Blue flags protect workers. Here’s how they work. A major consideration in railroad operation is the maintenance that must be done on the rolling stock and track if freight and passengers are to be transported in a safe and timely manner. To maintain cars and locomotives, workers must get on, in between, and under them. […]
What’s the difference between a four-stroke diesel engine and a two-stroke engine? It’s more than just a matter of numbers, as Vernon L. Smith explained in “Cycles and Cylinders,” in the May 1979 issue of Trains Magazine: A four-cycle engine requires four strokes of the piston, covering two revolutions of the crankshaft, to complete one […]
In the early 1960s, The Alco C420 diesel locomotive hit the market, part of the builder’s Century Series, a line of diesel locomotives designed to answer any operating requirement railroads could imagine. One of the designs was the Century 420, a four-axle, 2,000-horsepower diesel locomotive built upon the years of experience gained from earlier RS2, […]
History of track gauge: The gauge of a railroad is the distance between the inside vertical surfaces of the head of the rail. Standard gauge is 4 feet, 8-1/2 inches. This is the gauge used when steam railroading began. It became the common gauge of Britain, North America, and Western Europe — except for Spain, […]
Railroad ghost town When the evening breeze whispers, Rhyolite, a railroad ghost town in Nevada, almost seems to come alive. One can imagine people strolling the concrete sidewalks under electric streetlights while strains of music float from the air-conditioned opera house. Children and their parents are enjoying locally prepared ice cream, the telegraph office is […]
The City of Miami passenger train one of three coordinated services linking Chicago with Miami. There was a time — like, as recently as 1979 — there was direct rail passenger service between the Upper Midwest (notably Chicago) and Florida. This ended with several slashes of Amtrak routes as a result of budget […]
The Amtrak GE P30CH locomotive is the spiritual successor to the GE U30CG passenger locomotive of 1967. Amtrak acquired 25 of the P30CH model, Nos. 700-724, between August 1975 and January 1976. The model designation led to the units’ nickname: “pooch.” It was essentially a U30C freight locomotive with a cowl body and […]
From the smallest narrow-gauge locomotive right up to Big Boy, steam locomotives capture the imagination and occupy a significant place in world history. The steam locomotive’s story runs far, wide, and deep. It continues to unfold today through preservation and restoration. Around every curve, there is another facet of the story waiting to be discovered. […]
A single E6 diesel leads Louisville & Nashville’s Cincinnati–New Orleans Humming Bird through Turner, Ky., in 1948. A rebuilt heavyweight sleeper trails the original six lightweight cars of the streamliner. L&N photo […]
Five worst paint schemes When it comes to a diesel locomotive’s paint scheme, I know what I like. I’m also 100 percent sure that no one else who follows the industry will agree with what I think of as the worst modern diesel locomotive paint schemes, and that’s okay. Below is my list of five […]
GP15D & GP20D A rare pair of Geep diesel locomotives, the GP15D and GP20D, looked like sure winners, but sank with hardly a ripple when they hit the market in the early 2000s. Locomotive builder MotivePower, Inc., based in Boise, Idaho marketed a light road-switcher concept in the early 2000s that should have appealed to […]
Note: This article corrects an earlier version that contained an error in the description of the SD70’s HTC-R trucks. See Comments for more information. Alaska Railroad’s SD70MACs make up the backbone of the railroad’s freight operations and they also power all the ARR’s long-distance passenger trains — wait, isn’t the SD70MAC a freight locomotive? Although […]
