One of the Milwaukee Road’s dashing F7 4-6-4s accelerates the Hiawatha out of Chicago at the start of the streamliner’s run to Minneapolis on a winter day in 1939. Alfred W. Johnson photo […]
Hudson on the Hiawatha
Zone & Region: Midwest
Chicago’s CTA returns rail service to pre-pandemic level
CHICAGO — The Chicago Transit Authority has returned to pre-pandemic levels of rail service, with a 20% increase in weekly train trips, the agency said on Monday, Nov. 4. The change means more than 1,200 additional rail trips per week compared to the spring 2024 schedule, according to the CTA, and covers all eight rail […]
Freights meet on the Nickel Plate
In September 1954 at New Douglas, Ill., on the Nickel Plate Road’s old Clover Leaf line to St. Louis, 2-8-4 703 on westbound freight 49 holds the siding as the caboose of eastbound 98 speeds past on the main. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
OmniTRAX to serve P&G plant in Ohio
LIMA, Ohio — Rail and logistics firm OmniTRAX has been selected to provide switching for Procter & Gamble’s laundry-products factory in Lima, the third P&G manufacturing served by the OmniTRAX network. The new agreement became effective Nov. 1. OmniTRAX affiliate OmniTRAX Lima Industrial will switch daily inbound cars to the plans and return empty cars […]
Operator in CTA Yellow Line collision faces dismissal: news report
CHICAGO — The Chicago Transit Authority train operator involved in last year’s collision between a Yellow Line train and snow-removal equipment likely faces firing, the CTA says, but it has been unable to act because the individual remains off work because of injuries suffered in the incident. The worker was found to have a blood-alcohol […]
Full-court press continues on trespassing, safety near tracks
CHICAGO — Operation Lifesaver’s “See Tracks-Think Train!” nationwide information blitz during the last week of September was the latest attempt to heighten public awareness of inherent dangers around railroad property. A recent symposium sponsored by the Chicago-area DuPage Railroad Safety Council took that initiative a step further, featuring presenters who discussed the scope of recent […]
Fast Mail at Chicago Union Station
Workers at Chicago Union Station load mail aboard Burlington Route train 29 — the Fast Mail — prior to its 9 p.m. departure for Omaha in early 1964. John Gruber photo […]
The ‘Wabash 50’
Few, if any railroads, duplicated what the Wabash Railroad did in 1930 and ’31 when it ordered 50 big locomotives from the Baldwin Locomotive Co., split half and half between the tried-and-true 4-8-2 wheel Mountain type and the still relatively new 4-8-4 Northern. It was a remarkable decision, given the slight differences between the […]
Illinois Terminal Railroad: Road of many manifestations
The Illinois Terminal Railroad might be one of the most misunderstood Class 1 railroads of the 20th century. If you think “the I.T.,” as most called it, was just a creaky electric interurban that gave up on passengers and got some diesels to haul freight to a few customers, think again. Illinois Terminal was […]
Soo Line No. 1003 set for Santa Train appearance
HARTFORD, Wis. — Soo Line 2-8-2 No. 1003 will make its annual appearance for the Hartford Santa Train on Saturday, Nov. 9. The 1913 Alco, operated by the non-profit Steam Locomotive Heritage Association, is a fixture at the Hartford event, held in conjunction with the community’s annual Christmas Parade. The Santa Train will be at […]
Consultants hired for scoping of Eau Claire-Twin Cities passenger rail proposal
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — The Chippewa-St. Croix Rail Commission has hired a consultant team led by HDR Engineering and including HNTB Corp. to carry out the scoping work for proposed Eau Claire-Twin Cities passenger rail service. The scoping work is the first phase in development of a new route under the Federal Railroad Administration’s Corridor […]
Windy City respite
The Baltimore & Ohio dieselized its named passenger trains with six sets of Electro-Motive EA-EB passenger diesels in 1937–38. Here, two of the sets rest in Chicago between runs. Baltimore & Ohio photo […]
