Waiting game

CSX train Q216 waits, with a Canadian Pacific leader, while a Norfolk Southern train heads west through the Vickers interlocking in Northwood, Ohio, on Jan. 18, 2014. The CSX crew spent a lot of time waiting this morning while NS ran its traffic first through this suburban Toledo crossing. Photo by Michael D. Harding […]

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Local hero

With a short five-car train, Canadian National’s local out of Dubuque, Iowa, has just crossed the Mississippi River and pops out of the short tunnel in East Dubuque, IL. The train will travel down the BNSF Railway using trackage to an industry that CN switches before calling it a day and returning home after dark. Photo […]

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Waiting game

CSX intermodal train Q124 rolls northbound on the main line at Lineville, Ala., as a Herzog ballast train awaits in the siding on Sept. 30, 2011. Photo by Bradley Bates […]

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Tightening up before taking off

  The crew of Cass Scenic Railroad Shay No. 4 attaches the spark arrester to the diamond stack before the day’s run in the early 1970s. Check out more Cass and West Virginia coverage in the August 2013 issue of Trains magazine. Photo by J.J. Young Jr. […]

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1975-1982: Seven more years of change in Philadelphia

Amtrak

South of 30th Street Station in September 1980, an Amtrak E60 accelerates a train toward Washington while, in the background, SEPTA Silverliner IV’s head out on a commuter run to either Media/Elwyn or Wilmington. Robert S. McGonigal Bob Trennert, in his article “A West Coast Railfan in Philadelphia, 1967–1974” in the Spring 2013 issue of […]

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Intermodal crane at work

Ever wonder how the UPS and FedEx Ground packages you ship travel across the country? They go by train. And in the December 2012 issue of Trains magazine, we take you inside one of the top railroad intermodal yards for FedEx and UPS Ground shipments: BNSF Railway’s Willow Springs terminal outside Chicago. We spent 24 hours inside […]

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Intermodal crane at work

Ever wonder how the UPS and FedEx Ground packages you ship travel across the country? They go by train. And in the December 2012 issue of Trains magazine, we take you inside one of the top railroad intermodal yards for FedEx and UPS Ground shipments: BNSF Railway’s Willow Springs terminal outside Chicago. We spent 24 […]

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Track signs

Track-snowplow-sign

The black-and-white sign with dots tells the plow operator to raise flanges prior to crossings, switches, etc. Greg McDonnell Q What does a whiteboard sign with black circles mean? It’s near grade crossings and sometimes has one black circle, and sometimes two.— Mike Cough, Kemptville, Ont., Canada A That board (which can also be black […]

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