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Fall foliage hotlines and online reports
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 […]
A line-up at the Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum
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 […]
Ask Trains from September 2009
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 […]
GE box-cabs in Chile
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 […]
Washington, D.C.’s Dulles Corridor Metrorail project
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 […]
Web Exclusive: Southern Pacific narrow gauge lives
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 […]
The freight-hauling locomotives of U.S. Gypsum
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 […]
Trains, August 2009
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Union Pacific steam program conductor Reed Jackson dies NEWSWIRE
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Reed Jackson, a 35-year Union Pacific veteran with 12 years of major involvement in the railroad’s steam program, died Saturday of complications of surgery. He was 54 years old. Jackson’s father was a superintendent on Denver & Rio Grande Western, and Jackson worked briefly for Rio Grande before being furloughed and […]
Graphics Promoting Tourism
John Gruber collection John Gruber collection John Gruber collection John Gruber collection In the 1920s, the United States poured millions into a federal highway program that coincided with the automakers’ creation of lower-cost cars. The developments enabled almost all Americans the freedom to travel independently for the first time. But personal cars – even limousines […]
Extra 2200 South: Still in business NEWSWIRE
MILFORD, Ohio – Though subscribers report no new issues this year, the owner of locomotive news magazine Extra 2200 South said today the magazine is alive and well. With luck, Doug Cummings said, a new issue could be out in the next 30 days, but he said he wouldn’t promise that. The delay, Cummings said, […]