Missouri-Kansas-Texas locomotives were modernized under the watch of President Matthew Sloan in the 1930s. They were mostly built before World War I, with higher boiler pressures and superheaters. As a light-rail granger road set in mostly prairie country, Katy needed only modernized engines. Premier mainline power was 154 Mikados and 62 Pacifies, with yard work […]
Amtrak San Diego service has seen a gradual increase since startup. Amtrak operated two daily trains on the San Diego to Los Angeles route when it started service on May 1, 1971. The trains retained the San Diegan branding inherited from the Santa Fe, which continued to operate freight service over the line. […]
South Korea “Amfleet” passenger cars: The former Budd Company was well-known for its signature, corrugated stainless steel style when designing passenger cars. Just by a glance, it is usually easy to spot a Budd car. When Amtrak came on the scene, the Budd’s Metroliner was used as the basis for the Amfleet I and II […]
GLENMONT, N.Y. — Red tape, a gas pipeline utility, and a lawsuit have combined to delay and further threaten the rescue of two historic New York Central electric locomotives stranded for three decades along the Hudson River south of Albany. The Danbury Railway Museum of Danbury, Conn., has been working for nearly a year to […]
Some books seem to have a will of their own. Nothing, not the passing of decades, not even the passing of the author, will keep them down. If the story is compelling enough — and if it is blessed with passionate believers — the story will win out. That’s how I feel about “The Diesel […]
CINCINNATI — Norfolk Southern has agreed to purchase the assets of the Cincinnati Southern Railway, the municipally owned railroad that forms the 336-mile Chattanooga-Cincinnati backbone of NS’s key corridor linking Chicago with Atlanta and the Southeast. Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, the municipal railway board, and NS today announced the proposed sale of the Cincinnati Southern […]
SCRANTON, Pa. — The Steamtown National Historic Site will close several buildings beginning today (Sunday, Nov. 20) to address mechanical issues with its heating system. These buildings will remain close until heat can be restored through temporary or long-term repairs, but the park will remain open and all scheduled events through December — including the […]
We’ll take a look at five details you can add to transition-era cabooses. Some details are railroad-specific, while others apply to many railroads. When in doubt, refer to prototype photos. The steam-to-diesel transition era, roughly 1940 to 1960, is the most popular modeling era. There are several reasons for this. Many people who model this […]
Mind-blowing Polar Express facts In 1985, illustrator and writer Chris Van Allsburg penned what has become a classic Christmas story — The Polar Express. Then 19 years later, 2004, film director Robert Zemeckis led a team to create the feature-length, animated version of the story centered around a most magical train and testing our “persuasion […]
North by Northwest North by Northwest is a true cinema classic and is considered one of the best of its genre. Produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, this American spy thriller film stars Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, and the New York Central Railroad. It takes place in 1959 in Manhattan. The main […]
HAMILTON, Ohio — The two structures of Hamilton’s historic railroad station will move in December, the Hamilton Journal-News reports. City Engineer Rich Engle said Wolfe House & Building Movers had scheduled an early December move, with a more detailed schedule still to come. The two structures — a one-story and two-story building — will be […]
Dirt the Cat One of the world’s most famous cats is a railroader. Dirt, his fur coat stained by a lifetime amid the soot and grease of Nevada Northern Railway’s 114-year-old engine-servicing facility, is nobody’s pet and everybody’s friend. The people-loving shop cat has an international following thanks to a series of widely shared social […]
