Coaster trains operate on a 42-mile route between the Oceanside Transit Center and the Santa Fe depot in downtown San Diego, serving 8 stations. The tracks, once part of Santa Fe’s Surf Line, have long hosted intercity passenger trains between San Diego and Los Angeles. Today, Amtrak runs Pacific Surfliners on the route, linking San […]
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Metra: Driven by its history
Slant-nosed Metra F40PH-2Ms are seen powering Rock Island district trains, approaching Chicago’s LaSalle St. Station on December 15, 1997. Howard Ande Chicago has been North America’s railroad capital for 150 years, and Trains Magazine showed you why in special issues devoted to the city in July 2003 and July 1993. But while Chicago is a […]
Metrolink
Metrolink F59PHI 880 pauses with Orange County Line train 688 at the Fullerton, Calif., station at 5:39 p.m., on August 7, 1998. The Los Angeles commuter rail system has grown dramatically since its 1992 startup. George Fletcher Metrolink, the working name of the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, operates commuter service in the Los Angeles […]
West Coast Express
West Coast Express train laying over in downtown Vancouver, B.C., in 1999. John Godfrey West Coast Express commuter trains operate on a 40-mile segment of Canadian Pacific’s transcontinental main line between Mission City and Vancouver’s Waterfront Station, serving 8 stations. The name for the commuter operation was selected by a panel of judges from over […]
Metroliner’s amazing career
The Metroliner leapt out of the starting gate in January 1969, beat the airline competition, and became a way of life for rail travelers throughout the Northeast. In the June 2006 issue of TRAINS Magazine, author Bruce Goldberg examines Metroliner’s distinguished career, from its launched by Penn Central to its stewardship under Amtrak, which nurtured […]
Ask Trains from August 2006
Q What does the name “Soo Line” mean? Is it an acronym, an abbreviation, or something else? I’ve asked many rail enthusiasts and gotten many different answers. – Reed Newlin, Maryville, Ill. A The Soo Line got its nickname from its original full name, the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie. “Sault,” pronounced “Soo,” […]
Steam locomotive profile: 2-8-4 Berkshire
One of Nickel Plate’s handsome Berkshires leads a westward freight across the Grand River bridge in Painesville, Ohio. No. 802 was originally built for the Wheeling & Lake Erie in 1937, then went to work for the Nickel Plate Road in 1949 when the NKP leased the W&LE. John A. Rehor During the 1920s, America’s […]
Steam locomotive profile: 2-10-0 Decapod
Two Pennsylvania Railroad Decapods shove a heavy freight around Horseshoe Curve in the Allegheny Mountains. H. W. Pontin, Railroad Photographic Club The first 2-10-0s were built for the Lehigh Valley in 1867. They were not, however, a success. Their long rigid wheelbase was too much for the track, and the two locomotives were later rebuilt […]
Steam locomotive profile: 2-10-2 Santa Fe
Santa Fe No. 900 was part of the railroad’s first class of 2-10-2s, delivered by Baldwin between 1903 and 1904. Photographed at Raton, N.M., on May 3, 1950. C. C. Trinbham Differences of decades: The design of the final class of 2-10-2s built for the Santa Fe could be traced to the 2-8-2, rather than […]
Railroad Fallen Flag Thumbnails: P-S
Penn Central Company Penn Central was created February 1, 1968 by merger of Pennsylvania and New York Central. Entered bankruptcy on June 21, 1970. Because of PC’s failure and its size, the federal government created Conrail, to which PC was conveyed on April 1, 1976. Pennsylvania Railroad Pennsylvania Railroad chartered April 13, 1846; by 1852, […]
Railroad Fallen Flag Thumbnails: C
Canadian National Canadian National Railways was incorporated June 6, 1919, to operate several carriers that had come under governmental control owing to financial problems: Intercolonial (1913); National Transcontinental (1915); Canadian Northern (1918); Grand Trunk Pacific (1920); and Grand Trunk (1920). The Grand Trunk name survived on the U.S. portion of the Montreal-Portland (Maine) line until […]
Railroad Fallen Flag Thumbnails: L-O
Lehigh & Hudson River Railway Warwick Valley opened in 1862 as 6-foot-gauge line, standard-gauged in 1880. It was extended southwest as Lehigh & Hudson River, a name adopted for both lines in 1882. L&HR filed for bankruptcy on April 18, 1872, and was among the properties conveyed to Conrail on April 1, 1976. Lehigh & […]
