NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Nashville is set to become the 18th North American metropolitan area to be served by commuter trains (vs. light-rail/trolley and/or heavy-rail/subway) with the inaugural run on Monday, Sept. 18, of the Music City Star. Tickets will be available on-line starting next week, and commuters who plan to purchase monthly tickets should act […]
Athearn HO SD45-2 with DCC and sound A classic six-axle road diesel is now available to HO modelers as an Athearn Genesis model. It’s Electro-Motive Division’s SD45-2 in a DC version without sound and a version with sound and a dual-mode Digital Command Control (DCC) decoder. The model has a powerful, smooth-running mechanism, and locomotives […]
The 2006 National Train Show was held July 7-9 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in conjunction with the National Model Railroad Association National Convention in Philadelphia. We saw several new products at the show, so many that we had to split our report into two sections. Be sure to click on the link at the […]
Norfolk Southern’s Linwood, N.C., classification yard Matt Van Hattem More than half of the hump yards in North America have closed in the past 25 years. From 152 operating classification yards in 1975, the number dropped to 122 in 1985, and 72 by 1993. In 2002, there were 59 active hump yards. The reasons for […]
Will the U.S. rails-with-trails movement continue gaining momentum? Or will rail safety and congestion issues stop it in its tracks? In the September 2005 issue, Trains Magazine looked at the issues surrounding locations where recreational activities and active rail lines coexist in a shared space. Want to sample some of these trails yourself? Below is […]
A groundsman watches while an overhead crane lowers another truck trailer onto a flatcar at BNSF’s Willow Springs intermodal facility. Matt Van Hattem You can feel the heat rising from the asphalt beneath you on this humid summer evening. But your attention is directed elsewhere, at two men in reflectorized vests who-without saying a single […]
“COVERED WAGONS.” “CARBODY UNITS.” “STREAMLINERS.” “F UNITS.” Call ’em what you will, when you’re talking the F-for-freight series from General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division, you’re talking the most famous diesel in railroading. Maybe “F” should stand for Face. It’s the famous “bulldog nose” that did it. It hit the road with FT demonstrator quartet 103, “the […]
If you want to know railroads, you’ve got to know Chicago. And Trains Magazine takes you there in its July 2003 Special Issue. You’ll see how 500 freight trains a day thread their way through the city, check in at the 30 active interlocking towers, pay homage to the city’s six great passenger stations, and […]
CSX AC4400CW 37 rolls past Fostoria, Ohio’s F Tower on the point of southward grain train G061 on February 18, 2001. With two railroads, three main lines, diamonds, and an active tower, Fostoria provides countless opportunities and angles for train watchers. James B. Winters A triangle of steel rails cross each other, the echoes of […]
A westbound CSX freight approaches the diamond at Palmer, Mass., in February of 2000. James B. Winters Palmer, Mass., is one of two New England hot spots profiled in Kalmbach’s Guide to North American Railroad Hot Spots by TRAINS Senior Editor J. David Ingles. Read below: DescriptionGrade-level crossing of CSX’s single-track Boston Subdivision (former Conrail […]
A westbound NortheastDirect train crosses the Susquehanna River at twilight in October 2000, seen from the Jean S. Roberts Memorial Park in Havre de Grace, Md. Dale R. Jacobson Halfway between Baltimore and Wilmington, Del., lie the cities of Perryville and Havre de Grace, Md., separated from each other by the Susquehanna River at the […]
Tri-Rail F40PH-2C 807 eases to a stop in West Palm Beach, Fla., with a Miami-bound train at 5:40 p.m., on August 15, 1997. Matt Van Hattem Tri-Rail began commuter service in South Florida on January 9, 1989, the first of the major commuter start-ups of the 1990s. Formed in 1987 by the Florida Department of […]
