Trains offers something for everyone who has a spark for railroading: Railroad news, insight, and commentary on today’s freight railroads, passenger service, transit, locomotives, technology, preservation, fan opportunities, and more. You’ll also see images and read stories from railroading’s glorious past, and explore the bright future of railroading. It’s all in the pages of Trains magazine.
Features
Bonus Content: Holiday Photo Gallery
Check out more festive railroad photos that we couldn’t fit in this issue.
Winter in the West
In the off-season, sagebrush country gets bigger … and colder
Bonus Content: Enjoy more photos of the Western winter
Penguin Scarves and Hot Chocolate
Surviving the winter commute in Boston
Victorian Holiday
A Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway two-footer holiday treat in Maine
The Home of the Christmas Tree Train
Philadelphia’s West Chester Railroad is also an Alco sanctuary
A New Tradition
The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train and the spirit of goodwill, with good company, is a custom worth keeping
24 Hours at Willow Springs
Inside BNSF’s hot Chicago intermodal yard, where the pressure never relents
Bonus Content: Watch a video of cranes in BNSF’s Logistics Park Chicago yard
Map of the Month: Highest and Steepest
The highest point and steepest grade on America’s classic railroads
In My Own Words: Adventures in Crew Calling
A teenage crew caller managed to corral missing crews
NEWS
News and Photos
- America’s streetcar renaissance
- CSX slims Northeast routes
- Progressive expands twice
Don Phillips
A commuter rail contract becomes a poster child for political correctness run amok
Fred W. Frailey
In Vegas and Florida come quite different approaches to the passenger train business
Locomotive
Technology
Update on confidential reporting
Passenger
Improvement recommendations offer ridership, efficiency gains — if they can ever be implemented
DEPARTMENTS
From the Editor
In praise of places that inspire
Ask Trains
How traction motors transfer energy in locomotive trucks
Preservation
Future for 4-8-4s is looking good
Trackside
Alex Mayes’ top 10 railfan spots
