Trains Magazine looks at passenger trains per day across the United States in its May 2010 issue. Our “Map of the Month” compares today’s train volumes with those Amtrak was running on its first day of operation, May 1, 1971, and what was running the day before. Check out the May issue and see which […]
Section: Railroads
Colorado’s Georgetown Loop
Of all the scenic railroads in America, Colorado’s Georgetown Loop ranks near the top for the most audacious three miles of 3-foot-gauge track. The words “twisty,” “curvy,” and “steep” do not even begin to do justice to this Lazarus-like railroad that was built in 1877, dismantled in 1938, and reconstructed in the 1970s and 1980s […]
Dinner hour on the Pennsylvania Railroad
You’re looking at the railroad equivalent of a restaurant frozen in time, with the trains shown here akin to waiters sprinting across a crowded room, a hot plate in hand. On June 19, 1938, passengers on the Pennsylvania Railroad could enjoy the time-honored tradition of dinner in the diner aboard 56 different trains. Five trains […]
Evolution of Canada’s grain network
Three distinct periods of railway construction created the grain-gathering network that served the farmers of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. The first 3,000 miles were built between 1881 and the onset of a depression in 1893. Better times returned in 1896, fueling an incredible boom that saw the construction of more than 11,000 route- miles by […]
Mainline tonnage of the early 1970s
In the early 1970s, economic growth was transforming the South and West, and Western railroads surpassed Eastern roads in ton-miles carried for the first time in 1971. Traffic declines in the East heped trigger a rash of bankruptcies, which spurred Congress to commission detailed studies of railroad lines and operations. The results warned that, absent […]
Railroad tonnage by state in 2004
If you want to sense the impact of coal on the railroad industry, consider this: The state that ranks last in population — Wyoming, with a little more than 500,000 residents — originates one of every five tons of freight hauled by American railroads. The 419 million gross tons that began its journey in Wyoming […]
Wisconsin’s railroads in 1940 and 2005
When Al Kalmbach published the first issue of Trains in November 1940, the company’s home state of Wisconsin boasted 6,675 route-miles of railroad, a total that had peaked at 7,500 two decades earlier and was declining. Lingering effects from the Great Depression kept the state’s three largest railroads in bankruptcy — Chicago & North Western, […]
Evolution of Iowa’s rail network
Iowa has been the poster-child state for the overbuilding of railways in the era before paved roads. In his “Iowa: Half Its Trains Don’t Go There Anymore” [April 1986 Trains], author Charles Bohi said Hawkeye State kids were taught “there is no point in Iowa more than 12 miles from a railroad” (a day’s drive […]
Union Pacific trains per day
This map reflects an average day for the Union Pacific Railroad in late 2003. Trains per line per day is indicated above each major line segment except where data is not available. These numbers have changed little since our previous UP trains-per-day map in the November 2001 issue, except for the Sunset Route between West […]
California Connections in Railroad Photography
Passengers enter Los Angeles Union Station during the 2009 winter holidays. Railroads continue to play an important – and growing – role in California’s well-patronized public transportation. Scott Lothes Shadowed by the Vincent Thomas Bridge, doublestacked containers rest in the hold yard outside of APL’s Global Gateway South Terminal located within the Port of Los […]
BNSF Railway’s predecessors
What have the mergers that built today’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe system accomplished? It’s important to ask this question, because it predicts where BNSF might be headed in the future. In basic terms, mergers have four outcomes. Strategic mergers create seamless service in new or existing traffic lanes and open new markets. Tactical mergers reduce […]
Conrail’s predecessors
This map has been almost 25 years in coming. As soon as Conrail was formed in 1976, Trains readers began requesting a huge “breakdown” map of Conrail coded to predecessor railroads. The project was too big for the limited resources then available to us. Thanks to Curt Richards, though, we now have a good source […]
