The biggest possible change in motive power to come to railroading has been a part of TRAINS for years. See how TRAINS covered electrification and the Transportation Technology Center Inc., plus learn how Bill Withuhn at the Smithsonian covered steam power, and even tested it for TRAINS. This TRAINS Express PDF download is free to […]
Click the image to download a PDF of this article as it would appear in TRAINS magazine. A boxcar sits idle behind a warehouse. Its contents have been unloaded and the doors are closed. The only movement that can be seen is the heat waves rising off the hot rails in the summer sun. Despite […]
Eichholz Rail V170 No. 1125, a Swedish-built diesel, shows off its “Warbonnet” markings on an excursion train at Traiskirchen, Austria. Raimund Wyhnal BNSF may have given up the famous “Warbonnet” scheme it inherited from predecessor Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, but a German company is keeping the classic scheme alive. Eichholz Rail, a German railroad […]
U.S. railroad electrification In 1939, the United States was the global leader in railroad electrification, with over 20% of the world’s total. Today, electrification is a non-factor on almost all American railroads outside the Northeast Corridor. How did this happen? The heady projects from the early 20th century that propelled the U.S. to world leader […]
Arkansas & Missouri Railroad roster Legendary among Alco operators, the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad is an independent Class III railroad operating 139-miles of onetime Frisco trackage between Monett, Mo., and Fort Smith, Ark. In addition to freight service, the road also operates passenger excursions. The road’s all-Alco fleet is dominated by 16 C420s of various […]
The Berkshire mountains of western Massachusetts are alive with color on October 11, 1997, as Conrail freight SELA rolls through Chester, Mass., behind C30-7A locomotives. Matt Van Hattem There are countless opportunities to enjoy the colors of fall from trackside public parks and railroad museums, and aboard special fall foliage train excursions. The U.S. Forest […]
The Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum held its annual night photo shoot on June 13, 2009, at Willimantic, Conn. Framed by the museum’s six-stall roundhouse, the six pieces of equipment arranged for the photo are (from left) a GE 44-tonner (built in 1950 for the Long Island Rail Road), a Narragansett Railway speeder, a GE 45-tonner […]
Q How do railroads figure how much power is necessary for a train?– Richard Panarese, Mesa, Ariz.A Railroads determine power needed for a train based on the route, and the train’s weight and priority. BNSF, for instance, considers the “horsepower per ton” required based on what officials call the train’s “transportation service plan.” The transportation […]
General Electric B-B electrics 606 and 601 are ready to depart Barriles yard, current terminus of the FCTT’s electrification on July 23, 2007. The short train of gondolas is conveying processed nitrate to the shipping terminal at Tocopilla, 17.25 miles and 1.5 hours away, and 3, 231 feet downhill. Ian A. Dunn Nos. 604 and […]
Construction is underway for Washington, D.C.’s train to the the Dulles International Airport. It is due to open in two phases. Trains will roll on the first phase to Reston, Va., in 2013; the second phase to Loudoun County, including Dulles, in 2016. In the October 2009 issue of Trains, we reported on the decades […]
Southern Pacific 4-6-0 No. 9 rolls on one of the last narrow gauge lines in the West with a Class I railroad as a parent. Bill Poole, Carson & Colorado Railway Inc. collection Southern Pacific’s 3-foot gauge line in California’s Owens Valley became famous as one of the last slim gauge lines in the West […]
For 35 years, these two GE 54-ton switchers were the workhorses for USG Corp.’s gypsum-hauling 3-foot-gauge railroad in Southern California’s Imperial Valley. Built in 1956, the two GE rest on April 27, 1991, at Plaster City, Calif. The following year, the units were donated to Colorado’s Georgetown Loop, displaced by USG’s Bombardier-built DL535Es. David Lustig […]
