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 […]
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 LaSalle Street Station on Thursday to celebrate 40 years of continuous service for the EMD F40PH unit by wrapping it in the sea […]
