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Most users of Milwaukee’s Oak Leaf Trail running from the Lake Michigan shoreline in downtown Milwaukee northwest through the city are aware, or could easily guess, they are using an old railroad right of way. Few realize this was once the route of one of the fastest long-distance passenger trains in the world — the […]
Mind-blowing Chessie facts Mind-blowing Chessie facts: What began as a simple etching of a sleeping kitten, blossomed into one of America’s most-loved corporate symbols. This is the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway’s Chessie Cat. Trains collectionAmerican businesses have fostered a plethora of advertising characters attempting to endear us to their products and entice us to purchase […]
Standardized time in the US Long before radios and extensive signaling systems, railroads safely operated multiple trains on the same line. Supplied with timetables showing the schedules of all regular trains and precisely worded written orders from the dispatcher, crews ran with a complete understanding of where and when they would meet other trains and […]
A scary tale of two train wrecks: Around the time of All Hallows’ Eve, it is tradition to subject ourselves to dark, scary tales intended to make us afraid of the dark and fear those things that go bump in the night. The vast majority of these stories are pure fiction that, when peeled back, […]
Yard Dog In mid-September 2022, the first nationwide railroad strike in three decades was narrowly averted thanks to a tentative deal between Class I railroads and three labor unions. The news brought to mind a labor dispute more than 30 years ago — and an unusual picket line. In the 1980s, railroaders in Norfolk, Nebraska’s […]
What was your first byline in Trains? “Beyond the 100-inch isoline — Railroading in the Lake Huron snowbelt,” published in the February 1980 issue. I began reading Trains at age 8 (the September 1963 issue) and aspired from that moment to write for Trains. I was never confident enough to submit anything until the summer of […]
Chessie’s story is a unique one. Born to the world in 1933, from the imagination of many, Chessie’s tale begins innocently with her asleep, one eye slightly opened, and a paw stretched out from underneath a blanket. Her story, as it develops, flooded the mainstream media, creeping into people’s homes during a painful and uncertain […]
Mind-blowing East Broad Top facts Tucked deep in the Allegheny Mountains, between Altoona and Harrisburg, is Rockhill, Pa. Today, Rockhill is home to a railroad time capsule called the East Broad Top Railroad, arguably one of the more famous and best-preserved U.S. narrow gauge lines. Built between 1872 and 1874, the EBT mostly lugged coal […]
Locomotive’s ditch lights With the implementation on December 31, 1997, ditch lights in the United States have been required for 25 years. First used in North America in the 1960s, Canadian National first used them in its mountainous territory out west. Transport Canada eventually standardized them on all Canadian railroads a decade later. What’s the […]
In 1895, a globetrotting mixed-breed mutt named Owney the Railroad Post Office Dog paid a brief call on Milwaukee. As was his custom, the dog arrived aboard a mail car on one train and departed a few hours later by another. His home was anywhere U.S. mail traveled by railroad – and in the 1890s […]
What was your first byline in Trains? Kevin Keefe: My first published piece in Trains was in the October 1975 issue, a two-page story in what was called the “Frontispiece” format, basically a single photo with some commentary. My story was called “Anonymity on the Pere Marquette,” a brief tribute to the Pere Marquette Railway’s […]
Q: I plan to add Soo Line Mikado 1003 to my railroad empire. In looking for an appropriate model to start with, I need to know if it is a light or heavy Mikado. How do I tell the difference? – Gary Salzmann A: I’ll answer your second question – how to tell the difference between […]
