CHICAGO — In the latest round of Amtrak operating issues, fallout from days of late trains has again inconvenienced passengers along the Empire Builder’s Chicago-Seattle/Portland, Ore., route, causing cancellation of one round trip. Other significant disruptions befell Southwest Chief and Lake Shore Limited departures, and reports say VIA Rail Canada’s westbound Canadian encountered snow-covered frozen […]
Mitchell Park Domes Large Scale Garden Display | Each year, from January to the end of March, the Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory in Milwaukee, Wis., hosts a beautiful G scale garden railroad inside one of its three uniquely-engineered domes. For one weekend only, in early February, a wide range of layouts and displays in different […]
Mr. Muffin’s Trains of Atlanta, Ind., is a family-owned business that literally takes a family to keep the retail company going and growing — both in-store and online. Stephen and Liz Nelson (Mr. and Mrs. Muffins themselves) give us the scoop in this Q&A interview with Trains.com Staff Writer Lucas Iverson. Watch the insightful video […]
Two red and gray Monon F3 diesels approach the complex 21st Street interlocking in Chicago with the outbound Tippecanoe in 1950. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]
BARABOO, Wis. — The non-profit Lake States Railway Historical Association has announced presenters for its expanded Railroad History Symposium to be held April 12 in Baraboo. The symposium is the largest fundraising event of the year for LSRHA. Changes this year include moving the event to the Al Ringling Theatre in Baraboo, built in 1915 […]
NORTH FREEDOM, Wis. — The Mid-Continent Railway Museum has launched a fundraising effort to return its celebrated steam locomotive, Chicago & North Western 4-6-0 No. 1385, to the museum to continue the effort to restore the 1907 Alco to operation. The locomotive, out of service for more than a quarter-century and away from the museum […]
WASHINGTON — Wheel slide, reflecting a trio of factors, led to the collision between a Chicago Transit Authority Yellow Line train and a snow-removal machine involved in training, the National Transportation Safety Board said in its final investigation report on the Nov. 16, 2023, accident, released today (Feb. 5, 2025). The wheel slide reflected an […]
Facts and features Name: Illinois Central Gulf Scale: HO (1:87.1)Size: 25 x 40 feet plus 12 x 16-foot staging in crawl spacePrototype: Illinois Central GulfLocale: Chicago to Champaign, Ill.Era: October 1976Style: walk-inMainline run: 350 feetMinimum radius: 30″Minimum turnout: No. 5Maximum grade: less than .5%Benchwork: open gridHeight: 46″ to 59″Roadbed: ¾” plywood and ½” Homasote Track: […]
IOWA CITY, Iowa — A proposal to launch battery-electric commuter train service between Iowa City and North Liberty, Iowa, appears to be dead after the railroad involved said it would not allow use of its trackage. The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that the Cedar Rapids & Iowa City Railway, or CRANDIC, told those involved with […]
Trains.com host David Popp invites you along for this initial overview of Model Railroader magazine’s emerging HO scale (1:87.1) project layout, the East Troy Industrial Park Railroad! To get things started, David shares how 1:1 scale operations of a Class III railroad (as featured in the Trains.com Video Series “Taking Care of Business: SMS Rail […]
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — A new lawsuit blames the East Palestine derailment and toxic-chemical release for seven deaths, including that of a week-old infant. The suit was announced Monday — two years after the Feb. 3, 2023, Norfolk Southern derailment — by a trio of law firms on behalf of some 744 plaintiffs. It names […]
As an entity with 50-plus years under its belt, Amtrak now has plenty of its own history, in addition to that of the trains it took over as of May 1, 1971. Thus, it probably should not have been a total surprise when Amtrak launched a through train service in November 2024 between Chicago […]
