Zephyr passenger cars last trip — Looking beyond a sea of Amtrak Phase IV, the stainless-steel design and neon lights spell out California Zephyr on the tail end of Amtrak’s westbound No. 5 of the same name at Chicago Union Station. It’s a scene reminiscent of the 1950s with the same equipment that carried the […]
Bad Day at Black Rock filming location: “Bad Day at Black Rock” sounds like the perfect name for a western, but really, it’s a taut present day crime drama that explodes onto the screen when one-armed John McCreedy steps off the train just after the opening credits. And what a backdrop for the credits; a […]
NORTH EAST, Pa. — One of just two remaining General Electric AC6000 locomotives, demonstrators for the company’s 6,000-horsepower, A.C.-traction locomotives, has been donated to the Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East. Wabtec donated GECX No. 6002, built in 1998 for Union Pacific as its No. 7511, and returned to GE to serve as part […]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — It is currently not uncommon for small businesses to be short of workers to cover basic functions. This is true in the tourist rail industry, which was drastically affected by the pandemic, where some railroads are struggling to fill jobs as their season approaches. According to the U.S. Travel Association, leisure and […]
TORONTO — The Toronto Railway Museum has received a $50,000 Community Building Fund grant from the Government of Ontario and the Ontario Trillium Foundation, helping the museum to continue to operate during the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding is being used to assist with audiovisual equipment and operating costs to improve the museum’s online program, including development […]
44-ton locomotives in North America: There was a time in North American transportation where railroads were the king of moving goods and services, providing every industry whether it be 50 cars or one, a spot on their daily switch list. When steam was being dethroned by internal combustion, many railroads replaced them in-kind with similar […]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Railtown 1897 State Historic Park and the California State Railroad Museum Foundation have acquired historic Sierra Railway No. 34, the only surviving Sierra steam locomotive never to have been in service on another railroad. A ceremony to mark the acquisition, made possible through a donation by railroad enthusiasts Chris Baldo and Marion Hatch, will […]
The Powder River Basin was North America’s last, great railroading frontier. By the time of Fred W. Frailey’s article in 1989, PRB was served by Class I railroads where before railroads scarcely traveled — all in the later half of the 20th century. Enter your email address below to read this classic 24-page article that […]
The Lionel no. 3429 helicopter car was the company’s answer to get more kids to buy its products in the late 1950s. It was an attempt to get away from a product line the public regarded as old-fashioned. The company’s creative minds decided to make items Lionel could link the trains to popular military and […]
ROCKHILL FURNACE, Pa. — The East Broad Top Foundation posted a sold-out Winter Spectacular celebration Feb. 18-19, with 10 internal-combustion-powered trips over its restored main line between Rockhill Furnace and Colgate Grove and tours of the roundhouse and station archives. This year’s winter event built on the success of the Foundation’s first Winter Spectacular in […]
Railroader, photographer, and rail historian Roger Holmes of Hudson, Ill., died Saturday, Feb. 19, after a six-week battle with COVID-19. He was 73. Holmes was a former Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway dispatcher, and had worked for the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad and the Chicago & North Western. He had recently worked with younger […]
CHAMA, N.M. — After weathering the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns of 2020 and 2021, Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad ridership rebounded to within 11% of 2019 ridership, railroad President Scott Gibbs tells Trains News Wire. With most restrictions lifted by July 1, 2021, the railroad carried 37,735 riders for the year versus 42,451 in 2019, Gibbs […]
