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CHICAGO — Commuter rail operator Metra will offer free rides on the weekend of June 8-9, concluding a week of activities to mark its 40th anniversary. The agency dates its birth from June 8, 1984, when the first meeting was held of the Regional Transportation Authority’s Commuter Rail Division. The Metra name was adopted a […]
The recent shortage of Amtrak long-distance sleeper cars has hoisted the venerable, but rapidly aging, Superliner equipment into the spotlight again. You can read more about past and present Superliner woes in the article, “Superliner capacity not a new issue”, appearing in the July 2024 issue of Trains magazine. But first, catch a glimpse of […]
EAST CHICAGO, Ind. — The Norfolk & Western Business Car 300 Preservation Society will host an open house and unveiling ceremony to celebrate completion of the restoration of the railcar this Saturday, May 18, at Professional Locomotive Services in East Chicago. Admission is free. In additional to tours of the newly restored car, the event […]
An eastbound Toledo, Peoria & Western local behind olive-green-and-gold Alco RS2 No. 204 rolls across a steel bridge near Forrest, Ill., on Feb. 27, 1960. At the time, the road operated between Effner, on the Indiana-Illinois border, and Keokuk, Iowa, on the Mississippi River. J. Parker Lamb Jr. photo […]
CHICAGO — Metra will add a late-night train in each direction as part of updated schedules on the Milwaukee District North line effective June 3, the commuter operator has announced. The new schedules will adjust train times and stopping patterns “to more accurately reflect current operating conditions,” Metra said in a press release. Arrivals and […]
GARY, Ind. — Few rail rehabilitation projects can truthfully claim “better than ever” when physical plant and service improvements are completed, but South Shore Line commuter service appears to be one. As Northern Indiana Commuter Transit District President Mike Noland told the crowd of gathered in a tent in the parking lot of the newly […]
Host Gerry Leone sets his sights on highway construction for his HO scale Bona Vista model railroad. Catch up with his off-camera preliminary efforts, before following his technique for making authentic roads and streets using medium-grit sandpaper. As he notes, even more insights regarding this technique can be viewed in a prior Trains.com video series, […]
DULUTH, Minn. — It was a scene right out of the early 1950s: a Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range steam locomotive pulling a string of ore cars and a caboose on the line between Two Harbors, Minn., and Duluth. But the date wasn’t 1952, but May 12, 2024, as the Lake Superior Railroad Museum’s DM&IR […]
DAVENPORT, Iowa — Canadian Pacific Kansas City obviously won many fans, especially young visitors, during its three-hour display of the Final Spike Steam Tour train at Davenport’s Quinlan Court riverfront park on Friday, May 10, 2024. The display featuring 4-6-4 No. 2816, known as “the Empress” was free to the public, with many visitors walking […]
GALESBURG, Ill. — Railfans seeking former Santa Fe Railway “Warbonnet” locomotives — who do not mind that they are now “pink bonnets” because of faded paint — should take a drive along the Thirwell Road overpass at BNSF Railway’s hump yard in Galesburg. At least six former Santa Fe C44-9W units have been modified for […]
The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, commonly known as the Burlington Route, had many other Zephyrs. While not as prestigious as the Pioneer, Twin Cities, Mark Twain, Denver and California Zephyrs, these other streamlined trainsets and services, famously named after the Greek God of the West Wind, deserve a spotlight. Sam Houston Zephyr Fort […]
Rock Island passenger trains: All through May 2024, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history and heritage of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific. Please enjoy this photo gallery of Rock Island passenger trains, originally published online in July 2017. […]
