Once known for mainline steam excursions, the NRHS has struggled to find relevance in the Internet age.
David Honan
10. The once-mighty National Railway Historical Society appears to be running out of steam. A hotly contested election and a failed reorganization plan brought attention to the venerable organization, but in the end the status quo remains and the national group still struggles to find relevance in the Internet Age. In 2013, the NRHS had 11,573 members, about half the number it had in 1994 when the group reached an all-time high of 21,842. Without a change, the organization’s last chapter may have to dump the fire.
Iowa Pacific and Watco team up for the ‘Eastern Flyer’ excursion special in northeast Oklahoma in February 2014.
Anthony Wessel
9. American passenger service is making progress, and it’s not just the government making a push. Surprising many of its critics, Florida East Coast Industries, through its All Aboard Florida subsidiary, is continuing to build out its new passenger service between Miami and Orlando, even as the costs and timeline continue to expand. The trains are expected to roll, between Miami and West Palm Beach at least, by the end of 2016 and over the entire route in the first half of 2017, at an estimated cost of $3 billion. Elsewhere, Iowa Pacific is busy promoting popup passenger services in Oklahoma and Wisconsin, and Indiana and Connecticut (at least) are seeking new private operators for their state-subsidized trains. With government spending questioned more than ever, this may be the future of passenger rail expansion in the U.S.
GECX No. 2021 leads a Tier IV test set on UP on California’s Donner Pass in May 2014.
Jim Jackson
8. One of the biggest changes of 2014 didn’t even come from a railroad regulator. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations for diesel exhaust may have exhausted long-time locomotive builder Electro-Motive Diesel, which will not have a compliant locomotive model to offer come Jan. 1. In the weeks and days leading up to the new year, EMD and rival General Electric worked overtime, figuratively and literally, to produce as many Tier 3-compliant locomotives as possible before the new regulations took effect. Now the industry must wait for EMD’s return to the domestic locomotive market, which is expected in 2017.
CSX and CP locomotive congregate at a Chicago area terminal.
Don Kalkman
7. The year marked more controversy for Canadian Pacific. The railroad’s leadership made headlines throughout the second half of the year, first suggesting it alone could solve the Chicago terminal puzzle, then trying to find a merger partner in CSX Transportation to make it so. The Florida-based Class I railroad was unwilling, which was likely a good thing for Chicago area railroaders: Such a combination would have had controlling interest in the Indiana Harbor Belt, potentially reducing the road’s neutrality.
Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 flies through the California desert on its way to Cheyenne, Wyo., and restoration for operation, in April 2014.
Brian Schmidt
6. It could be said that North American steam has not had such a banner year since a Roosevelt occupied the White House. The year saw two articulated steam locomotives in transit toward promised restorations, Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 No. 4014 and Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-2 No. 1309; continued progress on fan favorite Norfolk & Western 4-8-4 J Class No. 611; a number of moderate-sized locomotives under steam once again; and the presentation of the annual Trains Magazine preservation award to Santa Fe 4-8-4 No. 2926 for a modern 26L brake stand. The steam and preservation community eagerly awaits what progress 2015 will bring.
Railroads, unions, and regulators are in the great debate over one-person crews, and positive train control may tip the balance in their favor. Someday, a road freight like this may operate with just one person in the cab.
Darrell D. Wendt
5. One-person crews have become a proverbial flash point for North American railroads. A summer proposal by BNSF Railway to use one-person crews, with a new operating position called “master conductors,” drew much criticism from railroad labor throughout the industry. And yet, with the implementation of positive train control on the horizon, railroads are in as good a position as ever to push for the crew size reduction. Labor appears to have won the battle this year, but the war is far from over.
A CSX train passes a new signal installation at in Elk Mills, Md., in April 2014.
Rick Lipscomb
4. The struggle between America’s railroad builders and the Native Americans played out more than a century ago and was romanticized in spaghetti Westerns more than two generation ago. Or did it? The industry revealed in April that it might not make the federal mandate for the implementation of positive train control by the end of 2015 due to the need to place some PTC antennas within Native American reservations. Such work needs approval by the Federal Communications Commission, which suspended installations until environmental and historic surveys could be undertaken. Railroads are still working — and spending — to meet the deadline, but new legislation may be needed yet to extend it in light of the FCC’s move.
Tank cars of all types, like these hauling ethanol at Bloomington, Ill., have come under scrutiny since the July 2013 derailment and fire in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, that killed 47.
Steve Smedley
3. Just how much grief can one derailment cause for an entire industry? If that derailment is the deadly July 2013 derailment and fire in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, the answer is a lot. Not since Conrail engineer Ricky L. Gates killed 16 people aboard an Amtrak train in a 1987 derailment in Maryland has the entire industry needed to stop and take note. Still under the resulting scrutiny — and sometimes new regulation — in 2014 are tank cars, operating practices, one-person crews, and the chemical composition of the crude oil itself. One bright spot: The new Central Maine & Quebec Railway, led by industry veteran John Giles, has taken over the besieged Montreal, Maine & Atlantic’s property and is poised for a turnaround.
A Norfolk Southern freight passes what will become the new south end of the siding at Shenandoah Junction, W.Va., on June 22, 2014. Once work is complete, the siding will be able to accommodate 11,000-foot trains.
Mason Y. Cooper
2. There’s no shortage of business on the railroads these days, and the railroads are spending like it. BNSF Railway has itself set consecutive records for single-year capital spending, with an outlay of $5.5 billion in 2014 and a planned $6 billion in 2015. That tops the collective spending of all Class I railroads just a decade earlier. The new ties, new yards, new rails, new signals, new tracks, new locomotives, and new bridges are all going to support the rapid growth railroads have seen in recent years. Some is spurred by legislation, such as the need to install positive train control by the end of 2015, but much is driven by the immense increase in traffic that has come to the railroads.
Norfolk Southern freight and Amtrak passenger trains meet near Toledo, Ohio, on July 4, 2014. Congestion on the railroad’s primary Chicago main line has led to an Amtrak complaint filed with the Surface Transportation Board over its trains’ timekeeping on the route.
Michael D. Harding
1. North America’s Class I railroads may have finally found too much of a good thing, and they can’t spend fast enough to make a smoother ride. For decades railroads seemed content to be the invisible cog in the country’s industrial machine, but 2014 has brought the rail network to the forefront in the minds of regulators, legislators, industries, and even consumers. The first half of the year saw widespread and serious service failures: trains parked for lack of crews, power, and space. Farmers complained their record harvest wasn’t making it to market. Utilities complained they couldn’t keep the lights on without more coal. Passengers sat on delayed trains, or were left out in the cold when they were canceled outright. Railroads blamed the extreme winter, the so-called “Polar Vortex” in the Midwest that brought sub-zero temperatures to the all important Chicago gateway for weeks at a time. Shippers blamed crude oil for gumming up the railroads’ already delicate networks with more trains, which seemingly received preferential treatment to theirs. Even Amtrak piled on, filing a complaint with the Surface Transportation Board over the handling of the Capitol Limited and Lake Shore Limited, trains that operate on oil-heavy routes in the East. Only time will tell if the problems have been fixed, and railroads know they are under the gun to perform better in the coming year.
I used to belong to the Bluewater Chapter when I lived in Michigan. After moving to Tennessee I let my NRHS membership laps. Last year in June I re-rewed my NRHS membership. After several messages left on their phone and several faxes and even a snail mail message, I still have not received my Membership materials. I have been in touch with my local chapter in Knoxville and have sent my local dues there for this year. I will not re-new my National Dues until I get my membership materials. The NRHS needs to get their act together. They sure know where to find me now that they want my dues money. Why they cannot or will not Just acknowledge messages is beyond me, especially after several attempts to contact them.
As an ex-member of NRHS from Virginia, I was surprised and perplexed that my membership was channeled through somebody in Alaska. It was even worse when my renewal materials arrived and they were for another person with a similar name who had joined 15 years earlier. I never renewed my membership.
I feel bad for the mma I worked on the bar from 1952-1996 its too bad to see all the ex bar units go.
I believe that the NRHS conventions are still well attended and profitable. Someone can correct me if I am wrong. If I am right, maybe they should focus more on conventions and less on publications containing information that in many cases may be available online.
Regarding the proposal to turn the NRHS into an organization based on funding railroad preservation, many of us would rather donate to a specific museum or tourist railroad rather than a national organization that will redistribute it.
I concur Bill and have been guilty of it myself, certain aspects of trains become a passionate part of us.
One can hope that the NRHS can communicate to Rail Operators that the next generation of railroad workers need to be introduced to the career and excursions if offered to the public, is way to do it, something a museum cannot provide.
Re. The sad plight of the NRHS: With the possible exception of academics and Marxists, I have never encountered a group of enthusiasts as quarrelsome and fractious as railroad fans and model railroaders. I've watched clubs, chapters and layouts come apart over issues so trivial it would take an electron microscope to find them. I hope NRHS gets its act together. Our hobby needs all the friends it can get.