This map has been almost 25 years in coming. As soon as Conrail was formed in 1976, Trains readers began requesting a huge “breakdown” map of Conrail coded to predecessor railroads. The project was too big for the limited resources then available to us. Thanks to Curt Richards, though, we now have a good source […]
Compared here are the world’s most important main lines across the most important freight territory on earth, at a time when railroads were the most important of man’s technologies, 1927. These four main lines were the Trunk Lines, a title originally given to any important main line between two great cities, but later reserved almost […]
The New Haven’s heavy passenger orientation is obvious, especially on the New York-Boston Shore Line. On the electrified West End, torrents of commuters flowed in and out of New York’s Grand Central Terminal. Some intercity runs used GCT too, while a relative handful of trains bound to and from points west of New York used […]
This is a snapshot of traffic across the Continental Divide in 1980 and 2000 on U.S. transcontinental routes. It’s inherent in map-making that accuracy gets sacrificed on the altar of clarity: traffic density is by no means uniform across the shaded line segments, and a slightly different picture would emerge were the snapshots taken in […]
Coal is the No. 1 rail-shipped commodity by tonnage in the U.S., and power plants consume most of it. Three key characteristics shape this map (see June 2002 Trains for the East, and January 2003 for the South): Population is concentrated in cities; most plants are mine-mouth or near the mine; and its most populous […]
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Orange poppies and a beautiful blue sky frame Union Pacific boxcars at Eugene Yard, Ore., in May 2009. Tyler J. Dzierzek photo […]
Bloomer Line GP9 No. 7561 spots grain cars at Cullom, Ill., on Aug. 13, 2007. Though Bloomer operates ex-Illinois Central track, its locomotives are an unmistakable homage to Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. Matt Lastovich photo […]
BNSF 9801 led this coal train through Willow Creek, Ind., on Jan. 1, 2009. DETX 994336 is one of 5,700 coal cars owned by Detroit Edison Co. Kathi Kube It’s easy enough to identify reporting marks for Class I railroads, as well as a multitude of short lines and regionals, but the reporting marks on […]
When the TRAINS staff began preparing its April 2010 report on obscure coal moves in North America, we got more photos than we bargained for. In no particular order, here are five more cool coal moves. Two SD90MACs on lease to Wheeling & Lake Erie lead two run-through Union Pacific diesels on a Powder River […]
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