Blue bearing caps

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Two blue end caps for bearings made by Amsted Rail’s Brenco Inc. appear on a freight car truck at the Union Pacific’s Butler Yard in Wisconsin. Steve Sweeney Q What is the significance of the blue paint that I see on the rotating bearing caps on freight car wheelsets? – Tito Porfiri, Olney, Md. A […]

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Homefront supply line

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Railroads were the primary means of moving men and materiel within the United States during World War II. Here a freight conductor walks beside flatcars loaded with M3 Lee tanks at an unknown location. U.S. Army Signal Corps photo […]

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The big picture

  A westbound Union Pacific manifest freight works its way toward Los Angeles in October 2013 in the “Blue Cut” section of California’s famed Cajon Pass. With the lead locomotives a mile away in the distance, you gain a better perspective of magnitude of the San Gabriel Mountains and the challenges railroads overcame more than […]

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Coal trains on the rise in southwest Virginia NEWSWIRE

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BIG STONE GAP, Va. — Within a year of mothballing a section of its former Clinchfield line between Frisco, Tenn., and McClure, Va., CSX Transportation has witnessed a notable upswing in coal traffic over the past two weeks. Newly-formed Contura Energy LLC is now leading the way to increased rail traffic out of southwestern Virginia. […]

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Winston-Salem Southbound Series: Weathering freight cars, Part 1

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page Now that we’ve marshaled the locomotive and rolling stock for our HO scale Winston-Salem layout, it’s time to make them look like they’ve been busy haulin’ freight! In this initial video, David Popp shows how to apply realistic weathering effects to composite freight […]

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Railroad Reading: Blue-chip investment

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The cover of Yanosey’s first Lehigh Valley book, one of Morning Sun’s early titles. Editor’s note: This story first appeared in the August 2006 issue of Trains Magazine in the “Railroad Reading” section. Recently one of my authors at Morning Sun, who is writing a Lehigh Valley book, came here and immediately stated, “I didn’t […]

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