Tabla de contenidos para September 2023 en Trains

A U.S. COAST GUARD ORDER changing operating rules for Florida East Coast Railway’s single-track drawbridge over the St. Lucie River at Stuart, Fla., could seriously disrupt Brightline’s plans for hourly service between Miami and Orlando. The change could also result in FEC freight trains blocking six highway crossings in Stuart for extended periods. The “temporary deviation” order, which the Coast Guard says is to test the new plan, began June 21 and is set to run through Dec. 17. It dictates that the bridge must open at 15 and 45 minutes past each hour and stay open for up to 15 minutes to allow boats to pass. An approaching train could delay the opening no more than 5 minutes. The bridge had previously remained open for marine traffic, closing for trains…

More than 50 police dogs serve and protect Amtrak’s trains and stations throughout the United States. From birth to adulthood, these canines are trained to work with their human counterparts, protecting them from threats such as bombs. A few of the dogs are solely trained to detect narcotics. In fact, when Amtrak’s canine program began in the 1980s, it started with narcotics detection dogs. By 1996 the Explosive Detection Canine program was born, with then-officer Captain Kevin O’Connell and his yellow lab Charlie as the first EDC team. With a sense of smell estimated to be anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 times more sensitive than a human’s, these dogs are the next level in policing airports, malls, schools, and in this case, Amtrak stations. Their main job is to keep…

AT AGE 18, I got the chance to ride in the cab of a Yellowstone steam engine as they were making their last runs. In 1959, I carpooled 10 miles from Cloquet to Saginaw, Minn., then east along the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railroad tracks, ending my journey at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. The steel union representing DM&IR employees had been on strike for months. When the strike ended in November, only a month or two remained before freeze-up stopped ore boat shipping from Duluth, so the DM&IR ran everything it had with wheels including the Baldwin 2-8-8-4 Yellowstones. Even my carpool friends were surprised to see a distant giant plume of white steam as we sped along the highway. The railroad was running again. YOUTH AND THE D&NE…

AN ICON OF PITTSBURGH TRANSIT and sports history, the “Terrible Trolley,” has arrived at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum after 25 years in Ohio, with plans for an operational restoration. The museum, located in Washington, Pa., acquired former Pittsburgh Railways Co. Presidents’ Conference Committee (PCC) car No. 1713, a 1949 product of the St. Louis Car Co., and plans to restore its Pittsburgh Steelers paint scheme. From 1980 to 1985, the car carried black and gold colors honoring the then-four-time Super Bowl champions. The Steelers won championships in 1975, 1976, 1979, and 1980. A 9-year-old girl, Kim Severs, wrote to Pittsburgh Mayor Richard Caliguiri to propose painting a trolley in the team’s colors to celebrate. He passed her note to Port Authority Transit of Allegheny County, the system’s operating agency. Within…

NORFOLK SOUTHERN found its car inspection practices under scrutiny, as well as its role in the decision to burn off hazardous chemicals and the transmission of hazardous-material information to first responders, during a National Transportation Safety Board hearing on the Feb. 3, 2023, NS derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. The two-day hearing at East Palestine High School also examined wayside detector standards, tank car safety, and first-responder preparedness. It provided information for the NTSB’s final report on the derailment and burn-off of highly toxic vinyl chloride. Jason Cox, national representative for the Brotherhood of Railroad Carmen, told the board NS is skirting car inspection rules. Instead of having carmen perform inspections that look at 90 to 105 points on each side of a freight car, NS is increasingly relying on…

THE LONG PROCESS of bringing 110-mph operation to Amtrak’s Lincoln Service route between Chicago and St. Louis reached its payoff on June 26, with new schedules that shave about 15 minutes off the prior 90-mph operation and a half-hour off the timetable when top speeds were 79 mph. At a Chicago Union Station press conference, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said, “With this vital piece of the transition to high speed, we’ve cut down on the travel times and improved reliability, safety, and convenience along the way.” He thanked Amtrak for “carrying this project to the finish line.” The infrastructure upgrades required for 110-mph running cost some $1.96 billion and took more than 20 years, struggling to achieve the final goal because of challenges in developing the necessary train control system. Trains…

The year 2023 marks two notable events for the Alaska Railroad: the 100th anniversary of the railroad’s completion and the 50th anniversary of the Arab oil embargo. The latter event added urgency to realize commercial production in the 1968 discovery of oil from Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay area. Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries had curtailed production, causing crude oil prices to quickly increase by 300% in late 1973. The Prudhoe Bay oil field fronts the Beaufort Sea, a southern section of the Arctic Ocean. This far northern exposure limited the lowest-cost transportation option, barging, to delivery of drilling and construction supplies. Except for a narrow summer window, ice constrained key parts of the water route; the urgency to complete a pipeline made a barge-only strategy unattractive. The…

THE CANADIAN PRAIRIE PROVINCE of Alberta is known globally for its oil and gas resources. The extraction of this oil and gas and the subsequent production of the related value-added byproducts makes up the largest percentage of Alberta’s gross domestic product at 14.4%. Though easily missed at only 2.5% of the provincial GDP, agriculture production and exports play an important role in Alberta’s economy. In 2019, the agriculture industry accounted for $9.17 billion, third among Canadian provinces behind only Quebec and Ontario. Improvements in crop science, and favorable growing conditions, are significant factors leading to increased crop yields across Alberta. The past decade, however, has not been without its challenges. Moisture was excessive in 2020. A drought fell on the province in 2021. These increased crop yields are welcome news…

THE SEASHORE TROLLEY MUSEUM is one of the world’s earliest successful enthusiast-led railroad preservation efforts. Founded in 1939 as the “New England Electric Railway Historical Society” to help preserve elements of rapidly vanishing electric interurban railways, the organization gradually developed an operating museum for electric and urban transit vehicles. Based in Kennebunkport, Maine on a short section of rebuilt Atlantic Shore Line Railway, today the museum boasts being “The World’s First and Largest Museum of Mass Transit.” It has a fascinating and diverse collection of railway and road vehicles. My first trip to Seashore was as a child more than 50 years ago. I recall bubbling over with excitement at a trolley ride. In the 1970s and early ’80s, my family and I would visit Seashore on our drives to…

WITH A DISPLAY OF CIVIC SUPPORT from mayors along its route, Brightline on June 21 celebrated completion of construction on its route to Orlando, as well as the contribution its employees have made in forging a unique passenger rail operation. The event at Brightline’s Orlando International Airport station came as crew qualification runs and train-control testing continued in advance of the start of Orlando-Miami service. A date for the service launch has not yet been set. It also came on the same day the U.S. Coast Guard implemented a drawbridge schedule at the single-track St. Lucie River bridge at Stuart, Fla., that has the potential to pose major issues for Brightline’s operating plans (see below). “This bridge issue isn’t the first and won’t be the last challenge we’re going to…

The rail industry’s major trade groups, the ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN RAILROADS and the AMERICAN SHORT LINE AND REGIONAL RAILROAD ASSOCIATION, filed suit June 16 over CALIFORNIA AIR RESOURCES BOARD regulations that would require zero-emission locomotives within the state by 2035. Among other arguments, the AAR and ASLRRA say the rule is dependent on technology that has not been sufficiently tested and is not commercially available, and threatens the financial viability of many short lines. With its service once again disrupted by a landslide in San Clemente, Calif., Amtrak’s PACIFIC SURFLINER announced service reductions between Los Angeles and San Diego from five to three round trips daily, as well as a halt to checked baggage and a pause to business-class service south of Irvine, Calif. Operations through San Clemente were halted…

WHENEVER I THINK OF THE WABASH, I think of former Trains Editor J. David Ingles. Long before JDI and I became friends, I got to know the Wabash through his defining photographs in the pages of Trains Magazine during the 1960s. From snow-packed FAs in a raging blizzard to views from the interlocking tower at Jacksonville, Ill., to a long-ago news photo of a Lima switcher receiving an Alco 12-244 heart transplant in the road’s Decatur, Ill., shops, JDI gave soul to the railroad, that by its own proclamation, served the heart of America. Through our years of friendship, JDI provided back stories to those photographs and so many more. (The gas-gauge was on empty and the speedometer the opposite on the October 1964 day he chased KB6 making 55…

DUCK BEHIND THE FRISCO (TEX-AS) PUBLIC LIBRARY and you have stepped into a different world. Located here is the Museum of the American Railroad and its 65-piece rolling stock collection. Spotted on the 12-acre site are notables such as Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 No. 4906; an Alco PA4 of Delaware & Hudson and Santa Fe heritage; Union Pacific DDA40X No. 6913; and Big Boy No. 4018. A combination of passenger and freight cars fill out the collection to tell the story of railroading in Texas and the U.S. The museum is on a mission with the goal of an impressive interpretive facility. This includes a 100,000-square-foot train pavilion, and a multi-story main building for exhibits, offices, and events. Between 2010 and 2013, the museum moved from Fair Park in Dallas. This,…

Still standing after all these years An old Chesapeake & Ohio Railway cantilevered signal, at what was WD Cabin near Burnaugh, Ky., marks the passing of yet another train. On March 19, 2023, it’s CSX train C515 that rumbles by with GE AC44CW No. 78 on the point. The C515, a coal hauler, runs from Martin, Ky., to Toledo, Ohio. Welcome to West Virginia On the far western edge of West Virginia, the town of Kenova is sandwiched between Ohio and Kentucky at the confluence of the Big Sandy and Ohio rivers. Norfolk Southern mixed freight train 18M is crossing from Ohio into West Virginia on a bridge dating to Norfolk & Western time. On Feb. 14, 2023, NS No. 8004, a GE ES44AC, leads the way in the late-day…