The New York City High Line a sight to behold on Manhattan’s West Side. It was born of a vast improvement program in the 1930s, which took West Side freight trains off city streets. The trains were then powered by electric traction north of 30th Street and behind diesel power south of 30th Street. […]
STRASBURG, Pa. — The Rocket, the 185-year-old former Reading Co. steam engine which had long been displayed at Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute, made its debut Friday at its new home, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. About 60 people were on hand for a ribbon-cutting of the new display, a ceremony featuring Patrick Morrison, the museum’s executive […]
ADAMS, Mass. — The Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum will run its first excursions with former New Haven Budd Rail Diesel Car this weekend, as RDC-1 No. 41 runs on Past Peak Fall Train Rides this Saturday, Oct. 28, and Halloween Costume trains on Sunday, Oct. 29. Trains will run on the Adams Branch, departing from […]
I saw the light, but changing the light was a whole different matter — and that’s why I’m skeptical when a locomotive builder claims to have consulted engineers when designing a new and improved model. And with good reason. They’re usually looking for product endorsement rather than any input intended for product development. A seasoned […]
Always something different at LA’s Taylor Yard A wise man once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” It’s a nice thought. But he never met a train fan. For decades, whenever I had a few free minutes, I’d drive down to Southern Pacific’s […]
Southern Pacific & World War II By the 1940s, the original Transcontinental Railroad main line around the north end of the Great Salt Lake had fulfilled its original purpose of connecting the eastern United States with California, and was now needed for World War II. Specifically, the U.S. war effort needed the Transcontinental Railroad’s steel […]
Driving south recently on Interstate 75, nearing the Kentucky/Tennessee line, an upcoming offramp caught my eye, causing me to make a quick turn to the right. “Next exit, Jellico.” Jellico! A town I likely never would have known were it not for a memorable July 30, 1975, steam excursion behind celebrated Southern Railway 2-8-2 […]
CSX Railroads, in particular, have grappled with that same question over the years — especially those railroads that are the products of mergers or the surviving company after a takeover. There is, on the one hand, Norfolk Southern, a straightforward name for the affiliation of the Norfolk & Western and Southern railways. Along the same […]
Amtrak Twin Cities services started on May 1, 1971, at the Burlington Northern (former Great Northern) station in Minneapolis. Service levels ebbed and flowed through the years as trains were added or subtracted. Amtrak opened a new Twin Cities station on March 1, 1978, using a standard plan that was also built in […]
The first rail-to-trail conversion in the U.S., the Elroy-Sparta State Trail, gives riders an opportunity to traverse three tunnels. Wisconsin isn’t usually associated with railroad tunnels, but it once had a number of them. Today only Canadian Pacific’s bore at Tunnel City is active, but next door is the closed tunnel of the Chicago […]
WILSON, N.C. — Carolina Coastal Railway, which operates 179 miles of tracks in eastern North Carolina once belonging to Seaboard Coast Line and the original (pre-1982) Norfolk Southern Railway, is receiving two former Union Pacific/Missouri Pacific GP15-1s wearing a red scheme inspired by that carried by Norfolk Southern Baldwin road-switchers in the 1950s and 1960s. […]
As the Maxon Railway car pulls away from the platform everything seems business as usual. Steel rails. Steel wheels. A slight clickety-clack. The whizzing soundtrack of an electrified locomotive. Check. Check. Check. Check. Except this is no ordinary rail car and this railway is definitely nowhere near ordinary. Located in the Pacific Northwest with the […]
