Illinois Central wasn’t the first railroad in Chicago, but it was one of 10 Class 1’s headquartered there and became arguably the most visible, thanks to its lakefront location. Its Romanesque Revival-style Central Station, built on fill in Lake Michigan for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, served IC plus New York Central’s Michigan Central and […]
To handle maintenance and repairs on its substantial hopper-car fleet, coal-hauler Chesapeake & Ohio in 1930 built this systemwide freight-car shop at Raceland, Ky., at the west end of its massive Russell Yard, a facility built to classify coal cars moving west to Cincinnati and Chicago, as well as north to Lake Erie docks for […]
The Norfolk & Western Railway transported much of the coal mined in southwestern Virginia and West Virginia. Many loads went north to Lake Erie, others to “tidewater” at N&W’s big terminal in Norfolk, Va., opened in 1885. Here it was loaded in vessels for shipment to ports up the East Coast or for overseas export. […]
SP’s Los Angeles General Shops UCLA Dept. of Geography, Air Photo Archives Southern Pacific facilities dominate three views of Los Angeles. Much in this 1934 scene is gone, or greatly changed. SP’s Los Angeles General Shops, the most complete railroad maintenance facility the city has ever seen, was replaced by an intermodal yard in the […]
This 1940’s afternoon photo looks northeast from over the Cape Fear River across the north end of downtown Wilmington, N.C. (the ocean is 6 miles to the east). Atlantic Coast Line’s history in the port city dates to 1840, when the Wilmington & Raleigh opened a 161-mile line northwest to Weldon. After the Civil War […]
The Louisville & Nashville Railroad began by linking its namesake cities, and eventually grew to reach New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis, and Atlanta. But Kentucky’s largest city was L&N’s home, heart, and headquarters, and the Bluegrass State’s top natural resource — coal — sustained the carrier that came to call itself “the Old Reliable.” In […]
Enterprise is among the tenants at Amtrak’s Fort Worth, Texas, station, one of just 19 train stations in the U.S. and Canada with rental car counters. Even at these locations, most counter hours are limited and advance reservations are required. Bob Johnston If you need to rent a car as part of your next Amtrak […]
A Union Pacific line runs along the east bank of the Duwamish River in Seattle. Benjamin B. Bachman A similar BNSF Railway line follows the west bank, ending at Port of Seattle Terminal 115, where Alaska-bound freight is transferred from trucks and railroad cars to barges. Benjamin B. Bachman Puget sound looks calm enough on […]
Click the image to download this interactive PDF. Many who love narrow-gauge railroads consider West Virginia’s Babcock State Park hallowed ground, for that’s where the Mann’s Creek Railway operated. From 1886 to 1955, this 9-mile threefooter hauled Sewell-seam coal from Clifftop, along the old Midland Trail about 70 miles east of Charleston, to Sewell, in […]
Trains Magazine’s September 2010 “Map of the Month: Milwaukee Road Growth” maps the expansion of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, from a 20-mile line linking Milwaukee and Waukesha, Wis. (respectively, Trains’ past and current hometown) into a 10,733-mile transcontinental system over a scant 100 years. Any map charting this kind of expansion […]
Canadian National coal train C77951 (Winniandy, Alta., to Vancover, B.C.) thunders through Jasper, Alta., on April 6, 2009. Both CN and competitor Canadian Pacific move high-grade metallurgical coal from western Canadian mines to the Vancover-area port of Roberts Bank for export. Tim Stevens photo […]
Acela power car No. 2035 visits Stamford, Conn., on a February 2006 day. Amtrak introduced the high speed Acela trainsets to its Boston-Washington Northeast Corridor in 2000. Peter Cudsen photo […]
