EMD ECO locomotives mark 15 years EMD’s 710ECO line of eight- and 12-cylinder prime movers celebrates its 15th anniversary this year. Introduced in 2007, this repower package was the company’s answer to the expanding market for low- and medium- power gensets sold at the time. While the company sold far fewer ECOs than gensets, time […]
Most users of Milwaukee’s Oak Leaf Trail running from the Lake Michigan shoreline in downtown Milwaukee northwest through the city are aware, or could easily guess, they are using an old railroad right of way. Few realize this was once the route of one of the fastest long-distance passenger trains in the world — the […]
Although I’ve never been great with a camera, I’ve enjoyed a life immersed in railroad photography, thanks to my good fortune at being able to edit railroad magazines for most of the past 40 years. I’ve had my favorites, of course, but I’ve tried to be as neutral as possible when it came to […]
Norfolk Southern C39-8E diesel locomotive No. 8688 is one of only two of its kind known to remain in existence in the United States. The unit, made by General Electric, is a diesel-electric locomotive built between 1984 and 1987. An early part of GE’s Dash 8 series of locomotives, 161 C39-8s and C39-8Es were built […]
Top 6 locomotive upgrades from Mike Iden include: • Improved crashworthiness • Alerters and event recorders • Exhaust emissions • Improved working conditions in the cab • Improved dynamic brakes • Alignment control But before he explained those items, Iden wanted to include a dictionary definition of the word “enhancement”: Enhancement means “To increase or […]
Korean War SW8 diesel locomotives survive in Alabama: Deep in the heart of America’s south, we find two able-bodied veterans of foreign war operating on the Calera & Shelby Railroad at the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum in Calera, Alabama. Calera & Shelby 2019 and 2022 SW8 switcher locomotives have a story to tell more […]
Mind-blowing Chessie facts Mind-blowing Chessie facts: What began as a simple etching of a sleeping kitten, blossomed into one of America’s most-loved corporate symbols. This is the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway’s Chessie Cat. Trains collectionAmerican businesses have fostered a plethora of advertising characters attempting to endear us to their products and entice us to purchase […]
Standardized time in the US Long before radios and extensive signaling systems, railroads safely operated multiple trains on the same line. Supplied with timetables showing the schedules of all regular trains and precisely worded written orders from the dispatcher, crews ran with a complete understanding of where and when they would meet other trains and […]
A scary tale of two train wrecks: Around the time of All Hallows’ Eve, it is tradition to subject ourselves to dark, scary tales intended to make us afraid of the dark and fear those things that go bump in the night. The vast majority of these stories are pure fiction that, when peeled back, […]
Yard Dog In mid-September 2022, the first nationwide railroad strike in three decades was narrowly averted thanks to a tentative deal between Class I railroads and three labor unions. The news brought to mind a labor dispute more than 30 years ago — and an unusual picket line. In the 1980s, railroaders in Norfolk, Nebraska’s […]
If there’s one thing to be said about the Union Pacific Armour yellow paint scheme, it’s that it hasn’t changed much since it was first introduced in 1934. Or so one would think. The presence of Armour Yellow has been pretty much constant, but everything else has been in a state of subtle and not […]
Let’s celebrate the variety and color of Bangor & Aroostook locomotives! The Bangor & Aroostook didn’t purchase its first diesels (EMD F3s) until 1947, but dieselization then came quickly, with the last steam operations in 1949. The railroad kept its older diesels in good shape for a long time, supplanting them with GP38s in the […]
