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CHICAGO — Officials at Chicago’s Metra say it’s time to tackle a topic that many in the rail industry have long considered taboo: death by train. The commuter rail agency, in partnership with Amtrak and Chicago-area safety advocates, sponsored a daylong symposium entitled “Breaking the Silence.” The session Wednesday at Chicago Union Station was intended […]
CHICAGO — A Chicago Transit Authority track worker is recovering after she made contact with the track’s electrified third rail, the Chicago Sun Times reports. The track flagger was holding a metal object near the Wilson station on the agency’s Red and Purple Line when she accidentally touched the third rail, a CTA representative tells […]
Long-time railroader and steam enthusiast Jerry Joe Jacobson died in September 2017. In addition to building a shortline railroad empire, Jacobson is remembered as the man who championed steam excursions, locomotive restoration, and ultimately, the Age of Steam Roundhouse. Join Trains‘ on a look back at a handful of memories from the 1990s and 2000s […]
Long-time railroader and steam enthusiast Jerry Joe Jacobson died in September 2017. In addition to building a shortline railroad empire, Jacobson is remembered as the man who championed steam excursions, locomotive restoration, and ultimately, the Age of Steam Roundhouse. Join Trains‘ on a look back at a handful of memories from the 1990s and 2000s […]
Join Trains Magazine video contributor Marshall W. Beecher on the road to Summerail 2017 in Marion, Ohio. You’ll see Norfolk Southern’s popular heritage locomotives, regional railroad Wheeling & Lake Erie, and much more across Indiana and Ohio! […]
Join Trains Magazine video contributor Marshall W. Beecher on the road to Summerail 2017 in Marion, Ohio. You’ll see Norfolk Southern’s popular heritage locomotives, regional railroad Wheeling & Lake Erie, and much more across Indiana and Ohio! […]
A mix of older wood reefers and new steel cars mingle on the cleanout and ready tracks at Swift’s Sioux City (Iowa) plant in 1954. A lone car in the old yellow scheme stands out among a sea of cars in the red 1950 paint scheme. George Berkstresser photo […]
A Milwaukee Road switcher moves a cut of refrigerator cars at the Hormel plant in Austin, Minn., in 1942. Most of the reefers are wood-sheathed cars leased from North American. Classic Trains collection […]
Chicago & Illinois Midland 4-4-0 No. 500, built by Baldwin at the late date of 1927, pulls away from Hill Top, Ill., with the daily-except-Sunday train from Pekin to Springfield, Ill. The date is May 20, 1952 — late in the game indeed for American types on Class I railroads. Ed Theisinger photo […]
Gulf, Mobile & Ohio F3 883-A leads the road’s weekday commuter train to Joliet away from Chicago Union Station not long before GM&O merged with Illinois Central to form Illinois Central Gulf. The little train was widely known as “The Plug.” John R. Taibi photo […]
Greasy rails on Missouri Pacific’s Kirkwood Hill west of St. Louis have brought 2-10-2 helper No. 1716 and 4-8-4 road engine No. 2111 to a halt in March 1946. The train got moving again with an assist from an 0-8-0. Joe Collias photo […]
Metra F40PH No. 100 before departing on a 12:30 p.m. train out of LaSalle Street Station on Thursday, Sept. 14. TRAINS: Steve Sweeney CHICAGO — One of Metra’s oldest passenger locomotives is sporting a color scheme to match the one it came with in 1977. About 100 Metra officials, passengers, and railfans gathered at Chicago’s […]
