Commercial shipping on the Great Lakes follows a 2,300-mile corridor from the St. Lawrence Seaway to the western edge of Lake Superior. Over 200 million tons of cargo a year cross the five lakes and connecting waterways, hauled in some 150 U.S. and Canadian lakers, 50,000 barges, and about 1,000 visits by ocean-going vessels, or […]
Compared here are the main lines of railroads that, for most of the 20th century, fed the nation with its most important natural resource: bituminous coal mined in Appalachia — the critical ingredient in power plants, steel mills, home furnaces, and factories. In 1927, the year of our comparison, the Chesapeake & Ohio and Norfolk […]
Coal is the most important rail commodity in the United States. In the early 2000s, when this map was produced, coal accounted for one of four cars loaded and slightly more than 20 percent of rail revenue. Eighty percent of the coal goes to the generation of electricity at steam power plants, so a map […]
In the early 2000s, North America’s 88 automobile assembly plants produced about 15 million new cars and trucks a year. And railroads moved 70 percent of the vehicles built in the United States alone. Most Canadian and U.S. plants are concentrated in a wide corridor stretching from Toronto to Mobile, Ala. Plants in Mexico are […]
This Map of the Month was featured in the August 2002 issue of Trains magazine. If ever two railroads practiced seamless service decades before it became a railroad industry buzzword, it would be the Chicago & North Western and the Omaha Road. The Omaha Road, the usual shorthand for the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & […]
This Map of the Month appeared in the February 2005 issue of Trains magazine. Say good-bye to two successful railroads,” was the startling way Seaboard Coast Line introduced itself in magazine advertisements in summer 1967. Below the picture of two streamlined diesels blurring nose-to-nose into each other, the ad continued with a gushing declaration: “The new […]
This Map of the Month was featured in the November 2003 issue of Trains magazine. Amtrak advertisements showcase images of passengers looking out windows at breathtaking scenery, and gleaming trains winding through spectacular canyons or along scenic river- banks. But that’s only half the story. Long-distance trains (those on routes of 750 miles or more) […]
This Map of the Month was featured in the November 2001 issue of Trains magazine. Train frequency per 24 hours on the vast Union Pacific system, in first quarter 2001, is revealing both for what is indicated and what is not. Consider, if you will, the pre-1982 Union Pacific, i.e., before merger mania. With just […]
This Map of the Month appeared in the October 2007 issue of Trains magazine. Like other great American railroads, the Illinois Central was a melting pot of many smaller lines — some acquired through lease or purchase, others set up by IC to construct new routes. This map charts the 88 different names that made up […]
This Map of the Month appeared in the August 2003 issue of Trains magazine. Where does a railroad go? Might seem like the most basic of questions. But with trackage rights and service alliances, a railroad’s franchise — its sphere of influence — may extend far beyond the outermost mile of track it owns. […]
This Map of the Month appeared in the December 2005 issue of Trains magazine. Among the many hazards of running trains at high elevations in North America are the difficulties of snow, ice, and avalanche. This was well illustrated in Washington state where the Great Northern crossed the Cascades at Stevens Pass, named for John F. […]
This Map of the Month appeared in the May 2004 issue of Trains magazine. If a system map is an archaeological record of mergers, acquisitions, abandonments, and line sales, then a crew-district map is the record of all of these, plus technological change and traffic pattern change, with a great deal of law and contract negotiations […]
