How did you get started in the hobby? Like so many of us, I was around five years old and woke up on Christmas morning to see a brand-new Lionel train running around the Christmas tree. I’ve been hooked ever since. What was your first large scale locomotive? It was a secondhand LGB European 0-4-0. […]
Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad: An introduction The Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad provides a family train-riding experience through scenic vistas. The tourist railroad is located on the western outskirts of Yosemite National Park, two miles south of Fish Camp, Calif. The facility at Fish Camp consists of a two-stall engine house, a museum, and […]
STOCKTON, Calif. — The Altamont Corridor Express will add a fourth round trip between Stockton and San Jose as of Sept. 7, restoring the commuter rail service to its pre-pandemic level. The Modesto Bee reports the added trains will be a westbound departing Stockton at 7:32 a.m. and arriving in San Jose at 9:44 a.m., […]
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority resumed limited light rail service on Sunday, more than three months after service was shut down following a mass shooting at the agency’s Guadalupe rail yard. “As we continue to bring back employees safely and compassionately,” the agency said in a statement on its website, […]
DUNSMUIR, Calif. — Twenty cars of a Union Pacific train derailed Friday in Northern California’s Siskiyou County near the site of a 1991 derailment that spilled chemicals into the Sacramento River, leading to a massive kill-off of fish and health problems for those who responded to the accident. The Sacramento Bee reports no spills were […]
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority could launch a partial resumption of light rail service by Sunday, allowing service for fans attending a San Francisco 49ers game at the team’s stadium in Santa Clara. KPIX-TV reports test runs on the light rail system began Tuesday. The VTA’s director of rail operations, […]
LOS ANGELES — The California High-Speed Rail Authority board of directors has approved the final environmental report for the 80-mile Bakersfield-Palmdale section of the project, the first portion in Southern California to receive clearance under the California Environmental Quality Act. The move sets the stage for clearance of the full 500-mile San Francisco-LA/Anaheim route under […]
State of the art A classic A-B-B-A set of EMD FTs — the state of the locomotive art in 1940 — lead a Santa Fe freight over Southern California’s Cajon Pass. Santa Fe photo […]
Frank Sinatra’s O gauge railroad included many collectible pieces as well as everyday items. They were all colorful and fun to the legendary singer and his family. As noted in the November 2015 Classic Toy Trains, members of the Sinatra family believe he was introduced to the hobby by visiting the home of big-band leader […]
SAN CARLOS, Calif. — Bay Area commuter rail operator Caltrain will expand service on Aug. 30 while cutting fares by 50% in September. The new schedules, with 104 trains on weekdays, exceed pre-pandemic levels. The new schedule will see four trains per hour during peak hours (6-9 a.m and 4-7 p.m.) with service every half-hour […]
OMAHA, Neb. — It will take several more weeks for Union Pacific to fully recover from California wildfires that disrupted service on its I-5 and Feather River corridors. “Everyone here is focused on ensuring that we can get the system ramped back up,” says Eric Gehringer, UP’s executive vice president of operations. “It is not […]
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s (sfmta.com) iconic cable cars are up and running again. Even better, rides are free of charge in the month of August 2021! But if you want to skip the lines, watch this Trains.com slow-TV video of the ups, downs, and close calls on the notoriously steep downtown streets of San […]
