What you’re seeing here is a transformation that’s nothing short of remarkable. Twenty years ago, a map of West Coast short-haul passenger trains would’ve been little more than a blank page. Back then, Amtrak provided minimal service between Oakland and Bakersfield, Calif., and between Portland and Seattle, though it did field 14 San Diegans a […]
In October 2013, Trains sent me to Southern California to attend the first-ever Association of Tourist Railroads and Railway Museums meeting, to see Union Pacific’s preparatory work for moving Big Boy 4-8-8-4 No. 4014 AND to get material for the February 2014 article in the magazine: “Cajon Pass Unplugged.” I spent weeks before and after […]
An Amtrak San Joaquin train arrives at Emeryville, Calif., as the afternoon rush comes into full swing on Aug. 27, 2013. Photo by Michael S. Murray […]
Follow freight, passenger, and POV trains along Silicon Valley Free-moN’s layout at the Great Train Expo in Pleasanton, California. Modular layouts like Free-moN allow multiple members to run massive trains over many scale-miles of track (much more possible than at home!) while socializing and “suckering” newbies into the wonderful world of Model Railroading. Video shot […]
Follow freight, passenger, and POV trains along Silicon Valley Free-moN’s layout at the Great Train Expo in Pleasanton, California. Modular layouts like Free-moN allow multiple members to run massive trains over many scale-miles of track (much more possible than at home!) while socializing and “suckering” newbies into the wonderful world of Model Railroading. Video shot […]
SP 4229, the cab-forward on which author Anderson was firing as the second engine of a doubleheader when lead engine 4208 threw a rod, hauls L.A.-bound freight 766 up Casamilia Hill on the Coast Line in 1947. Jim Morley As an 18-year-old kid going firing on Southern Pacific’s Coast Division in 1953, my life was […]
Auto racks on a derailed BNSF train near Walong, Calif. Phil Cornyn BNSF and UP locomotives involved in a collision near Walong, Calif. Phil Cornyn Cars derailed in a collision near Walong, Calif. Phil Cornyn BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – Early this morning, a BNSF Railway train rear-ended a Union Pacific freight in Southern California, about 40 miles […]
McCloud River 2-8-2 No. 18 pulls a fictitious circus train past a movie set for the film “Water for Elephants” at Piru, Calif., along the Fillmore & Western Railway in May 2010. David Lustig Remember that train scene you saw last night on television, or last weekend at the movie theater? There’s a good chance […]
LOS ANGELES – Amtrak is planning to detour its southbound Coast Starlight between Oakland and Los Angeles in March and April due to track work. Instead of its normal route along the California Coast, train No. 11 will travel Union Pacific’s ex-Southern Pacific route via the San Joaquin Valley and Tehachapi Loop. The detours are planned for March 13-15, March 24-30, […]
The Salton Sea in Southern California was formed in 1907 when men tried to redirect Colorado River irrigation canals and caused a two-year flood. It spans the intersection of two great deserts: the Mojave to the north and the Sonoran to the south and west. Summer temperatures routinely hover at 120 degrees. In the 1950s […]
Santa Fe 2-8-2 3243 climbs west toward Summit, Calif., in 1952. Chard Walker In the early 1940s, when steam locomotives were supreme, I worked on the Santa Fe around Los Angeles. At Redondo Junction, today the north end of the “Alameda Corridor” to the L.A. and Long Beach harbor facilities, Santa Fe’s Harbor Branch left […]
The platform at Caltrain’s San Francisco station was empty on Oct. 14, 2009, but on Aug. 24, 2012, passengers getting off a northbound train at the South San Francisco station (a short distance away) had to clear the tracks quickly to avoid being struck by an express train rushing through the station without warning. Scott […]
