SCRANTON, Pa. — Steamtown National Historic Site has announced its schedule of train rides for 2023, with trips ranging from 30-minute trips exploring the park’s rail yard to full-day excursions through the Poconos. The seasonal rides resume May 11, with tickets on sale online as of April 1 for excursions in May through August. Excursions […]
Mind-blowing Conrail facts Arguably, the Consolidated Rail Corp. story is one of the darkest and yet brightest chapters in American railroad history. Consolidated Rail Corp. or Conrail — originally spelled ConRail — was the government-led and financially backed bailout of six Northeastern railroads. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the demise of the Penn […]
Crowds swarm around Burlington Route 9901 and 9902, the original three-car Twin Zephyr diesel trains, during a publicity event before the pair entered service between Chicago and the Twin Cities in April 1935. CB&Q photo […]
CASS, W.Va. — Cass Scenic Railroad operator Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad has announced that the 2023 Parade of Steam will take place June 17 at the Cass depot. In previous years, this increasingly popular event has featured five of Cass Scenic’s geared steam locomotives, in various combinations, under steam. However, if all goes as […]
The latest Lionel Vision Line Stock Car sets are now hitting the market. You might call them a squeal of a deal. Car sets aren’t new to the orange-and-blue. We were introduced in 2014 to these three-packs with steel-sided reefers. Since then, the train maker has expanded on the theme. In 2020 the train maker […]
Alco’s initial answer to EMD’s wildly successful FT freight diesel of 1939 was a three-unit locomotive built as a testbed/demonstrator in 1945. Its lines and paint job led observers to dub it “Black Maria,” a slang term for a police wagon. Nos. 1500A, B, and C tested for barely a year on several New England […]
The John Emery Rail Heritage Trust has announced the award of 19 grants totaling $250,000 for rail preservation projects as part of its annual award program, after considering some 29 applications seeking a total of almost $875,000 in funding. The Emery Rail Heritage Trust was founded by longtime Chicago resident John Emery, an avid rail […]
Completed in 1943, this immense Baldwin Locomotive Works product was powered by four of an intended eight crossways-mounted 750 h.p. V8 diesels and had a 2-D+D-2 wheel arrangement. Designed for passenger service, the giant proved unsatisfactory, but its running gear was later used for Seaboard Air Line DR12-8-3000 No. 4500. Baldwin photo […]
BATAVIA, N.Y. — The move of a preserved Alco PA locomotive from Oregon to its new home at Genesee Valley Transportation’s shops in Scranton, Pa., is tentatively slated to begin in April, although exact plans have yet to be finalized, GVT President Michael D. Thomas says. Thomas, speaking Sunday with Trains News Wire, said no […]
Modeling Conrail in the UK The genesis of the Bishopstown Sub is tale that involves a chance encounter and a leap of faith. In 2003 I found myself in Kuwait with the UK Military and one day I found myself in a USAF Headquarters. Walking through an office area I saw a screensaver image of […]
LANDRUM, S.C. — Norfolk Southern has agreed to sell 31 miles of right-of-way for its dormant Saluda Grade — formerly the steepest main line in America — to the Saluda Grade Trail Conservancy for conversion to a trail, the Spartanburg Post and Courier reports. Three non-profit groups — Conserving Carolina, Upstate Forever, and PAL: Play, […]
Santa Fe 4-8-2 3746 roars up the Surf Line between Oceanside and Carlsbad, Calif., with a troop train on July 18, 1944. Union Switch & Signal photo […]
