Join Trains Magazine Assistant Editor Brian Schmidt for a day trackside at West Chicago, Ill., in July 2016. We’ll see Canadian National and Union Pacific freight action, along with ubiquitous Metra commuter trains. We’ll also look at JB Tower, which guards the junction of the two freight carriers. […]
A hot-metal “bottle car,” one of three in an Erie train that included eight hopper cars as spacers, passes DeForest Junction, between Youngstown and Warren, Ohio, in 1966. Clifford A. Redanz One of the more interesting aspects of steel-mill railroading were the “hot-metal runs” that moved molten iron from the blast furnaces to the open […]
Spikes are part of a system that keeps rails in service. Redundant numbers of spikes are present in most tracks. Bob Johnston Q During a recent trip to the U.S., I visited rail lines in Chicago used by both freight and passenger trains. I noticed how many spikes are torn out or completely missing in […]
Join Trains for the first run of Georgetown Loop Railroad 2-8-0 No. 111 in October 2016. The locomotive was built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1926 for the International Railway of Central America in El Salvador. […]
FULL SCREEN John Bjorklund, collection of Center for Railroad Photography and Art Santa Fe passenger train No. 1, the westbound ‘San Francisco Chief,’ is seen at Dearborn Station in Chicago in December 1970, just a few months before the creation of Amtrak. FULL SCREEN John Bjorklund, collection of Center for Railroad Photography and Art A […]
Join Trains for a look at the final weekend of operations on Florida’s Orange Blossom Cannonball steam train. You’ll see Baldwin-built 2-6-0 No. 2 on the final runs in January 2017. […]
An ongoing chase into Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Range leads Charlie Conway to various mountain canyons. That’s where he discovers Union Pacific freight, long-distance Amtrak trains, and snow-covered roads winding along the Colorado River. […]
What’s a guy to do on New Year’s Eve when the ambient temperature is -22˚F? Chase Amtrak long-distance trains into the Rocky Mountains, of course! Naturally, Charlie Conway’s effort was rewarded with picture-perfect postcard scenery, dashing diesels, and roads routing along the Union Pacific right-of-way for his final day in Colorado. […]
1920s-era map of the Springfield Terminal Railway, a coal-hauling short line northeast of Springfield, Ill., covered in Spring 2017 Classic Trains. […]
A Canadian National worker moves a car using a pole on the pilot of CN No. 6310 in 1958. Gordon B. Mott, Louis A. Marre collection Q When did railroads stop using poling pockets seen at all four corners of freight cars and engines? – John Bronn, Eagle, Alaska A Poling was the once common […]
Take a look inside the Fort Wayne, Ind., hub of Norfolk Southern subsidiary Triple Crown Services. You’ll see a variety of motive power with this unique RoadRailer freight equipment that is now largely retired. Only from Trains Magazine! For another look at the Triple Crown RoadRailer trains, check out our Norfolk Southern’s Fostoria District video. […]
OROVILLE, Calif. — Observers are watching for what will happen next with the Oroville Dam, one of the largest earthen dams in North America. Few know that the dam is also a great railroad story, one that was captured on video in the 1960s and in the pages of Trains in January 1966. Download Donald […]
