I never met David “Dave” A. Fink, but I felt his presence for a while in the late 1990s. The pugnacious president of Guilford Transportation Industries had a reputation for being difficult with journalists, but long about 1997 I decided Trains absolutely had to have a profile of his railroad, no matter what. Fink proved […]
ANDOVER, Mass. — The Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts organization is seeking applicants for the 2023 edition of its grant programs, the H. Albert Webb Memorial Railroad Preservation Award and the Mass Bay RRE Railroad Preservation Fund. Applications and instructions for the awards are available here. The H. Albert Webb Award is an annual grant of […]
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Union Pacific has announced plans for its “Heritage Donation Special,” moving two steam locomotives, its Centennial diesel, and other equipment, from Cheyenne to the Railroading Heritage of Midwest America facility in Silvis, Ill., Nov. 11-19. The schedule was announced in an email to UP Steam Club members. The train will include Challenger […]
Soldiers transfer from a Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis troop train to trucks at the Army’s Camp Forrest near Tullahoma, Tenn., in 1942. U.S. Army Signal Corps photo […]
ROBERTSDALE, Pa. – “Little more, little more . . . Mush, you huskies! Ho!” With that chant, Gene Tucker urged his four-man volunteer crew at the narrow gauge East Broad Top Railroad to squeeze a 60-pound rail into alignment just enough to slip a J-shaped “hook bar” into place to force the track gauge back […]
KEARNY, N.J. — NJ Transit has unveiled its newest heritage locomotive, GP40PH-2 No. 4101, repainted into the “Bluebird” paint scheme used by New Jersey Department of Transportation’s Commuter Operating Agency, a predecessor of the current transit agency. The locomotive is one of 13 3,000-hp EMD GP40P units specifically designed for the Central Railroad of New […]
What was it like working at Lionel’s Hillside, NJ factory during the postwar electric train boom? […]
Northern Maine’s Bangor & Aroostook Railroad was a relative latecomer to the American railroad map, being organized under the General Laws of Maine on Feb. 13, 1891. There had been earlier efforts, but this one succeeded in linking northern Maine to the central Maine city of Bangor and the country’s rail network. First was the […]
Greatest Moments Greatest Moments Note: This speech was written by Andy Sperandeo and presented to the South Texas Division/San Antonio Model Railroad Association NMRA’s convention on June 23, 2006. We discovered these documents during some office clean up recently, and thought our readers would enjoy reading them. Good evening everyone. I’m very glad to be […]
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Dr. Roy B. Clarkson, a well-known botanist and forest biologist at West Virginia University and author of two books dealing with West Virginia lumber railroads, died Sept. 12, 2022. He was 95. Clarkson, originally from Cass, W.Va., published many books, articles, and papers during his career in science, but is known in […]
Brand-new New York Central J-1a 5200 — the first of the road’s famous fleet of Hudsons, and the first example of the 4-6-4 wheel arrangement in North America — steams through a ceremonial banner at Alco’s Schenectady plant on February 14, 1927. NYC photo […]
NORTH FREEDOM, Wis. — Mid-Continent Railway Museum will restore Montana Western gas-electric railcar No. 31 — built in 1925 by Electro-Motive Corp. — to operating condition, the museum has announced. The car, one of the oldest surviving pieces of equipment built by Electro-Motive, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in August, was built for Great Northern […]
