Skip Lichter, steam locomotive owner, dies

Man sitting next to steam locomotive

GARIBALDI, Ore. — One of private preservation’s most effective individuals, steam locomotive owner Roland “Skip” Lichter, has died. The owner of Polson Lumber Co. 2-8-2 No. 2, long based in Wisconsin and relocated to Oregon in 2017, died Wednesday. Lichter bought the locomotive in 1982 and ran it at Wisconsin’s Mid-Continent Railway Museum until it […]

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Convert a large-scale LGB passenger car into a dining car

Model figures in a dining car

By Frederic Williams Rohm and Brian Michelson I grew up in central Pennsylvania where my family had been long-time residents. My garden railroad is based on the Pennsylvania Railroad circa 1900; my grandfather and uncles worked on the PRR. The premier Pennsy passenger train of this era was the Pennsylvania Limited, which began making the […]

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News Photos: Wisconsin station relocated

Station building being moved on street

A Brookfield, Wis., railroading landmark has been relocated. Thursday night into Friday morning, the town’s former Milwaukee Road station was moved from its location along the current Canadian Pacific right-of-way to a new spot about 350 feet away [see “Brookfield, Wis., depot prepared for move,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 29, 2021]. Estimates are that at […]

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STB allows Minnesota shipper’s complaint against Union Pacific to proceed

Surface Transportation Board logo

WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board will allow a Minnesota company to proceed with its complaint against Union Pacific that alleges service reductions by the railroad violate UP’s common carrier obligation and constitute unreasonable practices. In a decision issued Tuesday, the board granted a request by Sanimax USA to partially revoke commodity exemptions and allow […]

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O’Hare peoplemover system set to resume operation

Blue peoplemover train with white ORD lettering

CHICAGO — A long-delayed peoplemover rail system at O’Hare Airport is set to begin operation today (Nov. 3, 2021), almost three years late and four years after a predecessor system shut down. The Chicago Sun-Times reports the new system will be able to carry 4,800 riders per hour, almost twice the number of the previous […]

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Train 447

Three diesel locomotives in yard

Train 477 Train 477 out of Chicago holds the westward main track at Butler, Chicago & North Western’s principal Milwaukee-area yard and site of the Wisconsin Division headquarters, in spring 1984. Chris Burger photo […]

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CP and KCS project dramatic rise in daily train counts

Map of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern systems with details from merger document

WASHINGTON – Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern say their proposed merger will generate significant traffic growth, with daily train counts on the combined system’s north-south spine projected to more than double within three years. The traffic details were among those included in the railways’ 4,342-page, 1-gigabyte merger application filed with U.S. regulators late Friday. […]

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Dad was a closet railfan

Black-and-white photo of front end of steam locomotive emerging from enginehouse doorway

My father was a closet railfan. He didn’t hang around the tracks or take pictures of trains. On the other hand, he was always more than happy to take us kids to almost any railroad yard or station if we asked. And he never told us to stay away from the tracks, perhaps swayed by […]

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Milwaukee Road history

Color three-quarter-angle photo of streamlined steam locomotive with passenger train

Milwaukee Road history Milwaukee Road history begins with the Milwaukee & Waukesha Rail Road, which was chartered in 1847. Even before it laid its first rails in 1850, its name was changed to the Milwaukee & Mississippi. In 1851 it reached Waukesha, Wis., 20 miles west of Milwaukee. Its rails reached Madison in 1854 and […]

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After 12 years, Metra holds station groundbreaking (updated)

Illustration of new commuter station

CHICAGO – More than a dozen city, state, local, and Metra officials took turns speaking to the media Monday, then posed for the obligatory shovel photo on the site where the $22 million Peterson-Ridge commuter rail station in the Edgewater neighborhood on Chicago’s north side will be built during the next 18 months. Metra first […]

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