Trains August 2022

kkeefe@kalmbach.com @TrainsMagazine @trains_magazine An entire issue dedicated to a single state isn’t something new for Trains. Over the years we’ve paid similar tribute to California, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Iowa, among others. Now we’re headed to a crossroads of the South. And it’s about time, because Virginia offers compelling variety, from iconic coal roads to crowded seaport docks to increasingly busy passenger main lines. Credit for this special issue goes to a pair of true Southerners: our late Editor Jim Wrinn and veteran author Ron Flanary. Together they came up with story ideas, recruited writers, and generally exhorted the entire team to create an issue worthy of Ron’s inspired tag line, “Virginia is for (railroad) lovers.”…

TENSIONS CONTINUE TO GROW between railroad management and labor, with one labor leader describing the situation as “a pressure cooker,” and a Class I CEO calling for better rapport — a statement greeted with skepticism by union leadership. The friction is fed by issues including the significant decrease in railroad jobs and demands on the remaining positions; the lack of a new national contract, keeping workers from receiving raises; and new BNSF Railway work rules, heavily criticized by union members. Dennis Pierce, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen, says railroads have lost touch with their employees, who face longer days, more time away from home, less rest between trips, and fewer days off. “It’s a pressure cooker,” Pierce says. “This thing’s going to blow.” Displaying their unhappiness, railroaders have picketed such events…

AMTRAK announced it would be unable to resume Cascades service between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, until December 2022, citing shortages of conductors, on-board service personnel, and maintenance workers. Washington and Oregon officials protested the decision, noting that crews had been requalified for the route in February and that while they were willing to accept interim limited service, “the states cannot accept Amtrak’s plan to provide no service at all.” Regional carrier LOUISVILLE & INDIANA RAILROAD acquired defunct 5.5-mile short line SOUTHERN INDIANA RAILWAY, with plans to use L&I’s enginehouse as a maintenance-of-way facility and store materials on adjacent property, while using Southern Indiana trackage to explore expansion of service to industrial sites. The 106-mile Louisville & Indiana is one of six ANACOSTIA RAIL HOLDINGS operations. A passenger on a METRA BNSFL…

bybillstephens@gmail.com @bybillstephens Analysis: Trains.com When East Broad Top General Manager Brad Esposito was cleaning up rock salt in a shed at the railroad’s shop complex last year, he didn’t bat an eye when he realized he was standing on wooden crates marked “dynamite.” After all, the EBT stored just about anything in dynamite crates that had been emptied at rail-served mines. But when Esposito dug farther into the salt, he noticed telltale streaks of color coming from the crates. He knew at once that beneath his feet were five boxes loaded with the real McCoy. “The fact that you’re still standing here talking to me means it’s probably not going to blow up,” a state inspector told him before experts safely burned the pile of decayed explosives in February 2021. In a way, the dynamite discovery…

briansolomon.author@gmail.com @briansolomon.author Blog: briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/ Podcast: Trains.com Between 1998 and 2019, I spent a portion of each year based in Dublin while traveling in Europe. Many of my books were researched and authored in Dublin, and I spent countless hours in the library of the Irish Railway Record Society. Among the publications housed at the IRRS is a nearly complete collection of Trains. Irish railways were a worthy subject of study and photography: During the course of two decades, I made tens of thousands of photographs documenting transitions on one of the world’s oldest railroad networks. During my first decade in Ireland, the railroad offered a fascinating blend of British practices — including antique, but functional mechanical lower-quadrant semaphore signaling — and American-built EMD diesel-electric-hauled trains. In 1960-61, Ireland was the first country in western Europe…