San Francisco Chief connection

20140407

Santa Fe trains 93, the West Texas Express, and 94, the Eastern Express, were the Amarillo–Lubbock connection for the San Francisco Chief. Between 1955 and 1965, the trains looked like this: an E8M (rebuilt from an E1), baggage-express car, coach, and sleeper. Fred M. Springer photo […]

Read More…

MBTA workers discover historic sign at Government Center NEWSWIRE

BOSTON – In the midst of a multi-million dollar station renovation, MBTA workers have discovered a historic subway sign beneath the streets of Boston, WCVB-TV reports. MBTA is rebuilding the Government Center stop, the interchange between the Blue and Green lines, and last week during the initial teardown workers discovered mosaic sign announcing the station’s […]

Read More…

First new MBTA locomotives enter service April 16 NEWSWIRE

MBTA Bob Sprague

HSP46 No. 2001 being delivered to MBTA. Bob Sprague BOSTON – The first of 40 new MotivePower Inc. HSP46 commuter locomotives will enter service Wednesday for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. The first train with the new locomotives, which feature a new MBTA paint scheme, will be No. 213, departing Boston’s North Station at 10:30 […]

Read More…

Mail and express train operations

ErieLackawannamailtrainNo7passesthroughBinghamtonNYin1965withamixtureofheadendcars

Head-end traffic helped cover some of the costs of America’s passenger trains for many years. Contracts with the United States Postal Service covered the transportation of mail, while the Railway Express Agency (REA) provided a nation- wide package delivery service. Small-to-medium-sized railroads forwarded most of the mail in Railway Post Office (RPO) cars and packages […]

Read More…

Video: Walthers HO scale Metroliner

side of an Amtrak model train

Check out the Walthers HO scale Metroliner as it makes a run on the Model Railroader staff’s model train layout. Each of the cars features prototypical interior and exterior lighting as well as a SoundTraxx Digital Command Control (DCC) decoder. […]

Read More…

Video: Walthers HO scale Metroliner

side of an Amtrak model train

Check out the Walthers HO scale Metroliner as it makes a run on the Model Railroader staff’s model train layout. Each of the cars features prototypical interior and exterior lighting as well as a SoundTraxx Digital Command Control (DCC) decoder. […]

Read More…

Walthers HO Metroliner electric passenger train

Themarkerlightsautomaticallyilluminatewhenthecarreverses

The marker lights automatically illuminate when the car reverses. Zooming under the wires along the Northeast Corridor, Metroliner Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) cars redefined modern high-speed rail in the United States. The Walthers HO scale Metroliner cars are prototypically detailed on the inside and out. I tested models equipped with dual-mode SoundTraxx Digital Command Control […]

Read More…

America’s fastest rail lines

Screen Shot 20140311 at 111909 AM

How many places in the United States can a railroad passenger travel more than 70 miles in one hour? This map spotlights those locations, based on the schedules in Amtrak’s Fall/Winter 2007 system timetable and its Spring 2008 Northeast Corridor timetable. (Where precise information was not available, the speeds factor in 1 minute of dwell […]

Read More…

West Coast passenger trains

Screen Shot 20140213 at 95216 AM

What you’re seeing here is a transformation that’s nothing short of remarkable. Twenty years ago, a map of West Coast short-haul passenger trains would’ve been little more than a blank page. Back then, Amtrak provided minimal service between Oakland and Bakersfield, Calif., and between Portland and Seattle, though it did field 14 San Diegans a […]

Read More…

Trip on the GM&O in May 1951 Trains

Read the article, “Travel . . . Family Style,” from the May 1951 issue of Trains magazine, in which Bill Akin and his wife and daughter, identified as the “Andrews” family, ride the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio between Chicago and St. Louis. Download the story by clicking here. […]

Read More…