Sun Tan Special People in Santa Cruz, Calif., still talk about the Sun Tan Special, and not just as an artifact. The Sun Tan Special was Southern Pacific’s beach train in Northern California. It ran on summer weekends and holidays during the 1930s to the 1950s, from San Francisco and San Jose to the coastal […]
The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad is perhaps best summed up by two words: deterioration and reconstruction. Seldom has a railroad managed to survive the number of disasters, both natural and contrived, that befell the Katy. Its 1865 charter was for the Union Pacific Southern Branch. Although it connected with the Kansas Pacific (merged by UP in 1880) […]
STRASBURG, Pa. — Strasburg Rail Road’s ex-Norfolk & Western 4-8-0 steam engine No. 475 returned to excursion passenger duty this week after the company’s mechanical department worked overtime to repair smokebox damage from a Nov. 2 collision with a tracked excavator. The locomotive was back in service on Monday [see “Strasburg No.475 back in service […]
Northern Maine’s Bangor & Aroostook Railroad was a relative latecomer to the American railroad map, being organized under the General Laws of Maine on Feb. 13, 1891. There had been earlier efforts, but this one succeeded in linking northern Maine to the central Maine city of Bangor and the country’s rail network. First was the […]
STRASBURG, Pa. – Jim Hager brings a host of skills and experience to his new job as general manager of the 190-year-old Strasburg Rail Road, America’s oldest short line and now one of the country’s busiest and longest-running steam tourist railroads. A New Jersey native, he started hanging around the Black River & Western, another […]
DULUTH, Minn. — After a two-year hiatus, the Lake Superior Railroad Museum’s North Shore Scenic Railroad will return Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range 2-8-0 No. 332 to service in September The locomotive will pull trains between Duluth and Two Harbors, Minn. Sept. 10-11 and 24-25. Trains will depart Duluth at 10:00 a.m. each day. No. 332 […]
SAFE HARBOR, Pa. — Where electric-powered freight trains once rumbled high above the Susquehanna River en route between the East Coast and Midwest, hikers, bikers, and runners now catch breathtaking views of soaring bald eagles from the 150-foot-high Safe Harbor trestle. Opened earlier this month to public use as part of the planned 29-mile-long Enola […]
Ukrainian rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) has continued to operate services across the country despite Russian attacks which have damaged both tracks and electrical equipment used to provide traction current. Railways continue be a major part of the war for both Ukraine and Russia. Here’s a look at recent events: UZ faces employee deaths, significant damage […]
Southern Railway history: The earliest portion of the Southern Railway was the South Carolina Canal & Rail Road Company, which was chartered in 1828 to build from Charleston, S. C., to Hamburg, S. C., on the north bank of the Savannah River. Its purpose was to bring trade to the port of Charleston from inland […]
As the Russian military adjusts its strategy and goals following the failure of its original invasion of Ukraine that began Feb. 24, it has increased strategic attacks on the network of national rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) in the west of the country, largely through missile strikes. The Ukraine war is the first since World War […]
1950s EMD customer relations: At the height of dieselization circa 1950, the volume of orders pouring into Electro-Motive Division was sufficient to require three production locations: La Grange, by far the largest; Plant 2, a former Pullman Co. facility in South Chicago; and Plant 3, the ex-Cleveland Engine Corp. facility in Cleveland, Ohio. However, by […]
Tunnel under a town prototype: Yes, there is at least one U.S. example of railroads going underneath small towns. And here it is: Boston & Maine’s single track line through Bellows Falls, Vermont. Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library has three photos in the Boston & Maine tunnels folder that show off this specimen in […]
