Tabla de contenidos para July 2025 en Trains

NO LESS THAN SEVEN POTENTIAL OPERATORS have emerged to become potential competitors to Eurostar in offering international services from London via the Channel Tunnel. At least three — all new startup companies — have begun the process of obtaining access to Britain’s only maintenance shop that can handle the high-speed equipment required for such operations. Competition has theoretically been possible since international rail service was deregulated by the European Union in 2010. Soon after, Germany’s Deutsche Bahn said it planned service between London and Frankfurt. That effort was thwarted by the Channel Tunnel’s complex safety and operating rules, plus the high cost of using high-speed tracks on both sides. The safety rules now reflect modern European high-speed trains, instead of requiring custom features. Costs are also less of a factor,…

APRIL 24, 1955, was what Canadian Pacific characterized as a “Red Letter Day,” marking the launch of the railroad’s new silver flagship, the Canadian, with daily departures from Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. Seventy years later, on April 23, 2025, VIA Rail Canada commemorated the occasion with a high-profile sendoff of its version of the train — featuring the same name and same passenger cars — that travels twice per week on a much slower schedule over a different route. The ceremony at Toronto Union Station prior to the train’s departure for Vancouver, British Columbia, saw VIA CEO Mario Peloquin joined by other officials. Passengers were given a “Golden Ticket” keepsake, and the train’s signature Park observation car was outfitted with a custom tail sign acknowledging the anniversary. LOOKING BACK The…

THE PARK AT AMERICA’S OLDEST TRAIN-WATCHING SITE — the landmark Horseshoe Curve, on Norfolk Southern’s Pittsburgh Line near Altoona, Pa. — is again accessible to all visitors with the reopening of its funicular. Late in 2024, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry made a final inspection and gave the OK to reopen the ride, designed to lift visitors up a steep hillside to the trackside viewing area. Mechanical, operational, electronic, and software issues had plagued the inclined-plane railway, which closed at the end of the 2019 season. The site, a National Historic Landmark, has been a prime attraction almost since it opened in 1854, completing the Harrisburg-Pittsburgh main line of the then-fledgling Pennsylvania Railroad. The Railroaders Memorial Museum administers the site, 5 miles west of Altoona, from its main…

To better understand the operations of Switzerland’s Rhätische Bahn, or Rhaetian Railway, start with two defining characteristics. First, its 385-kilometer (240-mile) meter-gauge network is densely populated with trains. The RhB runs about 800 trains a day, mostly between 5 a.m. and midnight. Second, the vast majority are passenger trains. In 2023, the railroad carried almost 16 million passengers, accounting for more than 431.1 million passenger-kilometers (267.9 million passenger-miles). Its two marquee operations, the Bernina Express and Glacier Express, accounted for more than 550,000 riders. But non-passenger operations, while a fraction of the overall activity, complete the picture of the RhB. Its small freight service addresses some specific needs. A car transport operation through the 19.1-kilometer (12.4-mile) Vereina tunnel moves more than 500,000 vehicles annually. These account for about 15% of…

A LITTLE MORE THAN EIGHT MONTHS following a horrific flood, the Sioux City Railroad Museum reopened to the public March 1. On June 23-24, 2024, the Big Sioux River sent up to 10 feet of muddy water raging through the museum grounds in Sioux City, Iowa. During the ensuing cleanup, the equivalent of 256 truckloads of flood-damaged contents, corn stalks, building parts, and debris were removed. The flood waters caused structural damages exceeding $1.5 million, says Larry Obermeyer, museum president. An additional $500,000 is estimated in artifact damage. Most of the museum’s exhibit cases were waterlogged, necessitating replacement. During cleanup, the museum hosted several special events, including Falloween and the 12 Nights of Christmas, which combined drew more than 17,500 patrons.…

CSX IS GRAPPLING with congestion and doesn’t expect to get dug out until this fall. Before the Feb. 1 closure of Baltimore’s Howard Street Tunnel for a planned six- to eight-month clearance project, CSX had been struggling to recover from a string of harsh weather events that began during a devastating hurricane season and continued through winter. Among them: The Jan. 21 storm that blanketed the Gulf Coast and Southeast in a rare snowfall. CSX’s busiest hump yard, Rice Yard in Waycross, Ga., received more than 4 inches of snow and shut down for an unprecedented three days. Another shot of winter followed in mid February, raking the system from Memphis and Chicago to Baltimore and Selkirk, N.Y., and further snarling operations. Spring flooding then hit CSX’s main Chicago-Waycross corridor.…

EVERY DAY UNION PACIFIC AND BNSF RAILWAY trains battle gravity and curvature as they wind across the former Southern Pacific main line through the rugged Tehachapi Mountains of Southern California. Now UP and BNSF are engaged in a different sort of fight. They have been unable to reach a new trackage-rights deal, so UP brought the dispute to the Surface Transportation Board. Barring a settlement, regulators will determine how much BNSF will pay UP for its continued use of the line linking Northern and Southern California. UP says current payments are so low that it’s subsidizing BNSF’s operations. BNSF, which operates 20 trains per day over the line, says UP’s proposal would significantly boost its costs and stifle competition. The railroads agree the matter should be settled based on an…

After reading the Blacklands Railroad article in the June 2014 issue of Trains, you probably came away with the impression it was a Cinderella story of shortline railroading. Blacklands was so successful it earned the short line of the year award in 2011 from Railway Age magazine. At the time, the railroad had an ideal relationship with the government entity that owned the right-of-way on which it operated. This entity, a study by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute noted, was regarded as one of most successful rail districts in the state. You could argue the whole arrangement was so ideal that it should be used as a template for all public/private rail partnerships moving forward. But just a few short years later things started to unravel — and when they…

IN THE LATE SEVENTIES, I worked at Joliet (Ill.) Yard, which was on the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio side of the Illinois Central Gulf. Joliet needed an engineer and the GM&O guys didn’t want it for some reason. I was working the Chicago Terminal engineers extra board and was ready for a rest as that extra board protected everything on the Chicago Terminal, including commuter service. For once I was in the right place at the right time and was able to transfer to the Joliet board. Joliet handled anywhere from one to three daily coal trains, which originated at either Cow Creek or Decker, Mont. While the mines were near one another, interestingly, they ran over two different routes — one via Minneapolis/Saint Paul, while the other passed through…

FUNDRAISING TOWARD RESTORATION of New York Central 4-8-2 No. 3001 has netted more than $325,000, which will cover moving the locomotive from Elkhart to Fort Wayne, Ind., for further work, says Kelly Lynch, vice president of the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society. Project partner FMW Solutions, working with the Abbeville (Ala.) Foundation, arranged an exchange of air compressors between No. 3001 and Florida East Coast No. 253, currently undergoing a cosmetic restoration in Alabama. The swap gives No. 3001 a newer, recently refurbished compressor. — Trains staff…

SAYING THE FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION AND AMTRAK AGREE the project “is a waste of taxpayer funds,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced in April that the government was rescinding a $63.9 million planning grant for the proposed high-speed rail line between Dallas and Houston. A few days later, Duffy announced the FRA and Amtrak would take over renovation of New York’s Penn Station, cutting about $120 million in planning funds for that project while taking control away from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. TEXAS PROJECT LEFT TO PRIVATE SECTOR “The Texas Central Railway project was proposed as a private venture,” Duffy said in a press release. “If the private sector believes this project is feasible, they should carry the pre-construction work forward, rather than relying on Amtrak and the American taxpayer…

RAILROADS AND RETAILERS are praising a bipartisan bill in Congress that aims to reduce cargo theft. The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act (S.1404, introduced April 10), would create a coordinated federal response to a rising wave of sophisticated cargo thefts, many targeting consumer goods in containers carried on double-stack trains. Association of American Railroads CEO Ian Jefferies said in a statement that the “alarming trend” of attacks on the supply chain “affects every industry — including the nation’s largest railroads, which experienced a 40% spike in cargo theft last year.” Class I railroads estimate they were hit by more than 65,000 thefts in 2024. The AAR says the bill would provide the tools to disrupt criminal networks and safeguard supply chains. Specifically, it would enhance federal law enforcement tools…

THE SOUTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY and TriMet of Portland, Ore., in April became the latest major transit agencies to raise the specter of significant service cuts while calling for increased state funding. SEPTA said it would have to cut service by 45% and raise fares by 21.5%, with interim General Manager Scott Sauer saying the cuts would “start the dismantlement of public transit for our city and region as we know it today.” The agency’s detailed plan includes the elimination of five regional rail lines, closure of 66 stations, replacement of two trolley lines with buses, and an end to rail service after 9 p.m., as well as for special events. Some 50 bus lines would also be cut. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) and the Democrat-controlled Senate have proposed and…

RAILROADING — and its echoes — remain all around us, deeply embedded in language, culture, technology, and attitudes. It is less visible today than even 50 years ago, but it is there if you take a look. Or listen, because trains have been a major part of the American cultural soundtrack. There is music about trains. There is music mentioning trains. And then there is music which is technically neither, but the trains are there nevertheless. LAUNCHING A THOUSAND TUNES I’d be hard-pressed to describe a category formally understood as “Railroad Music” or “Train Music,” any more than there is a neat definition for “Love Music.” If that were the case, you could lump together the Liebestod aria from Richard Wagner’s 1865 tragic opera Tristan und Isolde and Stop!…

J.D. Danton’s shift at Metra’s 16th Street Tower on April 11-12, 2025 was nothing new. Yet the dilapidated structure had never seen anything like it — and never will again. Danton was the operator on duty when the interlocking tower, in active duty south of the Loop since 1901, relinquished control over the diamond crossing of Metra’s Rock Island District and Canadian National’s St. Charles Air Line. The interlocking is now operated from Metra’s Consolidated Control Facility at 15th and Canal streets — little more than 3,000 feet away, although on the opposite side of the Chicago River. The latest deletion from the ever-dwindling number of operating U.S. towers leaves Metra with three: • A2, at the complex junction of tracks where Metra’s Milwaukee North and West districts intersect with…

RECENTLY, I BEGAN TEACHING A series of classes at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania titled Railroad Photography 101. I cover the basics in this two-hour course, beginning with a short digital slide show encompassing more than 60 years of photography. I also provide a list of 10 basic tips — things like making sure batteries are charged, storage media is present and functional, focus and exposure settings/modes are where you want them, the camera is switched on, the lens cap is off, and the lens is clean. I delve into the issues of subject matter such as moving trains, landscapes with trains, and people with trains. Then I briefly discuss different types of equipment, ways to approach composition, how refine technique, work with light and make the most of foreground and…

THE T1 TRUST says the new welded frame for PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD T1 NO. 5550 is complete. Dover (Ohio) Tank & Plate fabricated the 71,000-pound, 64-foot-long frame, putting construction of the 51st 4-4-4-4 T1 over the halfway mark. Work continues on new cylinders. The Trust also partnered with several other large steam locomotive operators to construct a new version of the Nathan 4000c steam injector. The project was successful, with the first unit installed on NICKEL PLATE NO. 765. The T1 carries two injectors each capable of placing 14,000 gallons of water per hour into the boiler. WESTERN MARYLAND SCENIC RAIL-ROAD 2-6-6-2 NO. 1309 returned to service in May. The ex-Chesapeake & Ohio locomotive was sidelined in 2024 for a number of planned maintenance projects, including cylinder and piston work. The…