Tabla de contenidos para May 2025 en Trains

RAILROADING, like many other industries, is still waiting to determine the full effect of massive and sometimes chaotic changes enacted in the early weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term. But after one month, it is clear the potential impacts are widespread. Federal Railroad Administration grants for everything from passenger service to short line track maintenance to grade crossing programs will face new award criteria in light of directives from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. His Jan. 29 memo calls for elimination of all orders and directives that relate “in any way to climate change, ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions, racial equity, gender identity, ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ goals, environmental justice, or the Justice 40 Initiative.” Environmental benefits of rail were frequently cited in grant applications and awards under the Biden Administration. A…

AMTRAK’S PACIFIC SURFLINER service has bolstered its fleet with the acquisition of seven former NJ Transit coaches previously used in San Joaquin service. The Comet 1B coaches were purchased by Caltrans in 2008 and rebuilt with features including restrooms, reclining seats, and luggage racks. They became surplus on the San Joaquins route with the introduction of Siemens Venture equipment. Six of the cars are shown on Surfliner train No. 562 at Del Mar, Calif., on Dec. 27, 2024. NEWS BRIEFS UP says Metra takeover of operations is near UNION PACIFIC said Chicago commuter operator METRA would take over train operations on three UP lines in mid-April, part of the freight railroad’s long-running eff ort to exit its responsibility for running trains on Metra’s UP North, Northwest, and West lines. UP will…

Fifteen years ago, coal trains on CSX’s former Chesapeake & Ohio tracks could travel hundreds of miles across the Appalachian Mountains under the guidance of half-centuryold Union Switch & Signal tri-light signals. An array of mast signals, cantilevers of varying designs, and two-to-four-track signal bridges graced the former C&O main line and its tributaries. For 70 years, these signals weathered humid summers and cold winters, guiding heavy tonnage through some of Appalachia’s most desolate places. When some of these signals were erected, C&O 2-6-6-6 Allegheny steam locomotives still led coal trains. Showing no prejudice, these signals would witness C&O’s first diesel-electrics as F7s and GP9s became the standard workhorses. Eventually Chessie System SD40-2s would enter the mix before CSX’s blue-and-grey took over. Locomotives and companies changed, but the signals remained…

WINLOCK, WASH., IS ONE OF MANY SMALL TOWNS along the mostly double-track BNSF-owned railroad connecting Seattle and Portland, Ore. What makes it unique is the huge egg celebrating its heritage as an egg capital, and eight cement roosters located about town, each painted in flamboyant dress. The roosters are mostly in the downtown area and it can be a game to find them all. LOCATION: Located west of Interstate 5 on state Route 505 at its intersection with state Route 603, downtown Winlock is on the east side of the main line as it makes an S curve, climbing northward toward the high point of the route at Napavine. There are two major street crossings of the railroad — Fir and Walnut streets — one near each end of the downtown…

CANADA HAS COMMITTED to spend almost $4 billion for the design phase of a high speed rail line linking Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec City, a project Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls “the largest infrastructure project in Canadian history.” Trudeau made the commitment to begin work on the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) system, to be known as Alto, at a Feb. 19 press conference in Montreal. Trains will have a top speed of 300 kilometers per hour (186 mph), and will serve intermediate stops in Peterborough and Ottawa, Ontario, and Laval and Trois-Rivières, Quebec. Travel time between Toronto and Montreal would be cut to 3 hours from the current 5½. The government pledged Ca$3.9 billion ($2.74 billion U.S.) for design and development over 6 years. Construction is not expected to begin until the…

THE EAST BROAD TOP RAILROAD has added a former H.K. Porter diesel from the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad to its roster in a transaction involving two of the nation’s premier heritage operations. The locomotive arrived Feb. 13, 2025, after a week-long trip by heavy-haul truck at EBT headquarters in Rockhill Furnace, Pa. It was expected to begin work train and standby passenger duty after a few weeks of setup. Currently, when EBT’s single operating steam locomotive, 2-8-2 No. 16 (Baldwin Locomotive Works, 1916) is sidelined for any reason, 55-ton, 340-hp GE center-cab switcher No. M-7 pinch hits, but it cannot haul the same number of cars. As a result, EBT has been forced to reduce the consist and rebook or cancel hundreds of reservations while increasing schedule frequency…

Freight train interference has always been the biggest source of delays to Amtrak passenger trains — and a major source of friction between Amtrak and its host railroads. That much Amtrak and the Class I railroads can agree upon. Now, with Amtrak challenging host railroads with a pair of on-time performance cases, they don’t see eye to eye on much else. To the Class I systems, interference is the inevitable result of faster passenger trains and slower freights sharing the same tracks. Try as they might, it’s simply impossible for dispatchers to keep freights out of Amtrak’s way all the time. But Amtrak says freights wouldn’t delay its trains if the railroads abided by the right of preference that Congress granted passenger trains in 1973. “The disregard of Amtrak’s right…

MY PARENTS MET IN THE UNION PACIFIC ticket office on Portland’s old Pittock Block. Dad was selling tickets and mom was buying. I was 3 years old when Frank Budwill, my dad, took a job as a UP traffic agent in Spokane, Wash. Mom didn’t really want to move, yet dad’s new job meant more train rides! To visit family, we rode the City of Portland, No. 106, and the beloved “City of Hinkle” — officially train No. 19, a mixed run between Spokane and Hinkle, Ore. I discovered dad’s company pass at an early age. By my teenage years, I was allowed to travel unaccompanied on the City of Portland to Nebraska for a visit with Aunt Bess. Family friend and City of Portland dining car steward Matt Kruzich kept…

We couldn’t just go straight The BNSF Broadview Sub snakes across the wide open terrain of south central Montana heading for Signal Peak Mine south of Roundup. This string of empties — E-RBGSXM2-50F — led by GE AC4400CW No. 5649, is northbound on July 25, 2021. The Nittany Lions visit the fair July 4, 2019, was the last day of the San Diego County Fair. A Coaster running north to Oceanside, Calif., passes the fairgrounds in Del Mar with a car wrapped in advertising for the Penn State online university. Our photographer is a former Pennsylvanian. The ghost of Bryn Mawr Like a sentinel from the past, the Bryn Mawr, Pa., interlocking tower guards Amtrak’s four-track right-of-way west of Philadelphia. On Sept. 15, 2023, SEPTA train No. 9560 passes the…

THE AUTHORS OF A FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION study on mainline electrification recommend the railroad industry develop a prototype dual-mode freight locomotive and battery tender to test the feasibility of leaving cost-saving gaps between sections of overhead catenary. The Association of American Railroads, however, says its own study shows freight electrification remains infeasible. Over the decades, North American freight railroads have studied electrification but have always reached the same conclusion: Stringing wire over every mile of main line is prohibitively expensive and poses a colossal financial risk. The FRA study does not recommend electrifying everything, like Switzerland. Rather, the authors propose focusing on the 10% of mainline route miles that handle 30% of the gross tonmiles and consume 35% of rail energy. “The primary barriers to freight rail electrification were found to…

FORTY YEARS AGO, there was a lot going on in “Train World.” New museums, mainline steam programs, railroad-specific historical societies, and innovative preservation projects spawned a sense that railroad heritage had entered a different, more mature, phase. There were conversations about the emerging “railway heritage movement.” In hindsight, that was a tad optimistic. It had the same chances for success as organizing a squirrel parade at a kennel club show. There wasn’t One Big Idea upon which to build a consensus or shared effort, no railroad version of clean air or liberty and justice — only very different people passionate about how they enjoy particular aspects of a sprawling, complex, 200-year-old industry. There seem to be seven basic ways to understand how most people interested in railroading engage the subject.…

IT’S NOT A SECRET — and it shouldn’t be a surprise — that sometimes North American overnight long-haul passenger trains can run hours behind schedule. The reasons for these delays are frequently discussed in Trains Magazine (see page 20). Late trains often result from a combination of factors, including severe weather, mechanical failures; insufficient crew levels; rail congestion; conflicting approaches to infrastructure design, allocation, and capacity (plus funding for improvements); and grade crossing and trespassing incidents. How to solve these problems is a topic for another discussion. AN IMPERFECT WORLD In a perfect operating environment, all trains would run on time. But no railroad is perfect. Years ago, an Irish friend and I were traveling by rail in Germany — a nation I’ve long admired for its excellent rail-infrastructure —…

ON JULY 15, 1923, A CROWD GATHERED at the end of what would be named the Mears Memorial Bridge spanning the Tanana River at Nenana, Alaska, about 300 miles north of Anchorage. The occasion marked the completion of the Alaska Railroad. Attention was focused on U.S. President Warren G. Harding, in attendance to drive a final gold spike on the line from Seward to Fairbanks. Following the 1923 event, the gold spike has been held privately, making only a few public appearances — 1923 in the Alaska Museum, Juneau; and 1967 at the Alaska 67 Centennial Exposition, Fairbanks. That is about to change through the efforts of the Anchorage Museum and the City of Nenana. The two entities partnered in January to purchase the spike when offered for sale by Christie’s…