A locomotive has two pilots, one on each end where it interfaces with other units and/or the cars its hauling. The main component is the coupler on each end, along with the adjacently mounted train line air hose. These are the basic connections between all freight cars and other locomotives. Working outward from the coupler […]
Next-generation rail photographers Thirteen-year-old me got a stern bit of unsolicted trackside advice one day. “Railroading isn’t what it used to be. Everything looks the same and you have no idea what it was like before your time.” Another voice, some time later, said today’s wide cabs will be as glorified as the bygone days […]
Hot stove On the day after Thanksgiving of 1981, the crew desk called me as the conductor to dog catch the North Bend local. We went on duty at Burlington Northern’s Stacy Street Yard in Seattle, a former Northern Pacific Terminal, located south of downtown and a couple blocks west of today’s Lumen Field (Seahawks) […]
Amtrak RS3 diesel locomotives supported operations on the Amtrak-owned Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington, D.C. The RS3 was Alco’s best-selling road switcher model with 1,265 units sold to more than 50 railroads between 1948 and 1962. Marketed as a multi-purpose unit, some roads, including but not limited to Pennsylvania, Rock Island, and Western […]
The steam community is in a happy state of shock this week with the news that New York Central 3001, one of the NYC’s famed 4-8-2 Mohawk engines, might be restored to operating condition by the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society, operators of famed Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765. The announcement came Oct. 9 […]
Vermont railfan event About 80 “train catchers” boarded coaches behind Rutland No. 405 that Saturday. Some carried cameras, some notebooks, some with a buddy, some came alone. What did all of us have in common? Trains. I call us “train catchers” because like dream catchers, we anticipate a safe journey provided by our engine. We […]
The model railroad industry has featured fantasy-painted locomotives for years. These are locomotive models painted for railroads that never actually owned them. Think Canadian National GP60Ms, Burlington Northern ES44ACs or Monon SD70ACes — designs the railroad either never purchased (Canadiana National), or for which the railroad wasn’t in existence at the time the locomotives were […]
To win over the railroads with its new Rail Diesel Car (RDC), the Budd Co. wasn’t content with a single model type. In a time of declining passenger traffic during the post war years, the car manufacturer banked on multiple to meet the needs of either passenger, baggage-express or mail, as well as for all […]
First the tracks were built east. Then west. Then west some more. Such were the uncertain beginnings of what became the West Point Route. Construction began on the banks of the navigable Alabama River at Montgomery, the capital. During 1834-41, 32 miles of standard-gauge track extended east toward both West Point and Columbus, Ga., […]
Diesel locomotive paint track A visit to Southern Pacific’s Taylor Yard in Los Angeles always included a run by of its diesel locomotive paint track. It was the one place that the usual combined with the unusual, the largest mingled with the smallest. A model of practically everything the SP owned sooner or later wound […]
Early last spring, it was time to plan a summer vacation and get to some unfinished business. Alison and I agreed on the overall goal: get to Alaska. For her it was the call of Denali National Park and the fjords along the coast south of Seward. For me (no surprise), it was the chance […]
Railfanning the upper Mississippi River is a rewarding experience. The area’s scenic beauty rated a slogan from the Burlington Route: “Where nature smiles 300 miles,” enticing passengers to Chicago, Burlington & Quincy passenger trains along the east bank of the river. Milwaukee Road’s Hiawathas (slogan: “Nothing Faster on Rails”) competed for Chicago-Twin Cities business using its own […]
