Professor Carp: Kusan produces boxcars in Mexico

Roger Carp with two Kusan boxcars

Classic Toy Trains’ Professor Carp looks at the history of Kusan boxcars. He shows some examples and details the company’s manufacturing in Tennessee and Mexico, where a number of interesting variations of the company’s “K” Series cars were produced. Those produced south of the border fetch a premium. […]

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Two suffer burns when container on UP train catches fire

Firemen standing near double-stack container cars

PALM DESERT, Calif. — Two people suffered what were described as “critical burn injuries” after a container on a Union Pacific train caught fire Friday, leading to a temporary halt to traffic on the rail line as well as closure of one direction of adjacent Interstate 10 for about two hours. The Desert Sun newspaper […]

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‘Hollywood’

People seated in railroad lounge car with porthole windows

Hollywood Round windows marked the 1941 City of Los Angeles’s swank lounge car Hollywood. The train operated over Union Pacific and Chicago & North Western between its namesake city and Chicago. Classic Trains collection […]

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Analysis: STB chairman flags railroad growth problem

Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin J. Oberman ruffled some feathers this month when he said railroads’ drive for ever-increasing profits resulted in a loss of market share to trucks over the past 15 years and continues to restrain growth today. Oberman cited STB figures that show a decline in rail traffic between 2006 and 2019 […]

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Sherman Hill: the first Rocky Mountain railroad pass

A yellow Union Pacific locomotive leads a freight trains over grasslands.

Sherman Hill is one of the landmarks on the transcontinental railroad. It was the first major obstacle for the railroad as it headed west. It’s the highest point on the first transcontinental railroad with the original summit topping out at 8,247 feet above sea level. A 1901 line change shaved over 200 feet off the […]

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Union Pacific, CSX looking at Rail Pulse tracing system

Rail Pulse car tracking system

PORTLAND, Maine – Union Pacific is considering joining the Rail Pulse joint venture that is developing a GPS-based, real-time tracking system for freight cars wherever they are on the North American rail network. “Rail Pulse is interesting. We’ve got to make a decision on Rail Pulse pretty soon,” Kenny Rocker, UP’s executive vice president of marketing […]

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‘San Francisco Overland’

Steam and diesel locomotives line up in passenger station

San Francisco Overland Future excursion locomotive UP 844, having just taken over for an SP locomotive, departs Ogden Union Station with the San Francisco Overland on June 18, 1950. The Fairbanks-Morse “Erie-built” diesels at right will follow with the Los Angeles Limited. Don Sims photo […]

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Will railroads emerge winners from efforts to fight climate change?

Formal portrait of man in suit and tie

CHICAGO –—Climate change provides an opportunity for railroads, even as more frequent extreme weather events take a toll on railroad operations and infrastructure and require investments in new locomotive technology, executives told a shipper conference last week. The increased emphasis on sustainability is a tremendous opportunity for rail carriers, BNSF CEO Katie Farmer told the […]

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Union Pacific Railroad map: 2013 routes and major cities

An up-close map of the Union Pacific Railroad.

  A Union Pacific Railroad map is a valuable resource. The maps often show the route of the first Transcontinental Railroad or a modern version of the railroad. (CLICK ON THE MAP FOR A LARGER VERSION) This Union Pacific Railroad map features the UP as it appeared in 2013 and as illustrated by Trains‘ retired illustrator […]

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