Amtrak America’s Railroad records the many trials of keeping America’s railroad passenger service on track, and there were and still remain many. The chapters offer coverage of “What We Had,” “Creating a New National Network,” “Where Do We Go From Here?” and “The Road to the Future.” The authors have dug deep to record input […]
Join Trains Editor Jim Wrinn on a video visit to Michigan’s Little River Railroad 4-6-2 No. 110 – known as the world’s smallest standard gauge Pacific steam locomotive. No. 110 celebrates its 110th birthday in 2021. Help celebrate by sharing birthday wishes in the comments section below! […]
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50 years ago in railroad history … A supplement to the Classic Trains Online Look Back e-mail newsletter Chesapeake & Ohio on May 7 launches mail and express service between Grand Rapids and Petoskey, Mich., using Railvans – a predecessor of today’s RoadRailer railcar/semitrailer hybrids. . . . Chicago & North Western, seeking to modernize […]
50 years ago in railroad history … A supplement to the Classic Trains Online Look Back e-mail newsletter TRAINS magazine devotes its April 1959 issue to an investigation titled “Who Shot the Passenger Train?” The landmark issue examines the (mostly unhealthy) state of the rail passenger business and proposes solutions. . . . [All feature […]
50 years ago in railroad history … A supplement to the Classic Trains Online Look Back e-mail newsletter The U.S. Supreme Court on March 2 upholds a lower court’s ruling not to interfere in the discontinuance of New York Central’s Weehawken-Cortland Street Hudson River ferries, paving the way for their last runs on March 24; […]
50 years ago in railroad history … A supplement to the Classic Trains Online Look Back e-mail newsletter Pullman car Ferdinand Magellan, modified to haul the President of the United States in 1942 and in POTUS ever since, is donated to the Florida Development Commission for display at the University of Miami; it later moved […]
Rock Island buys GM’s two Aerotrains for suburban service out of Chicago, where they join RI’s own Jet Rocket Talgo train, powered by an Aerotrain-style locomotive. . . . Illinois Central buys eight sleeping cars (four 10-5’s, four 4-4-2’s) from New York Central for City of Miami service. . . . Pullman-Standard’s first 85-foot flatcar […]
As of October 1, 1958, Class I railroads own or lease 27,622 diesel locomotives, 1,532 steam locomotives, and 559 electrics. . . . Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line are mulling a merger. . . . New York Central unveils a system for transporting ballistic missiles in conventional 70-foot baggage cars. . . . […]
New Jersey challenges the constitutionality of the Transportation Act of 1958, under whose provisions the Erie and New York Central seek to discontinue their Hudson River ferry service. . . . Reading Company completes a $500,000 upgrade at its Port Richmond Marine Terminal on the Delaware River in Philadelphia; new ore-unloading machinery nearly doubles the […]
SP announces it is standardizing on silver livery for all passenger equipment; although Armour yellow will be retained for cars assigned to Overland Route trains, SP’s tow-tone gray and bright Daylight colors will fade away. . . . On August 12, the Transportation Act of 1958 is signed into law. Among its provisions are greater […]
July 1958 in railroad history One of steam’s greatest chapters comes to a close July 2 when class S-2 No. 746 makes the last revenue freight trip of a Nickel Plate Road Berkshire, Bellevue-Conneaut, Ohio. . . . Fan trips: Burlington Route assigns O-5A 4-8-4 No. 5618 to a July 4th weekend Railroad Club of […]
