Campaigning to preserve the route of the Southwest Chief

FULL SCREEN Bob Johnston A 120-car BNSF empty coal train slinks west through a 30-mph speed restriction 10 miles east of Syracuse, Kan., on July 13. Once a raceway for the Super Chief and other streamliners, the Kansas portion of the line was downgraded under the current operating contract to 60 mph maximum passenger speeds […]

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Mixed train through the muskeg

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Near Conklin, Alberta, NAR mixed train 77 ambles toward Fort McMurray on June 26, 1972, the second day of author Armstrong’s four-day adventure. James B. Armstrong At 5 o’clock every Sunday and Wednesday evening, mixed train No. 75 would trundle slowly out of Dunvegan Yards (Edmonton), headquarters and southern terminus of the Northern Alberta Railways, […]

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Kindnesses on the Omaha Road

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Omaha Road 4-6-2 No. 500 departs Minneapolis with a train for Superior, Wis., in August 1950. Bob Borcherding At nearly 70 years of age, I am still enthralled at the passage of trains. Today’s trains—often featuring high-horsepower diesel locomotives, radio-controlled helpers, rotary-dump coal cars by the unit-trainload, and containers carrying products from halfway around the […]

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