Through the Selkirk Mountains

Westbound Canadian Pacific train No. 813, led by AC4400CW 8543, exits the west portal of Mount Shaughnessy Tunnel in the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia, on June 9, 2007. This coal train is bound for Roberts Bank in Vancouver, B.C. Mark Jackson photo […]

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Anheuser-Busch route to survive under new operator NEWSWIRE

ST. LOUIS — Anheuser-Busch will continue to receive rail service after its rail subsidiary, the Manufacturers Railway, shuts down. FTRL Railway has won the contract to provide local operation to the brewery. Anheuser-Busch ceased shipping beer by rail last month, leaving Manufacturers only six to seven daily inbound carloads. That wasn’t enough for it to […]

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An Ohio crossroads

Deshler, Ohio, sits at the intersection of two CSX Transportation main lines, its New York-Chicago trunk and its Toledo-Cincinnati route. A Chicago-bound stack train rolls across the diamond on Nov. 11, 2010. Photo by John P. Locke III […]

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Willamette bound

Amtrak train 301, a Seattle-Eugene, Ore., Cascades Service train, kicks up snow as it zips through East Olympia, Wash., on Nov. 23, 2010. F59PH No. 468 is pulling the distinctive Talgo equipment that serves passengers in the corridor. Jeffrey T. Schultz photo […]

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BNSF’s Network Operations Center

Q How does BNSF’s Network Operations Center in Fort Worth, Texas, control BNSF trains when they share tracks with another railroad, such as the route over the Tehachapi Pass? Union Pacific owns the trackage and allows BNSF trackage rights. On average, BNSF sends three trains over the pass to UP’s one. Does the BNSF Operations […]

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History of the Orange Line

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Orange Belt Railway President and GM Peter Demens (far right) stand near No. 7, a National Locomotive Works engine, in Pinellas County, Fla. Donald R. Hensley Jr. collection Q I recently heard about a railroad called the Orange Belt that ran through some of central Florida in the late 19th century. Who owned it? Where […]

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Presenting the past at the Mount Washington Cog Railway

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Engineer J.F. Keating carries workers aboard a flatcar on the 3¼-mile Mount Washington Cog Railway in New Hampshire on June 11, 1946. Today, the Cog runs mostly biodiesel engines. L.B. Herrin When I first visited the Mount Washington Cog Railway in 1980, exactly 30 years before my recent visit, it was an inadvertent museum, complete […]

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The railroads behind today’s U.S. rail trails

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Steve Glischinski Match the initials below to the Map of the Month in the May 2011 issue of Trains Magazine. The three-page foldout map will show you which recreational trails 10 miles or longer in the United States were fashioned from abandoned railroad lines. We mapped 415 trails in all (strung together, they would stretch […]

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New Hampshire’s Mount Washington Cog Railway Locomotive Roster

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Name No. Type Builder Year built Peppersass 1 Campbell, Whittier & Co. – 1866 Mt. Washington 1 0-2-2-0 Manchester Loco. Works 1883 Ammonoosuc 2 0-2-2-0 Manchester Loco. Works 1875 Agiocochook 3 0-2-2-0 Manchester Loco. Works 1883 Chocorua 4 0-2-2-0 Manchester Loco. Works 1883 Kancamagus 6 0-2-2-0 Manchester Loco. Works 1874 Moosilauke 8 0-2-2-0 Mt. Washington […]

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Manufacturers Railway applies to shut down NEWSWIRE

ST. LOUIS — The Manufacturers Railway has asked the federal government for permission to cease service over all its lines. The railroad, which was formed in 1887, handles shipments to and from its owner, Anheuser-Busch.  The company operates two lines: the one-mile “Brewery Line” to Anheuser-Busch, and the 2.6-mile First Street line, which historically served […]

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