Burlington Route diesel locomotives showed a strong loyalty to Electro-Motive Division, located in the online community of LaGrange, Ill. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy was a diesel pioneer with its Zephyr passenger trains in the 1930s, and the railroad began dieselizing mainline freight trains with EMD FTs in 1943. The CB&Q continuing dieselizing with a […]
Section: Railroads
Saluda Grade: The next phase for the ‘Mountain of Challenge’
Saluda Grade There is a right way to build a railway up a mountain. The Swiss, for example, have covered their country with curvy, winding rack railways that start in the valleys and reach for the snow-capped peaks. There is a wrong way to build a railway up a mountain. The Porterfield & Ellis Railroad, […]
Christmas dinner in the dining car — a second helping
Christmas dinner in the dining car Fun travel and good food, along with presents and tasty egg nog, are essential parts of the Christmas holiday season. As noted many times previously, in today’s “get there now” expedient travel environment, the journey is no longer part of the adventure. Thus, the fun of travel combined with […]
CPKC acquires ‘new’ power
Just shy of two years after the CPKC merger, the Class I railroad has purchased its first “new” locomotives. The eight General Electric ET44ACs were originally an order for Baffinland Iron Mines located on Baffin Island in Canada. The new-build mine project to haul iron ore to seaport via rail has been delayed many times, […]
Railfan Road: California’s Central Valley
Railfanning California’s Central Valley offers diverse operations, wide-open vistas, and plenty of action. Even so, the Central Valley gets no respect. Fresno, Bakersfield and even Sacramento are the butt of jokes by Los Angeles and Bay Area citizens. Railfans make trips to Cajon, Donner and Tehachapi passes but seldom celebrate the tabletop-flat topography of the […]
Travel: The art of changing trains
Rail travel often involves changing trains. I’ve always delighted in the transition from one train to another. These can be great moments to observe the railroad in action, make photos, and perhaps chat with railroaders and fellow passengers. I’ve sometimes planned changes to include a short layover. For many travelers changing trains represents unwanted stress […]
Amtrak SDP40F diesel locomotives
Amtrak SDP40F diesel locomotives were derived from the best-selling SD40-2 platform but were far from a success on their own. The SDP40F shared its 72-foot, 4-inch frame with the predecessor passenger unit FP45 from 1967. Internally, however, it was akin to a 3,000 hp SD40-2 with a steam boiler added. That should have been a […]
Burlington Route passenger trains remembered
Burlington Route passenger trains are part of Classic Trains‘ editors’ celebration of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy all through December 2024. Please enjoy this photo gallery of Burlington Route passenger trains selected from Firecrown Media’s David P. Morgan Library. Since October 2019, Classic Trains’ editors have celebrated a different Fallen Flag, that is, […]
They call him ‘Bear’
Illinois Central and the Bear In my years hanging around the North Cairo, Ill., depot — first Illinois Central, then Illinois Central Gulf — I had many cab-ride opportunities. My first was at age 3 on the GM&O, however. The station access was partially due to the family farm sitting 3 miles outside Cairo, but […]
Burlington Route steam as only John Gruber could see it
We all have “near misses” in our lives, and one of the biggest for me was the steam program of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, known best by the numbers of its two star locomotives, 4-8-4 No. 5632 and 2-8-2 No. 4960. Both were among a few saved after the Q dieselized and subsequently […]
An engineer’s life: Christmas calendar
I used to get a bit of grief when I was a new hire from co-workers for being a railfan. Railroaders can sniff out a rail enthusiast from 100 miles away — but I know I was not alone. Personally, I think there are more out there than would ever admit to it. I was […]
Great ride, modest ridership on the ‘Gotthard Panorama Express’
Gotthard Panorama Express It’s hard to imagine that a Swiss train ride through a spectacular and historic mountain pass can be underrated — particularly when it features what may be the last open-window coach on the Swiss Federal Railways system, specifically for the benefit of photographers. But that may well be the case for the […]
