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LIRR FA2 It’s an unusual sight — what looks almost like a diesel B unit, resting on the cold ground in an Ohio scrapyard. A closer look reveals that this wasn’t always a B unit — it had a cab at one point, removed with significantly greater care than any scrapyard could give. On its […]
Mojave Subdivision You have heard me mention in a couple of previous stories that I’m proud to be qualified on three different mountain grades; Stampede Pass (former Northern Pacific), my home territory, Stevens Pass (Great Northern), and Tehachapi Pass (Southern Pacific/Santa Fe) on the Mojave Subdivision. How did I end up in southern California, far […]
Wabash Railway history started with the Northern Cross, the first railroad in Illinois, in 1837. The term “Fallen Flag” first appeared in Trains in 1974, as the title for a series of thumbnail histories of merged-away railroads. The series began with the Wabash, and employed the road’s flag emblem outline to illustrate the series’ […]
What are couplers? Ever since the locomotive was invented, a coupling device was needed to pull cars behind it. Link and pin couplers were the start of couplers in the United States. In fact, they were famous for crushing fingers and hands of brakeman who held the link in one hand while dropping the pin […]
One thousand issues One thousand issues of Trains Magazine have put tens of thousands of railroad photographs in the public eye. The most memorable of these images do far more than portray a locomotive or a train in motion. They preserve a moment of railroading and capture the spirit of a place, a railroad, and […]
Breakdown of Streamliners What are streamliners? Essentially, it’s a sleek design for lightweight passenger rail equipment that once had a faster schedule with fewer stops than other trains on the same route. They often included nicer amenities like stewardess service, reserved coach seating, barber shops, and libraries. Before 1970, three major manufacturers built passenger cars […]
This is a picture worth a thousand words. For decades, artists and photographers awed us with images of mighty locomotives scorching the high iron with hundreds of passengers or thousands of tons of freight in tow. The sun shines brightly as the wind blows the hair of the fearless engineer, perched on the armrest. The […]
BNSF Railway and J.B. Hunt To honor fallen veterans during the holidays a number of companies regularly partner with Wreaths Across America to deliver wreaths for placement on headstones. Among them are BNSF Railway and J.B. Hunt Transport Services. This year the two transportation giants together moved 46 container loads of wreaths — that’s 314,000 […]
Metra It’s likely many passengers don’t realize commuter rail operator Metra serves Chicago O’Hare International Airport. But then, “serves” may be generous. What the commuter operator provides is more akin to a cameo appearance. In 2022, the airport handled almost 664,000 commercial flights and more than 68.3 million passengers. Metra addresses this with 12 trains, […]
What was your first byline in Trains? Blair Kooistra: It was a short, totally unsolicited book review on the softcover photography title “Railroading West: A Contemporary Glimpse,” written by Jeff Brouws and Ronald Hill, appearing in the October 1976 issue. I was an impressionable 16 1/2 years old, and was blown away by the photography […]
Christmas and trains — they go hand-in-hand, just like stockings hung by the fireplace with care or the trip over the river and through the woods to grandma’s house for Christmas dinner. The foremost Christmas and trains connection is that of holiday travel and the toy train around the Christmas tree. Both have historic and […]
Contemporary holiday season travel can present challenges that will dim the spirits of even the most joyful among us. Let us, for a few moments, recall a time of more enjoyable travel, a time when getting there was a fun part of the adventure. Like today, travel on Christmas is not an ideal situation. In […]
