Genesee & Wyoming-owned St. Lawrence & Atlantic units congregate at Danville Junction, Maine, in August 2006. Matt Martin In Trains June 2010 issue, we told you how a 14-mile New York short line became a holding company with 62 railroads. How does Genesee & Wyoming manage its power? As of spring 2010, Genesee & Wyoming […]
As the sun rises over a brutal Chicago morning, Wisconsin Central train T045 stares at a clear signal at Chatham Ave. at CSX’s Barr Yard. The train’s air is slow to come up on a -20 Jan. 17, 1997. William M. Beecher Jr. photo […]
Atlas HO scale unit train gondola If you use electricity, chances are at least some of it is generated from coal hauled in aluminum gondolas like this new HO scale Atlas Trainman model. The detailed plastic model includes twin longitudinal tubs beneath the floor for maximum capacity. The car comes assembled and includes a coal […]
Traffic density changes in the past 30 years on freight railroads’ main lines to Chicago reflect factors both geographic and corporate. Geographic factors include the shift of manufacturing from domestic to offshore; air quality regulations that closed high-sulfur Western mines; and general population and economic growth. Corporate factors include the desire of railroad managements to […]
The undeniable triumph of U.S. railroading can be seen in this graph of revenue ton-miles: the most basic unit of measurement (hauling one ton of freight one mile) for the work railroads perform. The data for this illustration come from the Association of American Railroads, and are confined to Class I railroads, the largest group […]
EDITOR’S NOTE: When we asked the Class I railroads for input on the May 2010 locomotive column on the subject of A.C. traction diesels, Norfolk Southern Assistant Vice President-Mechanical Don Graab responded by email and provided us some great detail. What follows is his perspective on why some railroads order only A.C. diesels, some D.C., […]
What will railroading look like 27 years from now? Will yards be jammed, main lines clogged, and trains backed up from terminals for 30 miles or more? Or will routes be fluid, with freights roaring by every 8 to 10 minutes on main lines three, four, and even six tracks wide? Either future could happen, […]
Fox Valley Models N scale ES44AC diesel locomotive A General Electric ES44AC is the debut locomotive from Fox Valley Models. The direct-current ready-to-run N scale model, based on GE’s Evolution Series locomotive, uses a split-frame mechanism and features numerous railroad-specific details. A package of modeler- installed etched-metal and wire details is also included. The GE […]
When the TRAINS staff began preparing its April 2010 report on obscure coal moves in North America, we got more photos than we bargained for. In no particular order, here are five more cool coal moves. Two SD90MACs on lease to Wheeling & Lake Erie lead two run-through Union Pacific diesels on a Powder River […]
Side by side at Albany, N.Y., the southbound Adirondack prepares to head to New York City, while in the background the Lake Shore Limited boards passengers for Boston in September 2007 Bob Johnston In terms of high speed rail, the Northeast has been ahead of the rest of the United States for decades. Acela Express […]
Micro-Trains’ Z scale EMD SD40-2 diesel locomotive This SD40-2 from Micro-Trains Line Co. has an impressive amount of accurate detail, especially considering that it’s a 1:220-proportion model. This diminutive diesel also has one of the quietest, smoothest running mechanisms of any locomotive that I’ve encountered in any scale. Prototype. General Motors Electro-Motive Division built the […]
This Map of the Month appeared in the January 2006 issue of Trains magazine. Pick up any state highway map and the multi-lane roads are shown prominently. Most railroad maps don’t distinguish between single and double track, however, so to compile this map of U.S. multiple-track main lines, a variety of other sources had to be […]
