Trains May 2022

jwrinn@kalmbach.com @TrainsMagazine @trains_magazine Normally, I use this vantage to point out content that has great merit or to share a personal story. This month is the best of circumstances: I get to introduce you to a new staff member. Please welcome Bob Lettenberger as associate editor. Bob replaces our own Brian Schmidt, who has gone on to greater glory as editor of our sister publication, Classic Trains. Bob comes to us from the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wis., where he was education director. Bob brings with him a lifelong passion for our subject, a strong desire to educate and entertain with meaningful content, and will add other elements as we navigate the transition to digital media. Be sure to check out his (and all of the staff’s) good work at www.Trains.com.…

CSX’S STANCE IN ITS FIGHT with Amtrak over Gulf Coast passenger service drew pointed questions and comments during the February portion of a Surface Transportation Board hearing on the passenger carrier’s effort to reestablish a route between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala. Public comment and rebuttals by Amtrak, CSX, Norfolk Southern, and the Port of Mobile — parties to the proceeding in which Amtrak asks the STB to require the freight railroads to allow two daily round trips between the cities — made up the first part of the hearing on Feb. 15-16. The second part, in which the parties were to present their cases, was scheduled for March 9, but was pushed back to April 4 at the request of CSX. The reason was redacted from the public version of its…

FIRST OUT: The first of Amtrak’s new ALC42 long-distance Charger locomotives entered revenue service Feb. 8, 2022, on the westbound Empire Builder, but the trip was a bit bumpy. PTC problems on Charger No. 301, with the ‘Day One’ paint scheme, led to the addition of a P42 on the point, setting the train more than an hour behind schedule. More time was lost in Milwaukee because the train’s Sightseer Lounge had to be set out after a fire, and on the return trip, one of the new locomotives struck a vehicle at a grade crossing. Amtrak used the Feb. 8 departure to announce it was exercising an option and ordering 50 more of the ALC42 locomotives from Siemens. Trains: David Lassen OUT OF THE STREET: The last South Shore Line…

JACK DELANO’S EVOCATIVE World War II railroad photography; railcar tours; factory tours; and other events will be part of Pullman Railroad Days, May 14-15, at the Pullman National Monument and adjacent state historic site in Chicago. The Historic Pullman Foundation, the monument’s nonprofit partner, will host Railroad Days, and will display Delano’s “Railroaders” photography exhibit at the foundation’s Exhibit Hall through October. Organized by the Center for Railroad Photography & Art and the Chicago History Museum, “Railroaders” debuted in Chicago in 2014. Delano roamed Chicago’s roundhouses, terminals, repair shops, steam locomotive cabs and cabooses to photograph diverse workers during 1942-43, saluting their homefront contributions. Four Pullman-built cars are confirmed for railcar tours at the nearby 111th Street Metra Electric station: observation cars Pennsylvania Railroad Francis L. Suter (1914), New York Central No. 3…

A SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD filing detailed an agreement between AMTRAK and CANADIAN PACIFIC for expanded passenger service on CP routes if the CP-Kansas City Southern merger is approved. Along with affirming a commitment to allow a daily New Orleans-Baton Rouge, La., train without any requirement for infrastructure work, it made a similar offer to allow passenger service through the railroad’s Detroit-Windsor tunnel, and outlined reduced infrastructure requirements for more service on the Chicago-Milwaukee Hiawatha corridor. The sides reached the agreement in exchange for Amtrak support of the merger. Mining, pelletizer, and steelmaking firmCLEVELAND-CLIFFS announced plans to temporarily idle itsNORTHSHORE MINING operation in Minnesota, which includes the 47-mile private railroad between its mine and taconite processing facility on Lake Superior. The railroad, launched by predecessor Reserve Mining Co. in 1955, uses SD70ACes…

Railroading’s failures can provide insight for the industry. A study of accident reports may teach us how railroads are supposed to run, while offering understanding of how a combination of errors can lead to failure. Failures are more interesting than successes. Have you ever yearned for a time machine? I’d love to witness an Erie 2-8-8-8-2 “Triplex.” Erie’s Baldwin Triplex was the cover feature of the June 13, 1914, Scientific American, which deemed it as “the heaviest and most powerful locomotive ever constructed, its total weight being 853,050 pounds.” Designed in the era of the Titanic, it was the ultimate locomotive of its day. Three years earlier, Erie purchased three huge camelback Mallets from Alco for Gulf Summit helper service. It was enticed by Baldwin’s proposal for the next step in…