Although Marias Pass is among the lowest railroad crossings of the Continental Divide in the United States at 5,213 feet, nothing is small about BNSF Railway’s route through northwest Montana. Built by James J. Hill’s Great Northern Railway in the 1890s, the line across Marias Pass remains a critical transcontinental route to the Pacific Northwest […]
California is known throughout the country for its passenger trains — and its traffic jams. The city of Martinez is the perfect location to get away for a day on Amtrak, with 42 daily passenger trains scheduled to stop on weekdays. Those trains connect Martinez to Oakland, Sacramento, Stockton, Fresno, and many other cities within […]
In Redding, Calif., California Highway 273 (old Hwy. 99) lets you follow the action on Union Pacific Railroad’s north-south I-5 corridor. The former Southern Pacific main line through the area is now part of UP’s Valley Subdivision, from Dunsmuir at milepost 321.4 to East Roseville at milepost 106.4. Photographers will love the climate: Redding has […]
Today’s Roosevelt Road is a wonderful place to watch passenger trains. More than 1,000 trains a day from Amtrak, Chicago Transit Authority, Metra, and South Shore cross the busy thoroughfare. The area provides a safe venue for watching and photographing trains in an urban environment. TRAIN WATCHING Roosevelt Road offers overhead views of three rail […]
Hamlet, N.C., sits at a critical CSX junction, the hub of the former Seaboard Air Line Railway. To the north runs the Aberdeen Subdivision to Raleigh. (The stub-ended route continues north to Norlina, and once went to Petersburg, Va.) The Hamlet Subdivision extends south toward Columbia, S.C., and beyond to Charleston, S.C., and Florida. The […]
Located 45 miles southwest of the Chicago Loop, Joliet is a city of 147,000, the fourth largest in Illinois. Just as much of the former Santa Fe Railway accompanies the former Route 66 across the Southwest, the two pair up briefly in Joliet — now as BNSF Railway and Illinois Route 53. TRAIN WATCHING For […]
La Crosse, Wis., is a city of 51,000 people located about 150 miles southeast of Minneapolis, Minn. The city was once home to the G. Heileman Brewing Co., maker of Old Style beer. For a city its size, there is a remarkable variety of railroading, with scenery to boot. Train-watchers frequently see motive power of […]
About 20 miles east of Tucson, Ariz., is a vastly underrated train-watching location: Cienega Bridge. The bridge carries Union Pacific’s former Southern Pacific Sunset Route over itself and Cienega Creek. The main line is split through this section of the desert, and each main track has its own dedicated right-of-way. In 1880, SP built what […]
Bobby Troup called out Flagstaff, Ariz., in “(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66,” and railfans will too. The city of 65,000 is surrounded by ponderosa pines and flanked by the San Francisco Peaks. At 7,000 feet, Flagstaff offers comfortable summers, snowy winters, and fall colors. The city is home to BNSF’s Seligman Subdivision, part of […]
A location to safely watch trains has opened near Washington, D.C. Arlington County recently opened Long Bridge Park adjacent to control point RO on CSX’s RF&P Subdivision. Arlington is at the south end of CSX’s Long Bridge across the Potomac River. This double track bridge was opened in 1904. The name “RO” comes from the […]
Chicago is still the railroad capital of the country in most people’s opinion. What puts it on top over other cities like Kansas City is the strong passenger-train presence. It’s Amtrak’s midwestern hub (8 routes), and hundreds of Metra commuter trains (11 routes) hustle in and out of the city daily. Much of the railroad […]
Still more Friday morning rail news: Bill seeks to transfer Keystone Line from Amtrak to Pennsylvania Legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this week would require Amtrak to transfer ownership of its Keystone Line between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pa., to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Keystone Line for the Commonwealth Act would […]
