Twenty minutes out of Portland, Downeaster train 682 crosses Scarborough Marsh. Bob Johnston The return of passenger rail service to Maine was a story 13 years in the making, as Bob Johnston explained in the June 2002 issue of TRAINS Magazine. The passenger corridor, which launched in December 2001, could be a model for future […]
Coaster trains operate on a 42-mile route between the Oceanside Transit Center and the Santa Fe depot in downtown San Diego, serving 8 stations. The tracks, once part of Santa Fe’s Surf Line, have long hosted intercity passenger trains between San Diego and Los Angeles. Today, Amtrak runs Pacific Surfliners on the route, linking San […]
Metrolink F59PHI 880 pauses with Orange County Line train 688 at the Fullerton, Calif., station at 5:39 p.m., on August 7, 1998. The Los Angeles commuter rail system has grown dramatically since its 1992 startup. George Fletcher Metrolink, the working name of the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, operates commuter service in the Los Angeles […]
West Coast Express train laying over in downtown Vancouver, B.C., in 1999. John Godfrey West Coast Express commuter trains operate on a 40-mile segment of Canadian Pacific’s transcontinental main line between Mission City and Vancouver’s Waterfront Station, serving 8 stations. The name for the commuter operation was selected by a panel of judges from over […]
The Metroliner leapt out of the starting gate in January 1969, beat the airline competition, and became a way of life for rail travelers throughout the Northeast. In the June 2006 issue of Trains Magazine, author Bruce Goldberg examines Metroliner’s distinguished career, from its launch by Penn Central to its stewardship under Amtrak, which nurtured […]
Penn Central Company Penn Central was created February 1, 1968 by merger of Pennsylvania and New York Central. Entered bankruptcy on June 21, 1970. Because of PC’s failure and its size, the federal government created Conrail, to which PC was conveyed on April 1, 1976. Pennsylvania Railroad Pennsylvania Railroad chartered April 13, 1846; by 1852, […]
Canadian National Canadian National Railways was incorporated June 6, 1919, to operate several carriers that had come under governmental control owing to financial problems: Intercolonial (1913); National Transcontinental (1915); Canadian Northern (1918); Grand Trunk Pacific (1920); and Grand Trunk (1920). The Grand Trunk name survived on the U.S. portion of the Montreal-Portland (Maine) line until […]
Lehigh & Hudson River Railway Warwick Valley opened in 1862 as 6-foot-gauge line, standard-gauged in 1880. It was extended southwest as Lehigh & Hudson River, a name adopted for both lines in 1882. L&HR filed for bankruptcy on April 18, 1872, and was among the properties conveyed to Conrail on April 1, 1976. Lehigh & […]
Delaware & Hudson Railway Delaware & Hudson, calling itself the longest-lived transportation company in the U.S., dates to an 1823 charter of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Co. “The D&H” operated the first steam locomotive on rail in the U.S., the Stourbridge Lion, in 1829. Amid modern Northeastern U.S. railroad uncertainty, D&H came under Norfolk […]
Tennessee Central Railway Tennessee & Pacific dates from 1871. By 1900 one of several “Tennessee Centrals” ran east to Emory Gap; western extension reached Hopkinsville, Ky., in 1904. During receivership 1904-1913, TC, divided at Nashville, was controlled by Illinois Central and Southern. After years of unprofitability, TC was split in May 1968 among IC (west […]
Akron, Canton & Youngstown Railway Akron, Canton & Youngstown incorporated in 1907, completed its line in 1913. Purchased by N&W at time of Nickel Plate merger in October 1964. Dissolved by N&W successor Norfolk Southern Corp. on January 1, 1982. Trackage included in May 17, 1990, sale to new regional Wheeling & Lake Erie. Alabama, […]
Bachmann N scale Acela Express passenger train A sharp-looking ready-to-run model of Amtrak’s Acela Express is the newest arrival in Bachmann’s Spectrum N scale line. The model is equipped with a dual-mode Digital Command Control (DCC) decoder and is usable on DC or DCC layouts. The powered café car and dummy locomotives and passenger cars […]
