TRAIN-WATCHING HIGHLIGHTS OF THE TWIN CITIES HIAWATHA LIGHT RAIL TRANSIT LINE Runs from: Warehouse District/Hennepin Ave. in downtown Minneapolis along Hiawatha Avenue to MSP International Airport and Mall of America in Bloomington, 11.6 miles. Train frequency: Trains run daily, every 7-8 minutes during rush hours, every 10 minutes between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm, every […]
Zone & Region: Midwest
Rich Mountain, Ark.
Rich Mountain is one of two sites in Arkansas profiled in Kalmbach’s Guide to North American Hot Spots by TRAINS Senior Editor J. David Ingles. Read below for Rich Mountain information. Site: Rich Mountain, Arkansas/Oklahoma Nearest City: Fort Smith, Arkansas (50 miles north) Location: Arkansas F-1, Oklahoma G-20, H-20 (Rand McNally Atlas) Directions: From Fort […]
Metra
Slant-nosed Metra F40PH-2Ms are seen powering Rock Island district trains, approaching Chicago’s LaSalle St. Station on December 15, 1997. Howard Ande Commuter trains have long been a part of Chicago’s railroad scene, appropriately enough for the railroad capital of the world. Illinois Central, the first railroad west of New York and Philadelphia to offer commuter […]
South Shore Line
A pair of NICTD South Shore MU cars, led by #15, traverse the streets of Michigan City, Ind., with train 508 on June 13, 1998, at 1:28 p.m. Street running is one of the highlights of this interurban’s operations. George Fletcher Passenger service on the South Shore dates back to 1903, with the opening of […]
Metra: Driven by its history
Slant-nosed Metra F40PH-2Ms are seen powering Rock Island district trains, approaching Chicago’s LaSalle St. Station on December 15, 1997. Howard Ande Chicago has been North America’s railroad capital for 150 years, and Trains Magazine showed you why in special issues devoted to the city in July 2003 and July 1993. But while Chicago is a […]
Metrolink
Metrolink F59PHI 880 pauses with Orange County Line train 688 at the Fullerton, Calif., station at 5:39 p.m., on August 7, 1998. The Los Angeles commuter rail system has grown dramatically since its 1992 startup. George Fletcher Metrolink, the working name of the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, operates commuter service in the Los Angeles […]
Lake Michigan carferries
Ann Arbor RS1 No. 20 unloads freight cars off the Lake Michigan carferry Arthur K. Atkinson at Frankfort, Mich., in April 1982, the railroad’s last year of carferry operation. Forrest L. Becht For over 100 years, trains and ships were partners in serving the eastern and western shores of Lake Michigan. This unique form of […]
My Summer at ‘Tac Harbor’
The year was 1966; I was 19 years old and starting my second summer working on the Great Lakes. This year I was called to be a deckhand on the Leon Falk Jr. of the Hanna fleet. At 730 feet overall, she was one of the largest boats on the Great Lakes, and could haul […]
Merger? What Merger? When Two Tariffs Equaled One
Merger? What merger? Two tariffs equal one trip By J. David Ingles As railroad mergers were sweeping the land through the 1960’s, passenger services of individual carriers were on a one-way trip to oblivion, culminating in Amtrak’s formation in 1971. For most roads, this couldn’t happen soon enough, and this attitude, couple with the regulatory […]
Green Bay to Chicago Death March
Many of us didn’t want to believe that the steam era was drawing to a close — that diesels, those cousins of the automobile with their garish tin shrouds, were winning the battle over the noble iron horse — until a dreary Sunday afternoon in the summer of 1953. After that, we could no longer […]
The Fix Was In
In the small town of Goshen, Ind., where I grew up, one was always aware of the New York Central. Goshen was astride the New York-Chicago main line, so the railroad was not only a key to the city’s economy but also part of its very consciousness. For my own generation of high school boys […]
The Pyramid
All the high excitement, thrills and tensions of railway experience are not the exclusive province of the operating department employees. Many a trackman, carman, and other railway workers have anxieties and thrills in the course of performing their daily tasks. As superintendent of motive power, I had my share of pressing situations that extended a […]
