swiss-built Stadler bilevel EMU that the rail supplier will begin making for Caltrain commuter rail services. Stadler U.S. Swiss railcar building Stadler says it received the contract to design and manufacture 16 six-car KISS bilevel electric multiple-unit trains for Caltrain in California. The contract, with an option for an additional […]

Read More…

Vertical crossing signals

TRNAT0814_02

A less common crossing signal warned motorists of oncoming trains by blinking “stop.” Kevin King Q As a child in the 1950s and 1960s, I saw a number of railroad grade crossings on the Wabash that were protected by a row of vertical lights on the signal mast in addition to the standard red alternating […]

Read More…

BIG BOY WORK BEGINS NEWSWIRE

4014move

Union Pacific 4-8-4 No. 844 acts as a shop switcher to place 4-8-8-4 No. 4014 on a turntable at the railroad’s Cheyenne, Wyo., shops in July. Hayley Enoch CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Two weeks after Union Pacific 4-8-4 No. 844’s successful excursion for the 2016 Cheyenne Frontier Days, the railroad says that the Heritage Operations team […]

Read More…

Lancaster & Chester receives new six-axle power NEWSWIRE

SixAxlelnc

A new mother-slug combination arrives at South Carolina’s Lancaster & Chester Railroad recently. David B. Clarke New power recently arrived on the Lancaster & Chester in Chester, S.C., with fresh blue paint. The mother-slug combination is the first six-axle power the railroad has ever received, with the mother being the SD40T-2 (ex-Union Pacific No. 8802, […]

Read More…