For an industry which hauls the heaviest, densest loads overland, no other material has proven itself more useful to railroads than that combination of iron, carbon, and trace minerals. For more than 150 years, U.S. steelmakers have needed railroads to efficiently haul their heavy iron ore, taconite pellets, and coal, and also to transport […]
Join Trains editors on a brief tour of the historic Case Scenic Railroad in Cass, West Virginia. See video of restored and operating Heisler and Climax logging locomotives in dense foliage in the Appalachian Mountains. […]
But this new source of revenue has a troubling side. Rapid growth strains the capacity of railroads to move crude oil. And, safety has become an even bigger issue following the tragic derailment of a crude oil train in Quebec in July 2013 that killed 47 people and leveled a town. Other spectacular […]
Thanks, Jim. Canadian National is the No. 1 lumber-hauling railroad in the U.S. It takes particleboard out of British Columbia and moves it across the continent to where its needed. If you see new homes or condos or apartments being built, chances are that the wood for them came by rail. CN moves about […]
This video was originally published by Trains as part of the Locomotive 2017 DVD. BNSF Needles Subdivision stretches from the Arizona/California state line at Needles west to Barstow, California across almost 170 miles of desert that tests man and machine every day in the struggle to keep the railroad moving. For the majority of its […]
This video was originally published by Trains as part of the Locomotive 2017 DVD. Canadian Pacific’s transcontinental mainline across Canada traverses a wide range of terrain, from the Rocky mountains in the west, across the plains in its midsection to the Canadian Shield in the east. One of the most beautiful and inaccessible locations is […]
Originally, cars didn’t have it so good. They went in boxcars. They went on flatcars, stacked one on top of the other. Trains were important in making cars, too, and auto-parts special trains with nicknames like the *Sparkplug* began to appear. It didn’t take long to realize that something better had to come […]
This video was originally published by Trains as part of the Locomotive 2017 DVD. Natural gas as a locomotive fuel has been around for decades. Testing in the 1980s and 1990s on several railroads failed to yield the interest and scope of testing the fuel has enjoyed in the past several years. Six of the […]
This video was originally published by Trains as part of the Locomotive 2017 DVD. The northeast United States continues to be an Alco and MLW stronghold. The largest percentage of active units from these two builders call many short line railroads in this region home. Two of these railroads, Western New York & Pennsylvania […]
This video was originally published by Trains as part of the Locomotive 2017 DVD. Southwest Ontario’s rolling countryside is home to vast open stretches of fertile farmland. The gently rolling topography of the area forced the original builders of the rail lines in the area to employ a cut and fill approach to right of […]
Kansas City Southern hasn’t purchased new locomotives since 2014 as the company has had ample power for its traffic levels with coal deliveries down across its core north-south mainline south of Kansas City. The railroad continues to upgrade its existing power, converting six (confirm) GP38-2s and GP40-2s to GP32ECOs using kits supplied from EMD. KCS […]
At first glance, aggregates — stone, sand, and gravel — are unlikely darlings among railroad commodities. They’re low-value and they tend to move only short distances. But even though their revenue per car is low, they are nearly perfect freight: indestructible and relatively harmless if spilled. In fact, stones and sand not only make […]
