Trains Magazine 2015-07

BONUS ONLINE CONTENT CODE PG. 3 FIXING CHICAGOREWORKING AMERICA’S RAILROAD HUB p. 25 AND FOLDOUT MAP! p. 22 Feather River Canyon Of restlessness and r...

39 downloads 60 Views 21MB Size

Download PDF

THE SECRET LIFE OF WANDERING LOCOMOTIVES

p. 52

www.TrainsMag.com July 2015

FIXING CHICAGO

REWORKING AMERICA’S RAILROAD HUB AND FOLDOUT MAP!

p. 25

p. 22

Feather River Canyon Of restlessness and rain p. 36

An oil train moves through downtown Chicago.

PLUS

SunRail: Lessons from a commuter rail start-up p. 46

Reading 4-8-4 on the move

p. 60

BONUS ONLINE CONTENT CODE PG. 3

HIGH-CAPACITY I PRECISION I RELIABILITY

Leading the Way

www.plasseramerican.com

Decades of research, development and technological innovations, working in partnership with North American railroads, has resulted in highly productive and reliable track maintenance machinery. Maximum track quality, minimum track occupancy and increased return on investment are a reﬂection of Plasser´s commitment to providing the latest technology and solutions for today´s m/w challenges. Plasser American – Your partner for life.

july 2015

Online Content Code: TRN1507 Enter this code at: www.TrainsMag.com/code to gain access to web-exclusive content

vol. 75, no. 7 news and features

FEATURES

ON THE WEB

25

Fixing Chicago Are railroads ready and willing to repair the nation’s rail hub? Fred W. Frailey

22

Chicago railroads

Map of the Month: Moving freight through Chicago

>> Check out a gallery plus video

footage of rail operations in the city. Photo by David Lassen

Twelve years after the July 2003 Windy City special issue, check out the nation’s rail hub now Bill Metzger

36

46

Of railroads, rain, and restlessness in Feather River Canyon Scott Lothes

Central Florida’s new commuter line gains riders despite initial opposition Jeffrey R. Orenstein

Canyon solitude

SunRail rises

52

Roaming locomotives “Horsepower-hour,” “free runners,” and units often far from home Chris Guss

SunRail video >> Follow along and watch the

action on Central Florida’s new commuter railroad

Locomotive rosters >> Subscribers can view and

<< ON THE COVER A run-through oil train from BNSF

NEWS

download PDFs of the latest

Railway to Norfolk Southern heads south at CP Lumber in

6 8 14 16 18 20

locomotive roster data for North

downtown Chicago on Oct. 9, 2013. Photo by Chris Guss

22 Foldout map: Chicago 25 Fixing Chicago: Reworking America’s railroad hub 36 Feather River Canyon: Of restlessness and rain 46 SunRail: Lessons from a commuter rail start-up 52 The secret life of wandering locomotives 60 Reading 4-8-4 T-1 No. 2100 on the move

News & Photos Don Phillips Fred W. Frailey Locomotive Technology Passenger

America’s seven Class I railroads and Amtrak

DEPARTMENTS 4 5 60 62 65 70

From the Editor Railway Post Ofﬁce Preservation Hot Spots Ask TRAINS Gallery

>> Subscribers can access all

the latest news and updates to stories daily on TRAINS News Wire

>> Follow

us on

TRAINS Magazine (issn 0041-0934, usps 529-850) is published monthly by Kalmbach Publishing Co., 21027 Crossroads Circle, P.O. Box 1612, Waukesha, WI, 53187-1612. Periodicals postage paid at Waukesha, Wis., and at additional ofﬁces. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to TRAINS, Kalmbach Publishing Co., P.O. Box 1612, Waukesha, WI 53187-1612. Canada Publication Mail Agreement #40010760.

www.TrainsMag.com

COVER STORY >>

FROM THE EDITOR EDITOR

Angela Pusztai-Pasternak

PRODUCTION EDITOR

JIM WRINN

Pilgrimage on U.S. 30

Jim Wrinn

Thomas G. Danneman

A RT DI RECTOR

A S S O C I AT E E D I T O R

David Lassen

A S S O C I AT E E D I T O R

Steve Sweeney

A S S I S TA N T E D I T O R

Brian Schmidt

E D I T O R I A L A S S I S TA N T

Diane Laska-Swanke

SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER

All of us have our “must do” list. This is about one item from mine, how it fulfilled my expectations, and how it tempted me further. I’m talking about driving U.S. 30 in Nebraska, the highway that parallels the Union Pacific main line across the cornfields. What a pilgrimage this is.

GRAPHIC DESIGNER L E A D I L L U S T R AT O R

Scott Krall

Drew Halverson Rick Johnson

Thomas Hoffmann

LIBRARIAN

COLUMNISTS

Fred W. Frailey, Don Phillips CORRESPONDENTS

Roy Blanchard, Michael W. Blaszak, Justin Franz, Steve Glischinski, Chase Gunnoe, Chris Guss, Scott A. Hartley, Bob Johnston, David Lester, David Lustig C O N T R I B U T I N G I L L U S T R AT O R PUBLISHER

Bill Metzger

Diane M. Bacha

CUSTOMER SERVICE

The road and the railroad run in close proximity to each other for much of the state. I started just east of Kearney, Neb., and drove east to Fremont, Neb., a distance of about 180 miles. If you’re looking to make time in these parts, stick to I-80. If you want to watch trains, U.S. 30 is the road to take. You’ll not be disappointed. The railroad is the original transcontinental route, laid down 150 years ago. This is a busy artery of commerce, funneling traffic between the world’s largest freight yard in North Platte, Neb., and the continent’s busiest railroad hub, Chicago [see pages 22-35]. In most places, it is double-tracked, but in some locations the main is three tracks wide. I was told to expect headlights on the horizon at all times. So, I pulled up to a dirtroad crossing and waited. Five minutes later, a westbound appeared. Not long after its distributed power unit chortled by, an eastbound showed up. In the next 30 minutes, my train-watching became like following the ball in a busy ping-pong game.

Eventually, I started driving east, and I was not disappointed. I saw stack trains overtaking ballast trains, plenty of meets, and a variety of trains. At Grand Island, Neb., I paused to visit the Burlington Route station and check out the BNSF Railway flyover. Sure enough, just as a UP eastbound passed under, a BNSF westbound crossed over the flyover. I didn’t get a perfect “over and under” shot, but it was close enough to make me want to return to try again. As we begin the summer travel season, here’s to checking off items on your “must do” list. Whether it’s watching trains in a particular place, taking an Amtrak route you’ve always wanted to experience, going on an excursion behind your favorite 4-8-4, or going overseas to enjoy a completely different railroad experience, my advice is this: There’s no better time than today. Just do it.

[email protected]

phone: (800) 533-6644 Outside the U.S. and Canada: (262) 796-8776, ext. 421 email: [email protected] fax: (262) 796-1615 Please include your name, mailing address and telephone number with any correspondence ADVERTISING SALES

phone: (888) 558-1544, ext. 625 email: [email protected] fax: (262) 796-0126 EDITORIAL

phone: (262) 796-8776 email: [email protected] fax: (262) 798-6468 P.O. Box 1612 Waukesha, WI 53187-1612 S E L L I N G T R A I N S M A G A Z I N E O R P R O D U C T S I N YO U R S T O R E :

phone: 800-558-1544, press 3 Outside U.S. and Canada: 262-796-8776, ext. 818 fax: 262-798-6592 email: [email protected] website: www.Retailers.Kalmbach.com T R A I NS H O M E PAG E

www.TrainsMag.com K A L M B A C H P U B L I S H I N G C O.

Charles R. Croft Kevin P. Keefe S E N I O R V P, S A L E S & M A R K E T I N G Daniel R. Lance V I C E P R E S I D E N T, C O N S U M E R M A R K E T I N G Nicole McGuire C O R P O R AT E A R T D I R E C T O R Maureen M. Schimmel A R T A N D P R O D U C T I O N M A N A G E R Michael Soliday G R O U P C I R C U L AT I O N M A N A G E R Kathy Steele S I N G L E C O P Y S P E C I A L I S T Kim Redmond C O R P O R AT E A D V E R T I S I N G D I R E C T O R Scott W. Bong A D V E R T I S I N G S A L E S R E P R E S E N TAT I V E Mike Yuhas A D V E R T I S I N G S A L E S R E P R E S E N TAT I V E Todd Schwartz A D S E R V I C E S R E P R E S E N TAT I V E Christa Burbank P R O D U C T I O N C O O R D I N AT O R Sue Hollinger-Yustus PRESIDENT

V I C E P R E S I D E N T, E D I T O R I A L

FOU N DER

A.C. Kalmbach, 1910-1981

Subscription rate: single copy: $5.99; U.S. 1 year (12 issues) $42.95; 2 years (24 issues) $79.95; 3 years (36 issues) $114.95. Canadian: Add $12.00 postage per year. All other international subscriptions: Add $15.00 postage per year. Payable in U.S. funds, drawn on a U.S. bank (Canadian price includes GST) BN 12271 3209 RT. Expedited delivery service surcharges: Domestic First Class: $30.00/year; Canadian Air: $30.00/year; International Air: $60.00/year. ©2015 Kalmbach Publishing Co. Any publication, reproduction, or use without express permission in writing of any text, illustration, or photographic content in any manner is prohibited except for inclusion of brief quotations when credit is given. Title registered as trademark. TRAINS assumes no responsibility for the safe return of unsolicited photos, artwork, or manuscripts. Acceptable photos are paid for upon publication. Photos to be returned must include return postage. Feature articles are paid for upon acceptance. For information about submitting photos or articles, see Contributor Guidelines at www.TrainsMag.com. Printed in U.S.A. All rights reserved. Member, Alliance for Audited Media.

Westbound, left, and eastbound unit coal trains pass at speed on the Union Paciﬁc main line near Central City, Neb. Put the U.S. 30 experience on your bucket list. TR A I NS : Jim Wrinn

4

Trains JULY 2015

RAILWAY POST OFFICE AMTRAK RESPONDS TO DON PHILLIPS’ COLUMN ON SAFETY Don Phillips’ alarmist commentary, “Amtrak’s Safe-2-Safer Is Not Too Safe” [pages 10-11, June] missed the mark about improvements to one of our employee safety programs. Safety is Amtrak’s No. 1 commitment to both employees and passengers. We work relentlessly to ensure that every customer and employee goes home injury-free every day. We partner with industry-leading experts to develop innovative training and engagement programs, and they have been effective in helping us make needed changes in our safety culture. An example is the behavior-based, employee-focused Safe-2-Safer program, which Amtrak implemented in 2009. A recent report by the Amtrak Office of Inspector General (and posted at www.amtrakoig.gov) offered thoughtful analysis and recommendations on improving our program. However, Phillips’ article missed important points, such as these: • The report’s purpose was to review “(1) the extent to which the Safe-2-Safer program goals are being met, (2) whether opportunities exist to improve program

implementation, and (3) whether the program is integrated with the company’s overall efforts to improve safety.” Amtrak’s leadership, including President and CEO Joe Boardman, read the report multiple times and agreed with the recommendations. Amtrak’s responses and implementation plans are included in the report. • The inspector general reported that Amtrak “has demonstrated a strong commitment to employee safety, but progress toward achieving the Safe-2-Safer program goals has been mixed, and opportunities for improvement exist. The company has made a significant resource investment in the program … [which] led to improved working conditions through the identification and elimination of more than 2,700 unsafe working conditions. The company’s safety culture also improved, as measured by biennial employee surveys since 2009.” • The report also attributes some of the rise in reportable injuries to improvements in Amtrak’s safety culture and encouragement for employees to report injuries without fear of retribution. Fostering this environment helps supervisors identify and address safety issues. A

rise in reporting was predicted and is an indicator of an improved culture. While any injury or safety incident is one too many, we do have an excellent record of passenger and train-operating safety. Amtrak is also making far greater progress on employee safety than Phillips’ column leads Trains readers to believe. Amtrak’s FRA-reportable injury rate has dropped by 20 percent, from last October through February (the latest report available at the time this article was written). Strain and sprain injuries, accounting for more than half of Amtrak’s reportable injuries, dropped by 15 percent over the same period. The severity rate of employee injuries is also down by 40 percent. Key takeaways: Are we where we want to be? No. Are Amtrak’s accidents and injuries rising rapidly? No. Are we focused on the right path with executing a plan to continually improve our culture and employee safety programs? Yes. Is Amtrak operating safely, and committed — at all levels of the company — to continuing to operate safer? Emphatically, yes. Rod Gibbons, vice president, corporate communications, Amtrak Washington, D.C.

www.TrainsMag.com

5

NEWS&PHOTOS

A Metra train dodges freight trains and automobile trafﬁc on the commuter railroad’s busy BNSF Railway line west of downtown Chicago. The engineer rides high, but with little crash protection, in the safety-striped, 1990s-built cab car. Two photos, TR A I NS : David

Lassen

The ‘push me, pull you’ struggle Crashes, computer advances refine the design of track and rolling stock Keeping commuters safe no longer is about simply armoring the rolling stock and hoping motorists and pedestrians take to heart the message of look, listen, and live. Instead, advanced computer simulations and live testing offer insights into subtle details of how crash forces move and what happens if you are thrown from your seat. “In the old days, we didn’t know enough about explicit modeling, the fine-element modeling, to do the simulations we do today,” says Martin Schroeder, chief technical officer of the American Public Transportation Association. “In the old days, we just made cars tougher. We did not know how they handled in a crash.” New ways mean new obstacles, as well. Research into mitigating abdominal injuries

In the Midwest, Amtrak uses modiﬁed F40PH locomotives as cab cars, like on this Hiawatha run. TR A I NS : Brian Schmidt

6

Trains JULY 2015

to passengers facing tables is currently hampered by a shortage of Hybrid III crash-test dummies, the mannequins hard-wired with dozens of data streams. There’s also research into seat pitch, the distance between seats. “If it’s long, you suddenly fly out of your seat picking up speed,” Schroeder adds. “If it’s close, you don’t have that acceleration. The velocity is tied to survivability.” Beyond the well-known issues of missed signals and motorists fouling grade crossings are myriad concerns, from a congressional mandate for positive train control on heavy-rail lines to designing light-rail systems mixing with traffic on urban streets. Simply keeping the public off the right-ofway is no simple matter, either, given the frequency of suicides, pedestrians with earbuds plugged in, and even video and still photographers who find it convenient to illegally use railroads as a set. Ideally, light rail vehicles will flow with traffic in the same direction and at about the same speed, the Transportation Research Board wrote in the 2012 update of its handbook on track design. Issues obvious to rail planners, however, may not be so clear to the engineers designing roadways. And despite studies of commuter-rail crashes finding push-pull operations to be safe, concern lingers over shoving passengers ahead of a 100-ton locomotive. “They talk a lot about safety, but if they really cared about safety they wouldn’t have >> Get the latest news updates on TRAINS News Wire. Visit: www.TrainsMag.com

push-pull,” says a retired Amtrak engineer who ran Los Angeles-San Diego Pacific Surfliners and commuter trains for L.A.area Metrolink. “If you won’t let passengers ride in the locomotive, why let passengers ride in the front of a 90-mph train?” He also takes issue with quiet-zone road crossings, contending that they placate neighbors at the expense of safety. The engineer, who asked not to be identified, was friends with two Metrolink engineers killed in cab cars; one was the only death in a Feb. 24 crash in Oxnard, Calif., the other was among the 11 who perished in the 2005 Glendale, Calif., crash that sent his friend’s train into a parked Union Pacific ballast train and a passing Metrolink train. Investigators blame both crashes on

Two Metrolink trains pass with new Hyundai Rotem cab cars like the one involved in the February 2015 derailment in Oxnard, Calif.

motor vehicles abandoned on the tracks. The Glendale crash led to an FRA study that found little difference in casualties between push and pull operations. The study did note that passengers were more vulnerable in head-on and grade-crossing crashes if they were riding in front of the locomotive. Yet it was the 2008 Metrolink crash at Chatsworth, Calif., where the engineer passed a signal into the path of a UP freight, that altered the industry. “That one changed our world,” says Kevin Flynn, public information manager for Denver’s $2 billion FasTracks commuter rail project. “That crash occurred two months after voters in the Denver metro area approved the program and a sales tax to fund it.” The Regional Transportation District is testing part of its 23-mile, 25,000-volt overhead-electric line between Denver Union Station and Denver International Airport, part of it on right-of-way bought from UP along its Lyman Subdivision. Wherever track center lines are within 50 feet, UP requires a steel-reinforced concrete barrier. All three bidders proposing to build and operate four FasTracks lines offered rolling stock incorporating crash-energy management technology with energy-absorbing crumple zones and structures that move

U.S. rail transit ridership by mode 2014 Change ridership from 2013 Heavy rail 3.9 billion +3.3 percent Light rail 537 million +3.6 percent Commuter rail 490 million +2.9 percent Source: American Public Transportation Association

Mode

forces around passenger spaces. Winning bidder Denver Transit Partners chose Hyundai Rotem single-level electrical multiple-unit cars over offerings from Bombardier and Siemens. Metrolink also embraced the new crash technology for new two-level coaches and cab cars [see “Commuter Safety Under Scrutiny,” “News & Photos,” May 2015]. All of the cab fleet and two-thirds of the coaches now feature the technology, says Metrolink Public Affairs Director Jeff Lustgarten. “A big part of the investment in crashenergy-management [technology] is people having that extra level of comfort and security, and that includes cab cars,” Lustgarten adds. “We feel like we’re doing everything we can and should be doing to make trains as safe as possible.” In the Oxnard crash the derailing cab car, which was equipped with the new technology, dove into a low embankment and

rolled, maintaining its structure while sustaining exterior damage around the engineer-side window. Metrolink, at a cost of $216 million, also expects to be first in the country with PTC operational by the Dec. 31, 2015 deadline. In cooperation with BNSF Railway, demonstration trains began revenue service on the 91 Line to Riverside, Calif., in February, with two more lines ready and another undergoing testing. “We strongly believe that PTC is the single most important life-saving rail-safety technology we’ll see in a generation,” Lustgarten says. Still to come is interoperability with systems being developed by Amtrak, UP, BNSF Railway, and San Diego’s regional North County Transit District, he adds. Denver’s FasTracks lines are the first to be built from scratch with PTC and crashenergy management as integral parts. The National Transportation Safety Board began calling 45 years ago for a way to stop trains before disasters happen; bills to extend the implementation deadline are pending in Congress. PTC can mix satellite tracking with data on signals, speed limits, work zones, and switch positions. PTC in its present form, however, won’t stop gradecrossing collisions. — William P. Diven, journalist and blogger from Placitas, N.M.

MORNING SUN BOOKS These all-color 128-page hardcover books will be available July 1, 2015

TTX Company needs images of its equipment in action. GM&O – THE ALTON ROUTE IN COLOR, VOLUME 2 By Joe Petric

Item# 1548

ALASKA RAILROAD IN COLOR VOLUME 1: DECADES OF TRANSITION By Kevin J. Holland Item# 1549

DERECO IN COLOR By Arthur J. Erdman

Item# 1550

Order today at price of $59.95 apiece plus $7 shipping (add $2 for each add’l book) Canada-$12; foreign-$21, each.

All books are shipped via U.S. Mail. NJ (7%) residents add Sales Tax Find us on

Facebook

Visa/MC accepted – 9am-5pm Call (908) 806-6216

Morning Sun Books, Inc.

We are seeking photos of intermodal equipment, boxcars and other TTX rolling stock in scenic settings for our 2016 calendar and other future marketing materials. Photographers will receive $300 for full, non-exclusive rights for each image used. Selected images will become the property of TTX and will be retained electronically in our archives for various uses. Some editing of images may occur. Digital images must be a minimum size of 6” x 8” (or 3,000 pixels by 2,400 pixels) at 300 dpi resolution. Files can be submitted as either JPG or TIFF ﬁle formats in RGB or CMYK. Please identify the location of each picture and provide your contact information for payment purposes if your image is featured.

Deadline for entries is August 31, 2015.

c/o W&C, 1200 CR #523 ~ Flemington, NJ 08822

eBooks

$19.99 apiece, each featuring 250-300 full color photos! Check our website for more titles and ordering info

MorningSunBooks.com

Send CDs (CDs will not be returned) Courtney Sullivan • TTX Company 101 N. Wacker Drive • Chicago, IL 60606 312.984.2656 www.TrainsMag.com

7

COMMENTARY

BY DON PHILLIPS

An era of survival and change Railroading navigated the turbulent 1970s with the aid of a Congress that worked end, the USRA plan received a single up-or-down vote in Congress. The wisdom of that plan made me laugh. By the time the plan came due for a vote in Congress, it was too late to start over. The choice was to vote “yes” or to allow the country’s surface transportation system to go rapidly downhill. Besides, there was a wise federal judge named John Fullam who was pressuring the government to move rapidly. There is no doubt Fullam would have turned bankrupt carriers over to the financial community for liquidation if Congress had voted “no.” I have written often that the people who volunteered to join USRA were heroes. They were unafraid to leave solid career jobs to take a chance. They worked long hours daily, and in the end they had no guarantee of a job. If they had failed, they might have wandered into the backwaters of history. They succeeded, however, and formed a new generation of top railroad management. Their creation became known as Conrail, and nothing stopped the USRA or the new Conrail from abandoning thousands of miles of track. Amtrak, believe it or not, was established on May 1, 1971, solely as a way to save freight railroads from bankruptcy. No one really believed Amtrak would survive for more than a couple of years, but for reasons that still aren’t clear, people turned up to travel on these broken-down rattletraps. There are so many stories from the early Amtrak era that I can’t even touch them all. In fact, in this brief column, I can’t even skim over everything Led by a Little Joe electric, an eastbound Milwaukee Road freight that happened in the 1970s. If you are interested enough in this climbs Pipestone Pass near Donald, Mont. The photo was taken subject to have read this far, I strongly suggest you get a copy of during a December 1972 trip recalled by the author. Victor Hand Trains of the 1970s, and turn to page 8. Historian H. Roger Grant of Clemson University has written an excellent article wrapI have just ﬂipped through Classic Trains’ special issue, ping up the rail history of the decade. He knows railroading and Trains of the 1970s, subtitled “Crisis and rebirth for America’s Railroads.” It is always a shock to me to realize that I not only lived he knows history. It’s a dynamite combination. Beyond that, the 1970s were a good era for railfans. Numerous through this era, but seemingly it was just yesterday. Many Trains steam locomotives escaped being scrapped in the 1960s and readers were not even born then. emerged from dead lines into a new life. My friend Victor Hand As I paged through the publication, I was struck with how and I traveled by the new Amtrak in 1972 to Montana to photomuch has changed in the last 35 to 45 years. At the beginning of graph the last of Milwaukee Road’s Little Joe the 1970s, something that later was called electric locomotives as they handled a major Amtrak was just being seriously discussed. I HAVE WRITTEN OFTEN movement of export grain. By summer Passenger trains on freight railroads were 1974, they were gone. You can read all about going away. The Penn Central bankruptcy, THAT THE PEOPLE WHO that era in Trains of the 1970s, the largest bankruptcy in history at that VOLUNTEERED TO JOIN time, had just shocked the country. On The nighttime temperature in Deer March 2, 1970, the northern carriers, Great Lodge, Mont., as we photographed the Little USRA WERE HEROES. Northern and Northern Pacific, merged Joes went below minus-30 degrees for two with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and straight nights. The air was nearly frozen the Spokane, Portland & Seattle to form Burlington Northern, one into a fog. As we sat trackside waiting for a Little Joe, we knew it of many rail mergers over the next few decades. would hurt to remove a hand from a glove to snap a shutter. But At the end of the decade, the state of affairs was slightly differyou should see the shots. ent, but the earlier Penn Central bankruptcy had forced politicians On the return trip, the Amtrak train’s steam line froze, and it and railroaders to deal with the reality that railroads either must stayed that way into Chicago. We wore all our winter gear as we be nationalized or returned to health. headed home, including our parkas and boots. It was nasty cold. Most of the decade was spent dealing But for some reason, people still wanted to ride the trains. ClassicTrains with one question: how? Now, it’s time for me to sit back in my warm room and read the It is difficult for people today to whole magazine. 2 7 s realize that Congress and federal buof the 19 0 reaucrats were heroes in those days. Congress wisely set up the U.S. RailDon Phillips, a reporter for more than way Association and agreed to let it four decades, writes this exclusive column for restructure bankrupt Northeastern TRAINS. Email him at: [email protected] and Midwestern railroads. In the

TRAINS SPECIAL EDITION

NO. 16

Special 2015

Crisis and rebirth

s

NEWS&PHOTOS

NARP steps up outreach National Association of Railroad Passengers’ new president, Jim Mathews, targets local involvement As a former chairman and six-year member of Amtrak’s Customer Advisory Committee, Jim Mathews and fellow volunteers made suggestions to Amtrak line managers on how to improve the passenger railroad. In September 2014, he became the National Association of Railroad Passengers president. Bob Johnston interviewed Mathews for Trains.

Q

In what ways has NARP educated legislators on the value of passengerrail mobility?

Every April we organize a “Day on the Hill,” where our members come A from all over the country to speak with their representatives. There is lots of (political) turnover, so throughout the rest of the year we are constantly explaining to new Congressional staffers how transportation is funded. But making rail top-ofmind has got to be done by constituents from back home because the staffers always ask, “What’s your ZIP code?” When 20 voters all call in on the same issue within an hour, it really gets attention.

Q

Do you end up spending most of your time in Washington?

It’s actually the opposite. I was on the road for nine weeks last fall and again this spring for seven, to more than a dozen states trying to understand what’s worked and what hasn’t. I look at the Downeaster; a 145-mile regional corridor between Boston and Brunswick, Maine, that’s a tremendous success story.

A

Q

Can that kind of service be cloned elsewhere?

We have 28,000 members who can make the case by meeting with mayA ors, planning organizations, and land-use boards. They can attend hearings and write sensible letters that resonate with staffers who tell their bosses about the pulse in the community. This is not a spectator sport! I really believe that we can change the national conversation by educating local officials about the economic value of rail because these leaders have an outsized voice in policy decisions.

Q

What are you and NARP doing differently to give members more tools to intelligently participate in discussions?

10

Trains JULY 2015

Regional activism helped the Downeaster rejuvenate downtown Saco, Maine.

Bob Johnston

We’ve instituted a “Hotline Mid- Q A week Brief ” (along with the weekly “Hotline” newsletter), emailed to all members to make sure everyone is getting current information. And we’re also setting up Jim Mathews dozens of volunteer positions built around routes, stations, and people who can create and organize materials for advocates in their states or regions. There are lots of places where we have members but not necessarily a structure to plug into, so I really do think the pay dirt is in local activism and amplifying advocates’ voices. The positions are outlined in the “Become a NARP Volunteer” link on the website at www.narprail.org. The membership system we’re putting in place changes the way that members can interact with the organization.

Q

What can’t NARP do?

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we cannot directly lobby, support, or oppose any A political candidate, but we can share facts with our members, who are free as private citizens to make the case for a 21st century transportation network that they and their children want and deserve. We also cannot be a management-in-exile for Amtrak. Our role is to be the voice of passengers across the country.

NARP receives an annual passthrough grant directly from Amtrak to pay costs of Amtrak Customer Advisory Committee meetings and hiring an independent administrator. Doesn’t this arrangement chill your criticism of Amtrak?

Having spent six years on the Committee myself, I think communication A between Amtrak management and its passengers is something we should facilitate. We screen the volunteer applicants and choose them with great care to reflect regional, route-specific, age, and mobility diversity; they go on rail trips they normally take and travel to meetings at their own expense. Some of their suggestions have been Quiet Cars, a Senior-Disabled Task Force with employee training, and healthy menu options. We assist the administrator in arranging conference calls between customer advisory committees and the relevant manager at Amtrak, such as food and beverage.

Q

If an Amtrak employee oversaw that job, would it be a conﬂict of interest?

It sure would. Since I have been here, we have pressed top Amtrak brass reA peatedly about a rolling stock replacement plan, restoring Empire Builder connections, winter disruption of Lake Shore Limited (Boston section) food service, and care of displaced passengers in Chicago. I’ve heard the “NARP can’t be objective” argument several times, and I reject it. The fact that we get reimbursed an amount that’s about 1 percent of our revenue does nothing to corrupt NARP or its position.

Louisville & Indiana and CSX joint route

N

IN DIAN A COLUMBUS

CSX Transportation Louisville & Indiana Not all lines shown

To Cincinnati CSXT

SEYMOUR

XT CS To St. Louis

C LIR

Under the agreement, CSX would exercise perpetual, non-exclusive overhead rights on the line between milepost 4 in Indianapolis and milepost 110.5 in Louisville. CSX already has trackage rights to operate over the line between Louisville and Seymour, Ind. “This project enhances critical rail infrastructure that connects local customers to America’s freight transportation network, supporting local manufacturing, economic development, jobs, and competitiveness,” says Peter Gilbertson, chairman and CEO of L&I parent Anacostia Rail Holdings. In exchange for the overhead operating rights, CSX will fund and own capital improvements to the line. Those improvements will be targeted to increase overall track speeds by installing welded rail and new ties, removing weight restrictions to allow 286,000-pound cars, and adding capacity with a modernized dispatching system. CSX estimates the improvements will cost between $70 million and $90 million and take up to seven years to complete. —Brian Schmidt

Avon Yard

LIRC

An Indiana short line is about to get a makeover. The Surface Transportation Board has approved a proposal by CSX Transportation and the Louisville & Indiana Railroad for joint use of the short line’s 100-mile route between Indianapolis and Louisville, Ky. The ruling clears the way for CSX to begin using the line as an alternate route for traffic between Louisville and points in the Northeast. In its ruling, the STB finds that the “transaction is not likely to cause substantial lessening of competition” and that the transaction would “benefit the shipping public and enhance competition by facilitating more efficient, cost-saving operations.” “These upgrades will benefit L&I and CSX customers in the Midwest and across the companies’ networks by improving operational efficiency, allowing more-direct transit across Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, and reducing congestion in those states,” says Oscar Munoz, CSX president and chief operating officer. In its filings, CSX said the joint use agreement would result in annual savings of about $11.8 million.

To Cleveland

Indianapolis

INDIANA

Map area Louisville

KEN TUCKY 0

Scale

50 miles

© 2015 Kalmbach Publishing Co. TRAINS: Jay W. Smith and Rick Johnson

LOUISVILLE

Ohio

Louisville & Indiana becomes safety valve for southern Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS CSXT

CSX, short line improve route

er Riv

K Y.

To Cincinnati CSXT

To Nashville

New Low Profile Bi-Directional Portable Derail, the LP-TSX This new bi-directional derail incorporates the same, proven, overall design as the LP- TS Derail, with a low above top of rail height to clear locomotive pilots. The LP-TSX is the first genuinely bi-directional portable derail. Once installed on the rail, it is equally effective when struck from either direction. There is no wedge to reposition, nor will the derail slide on the rail, if struck from the trailing end.

Less than three inches high Light weight - approximately 60 pounds w/o flag Resists sliding - unique, patented design Rugged - fabricated from high strength alloy steel Easy to install - requires no special tools Can be padlocked. Equipped with a highly visible warning flag Fits rail 75 to 141 pounds WESTERN-CULLEN-HAYES, INC. 2700 W. 36th Place • Chicago, IL 60632 (773) 254-9600 • Fax (773) 254-1110 Web Site: www.wch.com E-mail: [email protected] www.TrainsMag.com

11

NEWS PHOTOS

>> FIRE ENGINE Norfolk Southern released SD60E No. 911 from its Altoona, Pa., shops in early May. The colorful locomotive honors the nation’s emergency ﬁrst responders. Nor folk Southern

>> SMOKE SIGNAL A loaded BNSF Railway crude oil train derailed near the small town of Heimdal in central North Dakota on May 6. No injuries were reported. Associated Press

>> DANGER AHEAD A train on New Mexico short line Southwestern Railroad collided with a parked train early on the morning of April 28, near Roswell, killing one crew member. A preliminary investigation shows a siding switch was opened.

William P. Diven

FRA looks closer at crude by rail Agency issues emergency order, two safety advisories for the safe transport of flammable liquids The paper trail required for transporting Class 3 flammable liquids by rail is about to get a little longer. The Federal Railroad Administration, along with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, developed a “package of targeted actions” to address issues identified in recent train accidents involving crude oil and ethanol shipped by rail. The Federal Railroad Administration is recommending that only the highestskilled inspectors conduct brake and mechanical inspections of trains transporting large quantities of flammable liquids, and that the industry decrease the threshold for wayside detectors that measure wheel impacts, making them more sensitive to possible wheel defects. The FRA will ask the Association of American Railroads to develop a formal 12

Trains JULY 2015

process by which specific information becomes available to both emergency responders and investigators within 90 minutes of initial contact with an investigator. That information includes the train consist, waybill data, safety data sheets for hazardous materials onboard, results of any product testing undertaken prior to transport to classify the materials, names and locations of companies and facilities handling the materials prior to a derailment, and the names of the railroads handling the materials and a timeline of custody for each. Finally, the FRA issued Emergency Order No. 30, Notice No. 1, establishing a maximum authorized speed of 40 mph for trains transporting large amounts of Class 3 flammable liquid through certain highly populated areas, such as cities, which it

Government regulators are scrutinizing most facets of how railroads move crude oil in unit tank car trains. Nate Beecher

calls “high-threat urban areas.” Since 2013, the agencies say, there have been 23 crude oil-related train accidents in the U.S., the majority of which have not resulted in an oil spill. — Brian Schmidt

US intermodal units top carload trafﬁc

The Government of Canada will not renew its requirement for Canadian National and Canadian Paciﬁc to transport minimum volumes of grain by rail. The order expired March 28. The government is also making more grain-monitoring statistics publicly available. Weekly and monthly grain-trafﬁc reports will be posted at www.grainmonitor.ca. Union Paciﬁc set two new companysafety records. UP’s public-safety rate, which measures the total number of Federal Railroad Administration-reportable grade-crossing accidents per million train-miles, improved 27 percent to

ORDERS: U.S. (800) 554-7463

Domestic shipping FREE over $50.00

BUSINESS & INTERNATIONAL: (812) 391-2664

has 1,700 plus new titles, all at discount!

>> ARRIVALS & DEPARTURES

U.S. railroads handled more intermodal units in the week ending April 18 than carloads, according to the Association of American Railroads. U.S. carload trafﬁc for the week was 276,416, down 4.9 percent compared with the same week in 2014. U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 280,016 containers and trailers, up 8.1 percent from 2014.

railroadbooks.biz

1.88. The railroad’s reportable injury rate of 0.85 represents the number of FRA-reportable employee injuries per 200,000 employee hours. The North Carolina Department of Transportation selected Piedmont Railway, a subsidiary of Iowa Paciﬁc Holdings, as the best candidate to operate the 13-mile, state-owned Piedmont & Northern Railway between Gastonia and Mount Holly, west of Charlotte. The selection follows a competitive solicitation for proposals. There are two customers on the one-time electriﬁed railroad. Aventine Renewable Energy has shipped the ﬁrst unit train of ethanol from its Aurora, Neb., facilities over BNSF Railway to Birmingham, Ala. The ﬁrst train departed on April 19. The company restarted operations and invested $20 million at two ethanol plants in Aurora. Together, the two plants have a combined production capacity of 155 million gallons per year.

A&R Productions

International SEND: Service.

E-mail for free printable PDF list.

$2.00 for paper

[email protected] www.railroadbooks.biz

Book Search. book list. PO Box 4, Bloomington, IN, 47402-0004 U.S.A.

1 :7KH(DUO\
*UHJ6FKROO9LGHR3URGXFWLRQV 32%R[7%DWDYLD2KLR

ZZZJUHJVFKROOYLGHRFRP

Black/White Prints - Lists (with sample): Street car and interurban 19,700 scenes . . . . . . . . . $9.00 Steam and diesel 3,300 scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3.00 Bus and trolley bus 2,150 scenes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3.00 Duplicate Color Slides - Lists (with sample): Street car and interurban 10,700 scenes . . . . . . . . . $6.00 Steam and diesel 13,800 scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $6.00 Bus and trolley bus 2,400 scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3.00 4DIPMFT1IPUPTt%FQU5. 'JODBTUMF%SJWFt#FBWFSDSFFL 0)

The Tom E. Dailey Foundation announces availability of

RAILROAD HERITAGE GRANTS to qualiﬁed non-proﬁt organizations.

www.daileyfoundation.org

This new OVERLAND ROUTE PASSENGER TRAINS title by OVERLAND ROUTE noted passenger train author, PASSENGER TRAINS John F. Strauss, Jr. features a 1947-1971 very comprehensive history including train consists taken from actual records, major depot arrival/departure records, hundreds of passenger train John F. Strauss , Jr . and passenger car photos, both in vivid color and sharp historical black & white. The timeline stretches from postWar 1947, when the consists were divided up, until the coming of Amtrak on May 1, 1971. Available July OVERLAND ROUTE PASSENGER TRAINS — 1947-1971 6995 If ordered direct we offer FREE SHIPPING (U.S. only) Union Pacific - Southern Pacific - C&NW - Milwaukee Road

Two new DVD’s from A&R. “CSX Hancock Tower” and “Ohio Steam in the 1950’s (B&O, NKP, NYC & PRR)”. Priced at $30 each with free shipping. Order on line, by phone at (800) 246-5898, or by mail at PO Box 492, Kensington, CT 06037-0492.

classicrailroadvideos.com

Making All Stops Color NYC subway photo books. 7PM Order at:

www.makingallstops.com

SOO LINE

REMEMBERED

A Scrapbook of Lifetime Memories

Robert Larson

RAILROAD

CUSTOMER SERVICE CENTER Manage your subscription online

COMMUNICATIONS

(Registration Required)

MOTOROLA TWO-WAY RADIOS

www.Kalmbach.com/help • Change Address or E-mail Address • Report Damaged or Missing Issues • Check Expiration of Subscription • Subscribe

1PSUBCMFt.PCJMFt-PDPNPUJWFt#BTF

We Guarantee Best Prices!

• Renew Subscription • Pay Bill • Check Payment Status • Newsletter Management

RAILSCAN MOBILE GAIN ANTENNA

MHB5800 3db-Gain antenna, tuned to RR band, mag. mount…$76 SCANNERS BC125A W/Narrowband . . . . . $145 BC355N W/Narrowband . . . . . $130 Please add $16 for shipping

XPR7550

For all of our publications!

$1 '4DBO )5 '4DBO

Railcom #PYt(FSNBOUPXO 5/

tXXXSBJMDPNOFU FNBJM3BJMDPN!BPMDPN

Soo Line + CIR-2 59 95 each—If ordered direct we offer FREE SHIPPING (U.S. only) Foreign—Actual Cost; Canada 12.00; California residents add 5.25 sales tax. Coming Soon — SHORTLINES OF THE INTERMOUNTAIN WEST

14618 V ALLEY V IEW AVE - L A M IRADA , CA 90638-4351 Visa or MasterCard excepted Phone orders to: 714-521-4259 (8 - 6 Pacific) email orders to: [email protected] Visit Our Website: www.fourwayswest.com - Dealer Inquires Always Welcome www.TrainsMag.com

13

COMMENTARY

BY FRED W. FRAILEY

Grow — or just get fat? Railroads at the crossroads: To expand their scope, they have to invest big. So far, no go “2014 was an outstanding year for Norfolk Southern,” proclaims Executive Chairman Wick Moorman in the company’s annual report. He goes on to say, “We remain committed to our proven strategy of operating an efficient, high-velocity railroad, which enables us to offer the best possible customer service and retain and grow business at rates that provide a superior return for our shareholders.” Wick, what on earth were you thinking? Almost nothing in that Norfolk Southern intermodal double-stack train No. 212 makes its last sentence is realistic. The truth is that NS in 2014 operated an way out of the ramp area and prepares to head out of one of the inefficient, low-velocity railroad offering inferior service, so bad railroad’s largest intermodal yards, Inman in Atlanta. Frank Orona that the chairman of the Surface Transportation Board had to inquire of Moorman what was going on. In fact, in terms of service pany? This is particularly effective if your company’s shares are quality, 2014 was possibly the worst since the company was found- truly undervalued. And the alchemy is this: Fewer shares divided ed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk & Western and Southern into the same profits equals higher earnings per share — phony Railway. Only the years 1999-2000, when NS choked trying to abgrowth, I call it. sorb its half of Conrail, could possibly have been more chaotic. I’m not opposed to share buybacks, when there is a reason. InI’m picking on NS, but you can poke around the websites of the deed, the Wall Street Journal reports that companies comprising other big railroads and find similar examples of self-deception. Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index devoted 95 percent of their There is an enormous gulf today between how railroads portray earnings in 2014 to buybacks. But railroad stocks are not underthemselves to the world and what really goes on beneath the sheets valued, and capital-intensive railroads that want to become bigger with customers. To say one thing to one constituency (shareholdhave a call on every penny of profits. ers) and behave altogether differently with another (shippers) conLet’s get back to Norfolk Southern. NS in 2015 will spend $2.4 fuses everyone, including employees, and poisons relationships. billion on capital improvements, which amounts to 22 percent of Railroads have gotten away with under-serving customers berevenues. On the face of it and by historic standards, that’s a lot. But cause customers truly need them. So the railroads raise prices alof that $2.4 billion, only $480 million will go to make the railroad most at will, thus keeping shareholders satisfied. Despite its abysmal bigger — more and longer sidings, double track, bigger yards, locoservice in 2014, Norfolk Southern could brag about record revenues motives, and so on. That $480 million won’t buy you a lot in 2015, and profits. It’s as if NS and the other Class I once you’ve paid for the locomotives. Meancarriers believe their allegiance is really to while, the railroad will spend more than THERE IS A GULF BETWEEN HOW Wall Street, not to their customers. twice that much on “phony growth,” the What worries me is how all this plays out share buybacks, with many shares soon goRAILROADS PORTRAY THEMSELVES in the years ahead. Now solidly profitable, ing back into circulation as outright grants TO THE WORLD AND WHAT REALLY railroads say they want to become bigger or options to executives and directors. businesses, take stuff off the highways, yada But most of the other Class I roads are GOES ON WITH CUSTOMERS. yada. They want to grow the ton-miles, not no different. Altogether they will devote aljust the freight rates. most $8.5 billion in 2015 to buybacks, most Yet the evidence at every hand suggests they cannot handle egregiously Canadian Pacific ($2.1 billion) and Union Pacific ($2.9 efficiently the business they already have; service metrics remain billion), according to Morgan Stanley. And like NS, most will limit terrible. Freight traffic peaked in 2006, and we’re not back there capital spending to 21-22 percent of revenues (UP, 18 percent). yet. In this environment, grabbing more business just makes matTwo railroads are thinking big. BNSF and Kansas City Southters worse. So why the wretched service? ern railways are each budgeting 26 percent of revenues to capital Simply this: To run more water down the drain, you need a big- improvements. They can afford this because neither buys back ger or faster drain. (It also helps to have smart people who can exe- shares, BNSF because it is wholly owned by conglomerate Berkcute an operating plan, a resource most railroads have lost. Growth shire Hathaway. BNSF’s improvement ambitions are awesome, toin rail traffic since the Great Recession has been focused on the taling $6 billion. As I read its to-do list, it seems to be tackling doznorthern half of the U.S., plus Canada. The coal corridors of NS ens of impediments that keep it from operating as efficiently as it and CSX Transportation are underused, but you can’t transfer that wishes and from taking on more business. KCS has thought big capacity elsewhere. from the day Mike Haverty walked in the door two decades ago. Railroads need a bigger drain. Where demand is growing, they Bully for both railroads. They are getting ready for the next need to buttress those corridors with more infrastructure (and step. The other Class I railroads aren’t committed to walk the walk. locomotives and crews). All this framework costs money. With Instead, they just talk. 2 two notable exceptions, railroads are unwilling to spend the money, although the funds are close at hand. Instead, railroads are giving the money that ought to be going Fred W. Frailey is the author of into infrastructure back to shareholders, through share buybacks. “Twilight of the Great Trains.” Reach him at Buybacks got going in the 1980s. The logic is that if you have extra [email protected]. cash and no better place to put it, why not invest in your own com14

Trains JULY 2015

Protecting the Transportation Industry’s Vital Assets For over 75 years, The Protectowire Company has been recognized for the development of linear heat detection technology designed to meet the most challenging special hazard applications and environments. Protectowire Linear Heat Detectors. Simple, rugged, reliable.

Protectowire, the first name in linear heat detection. The Protectowire Company, Inc. 60 Washington Street Pembroke, MA 02359-1833 U.S.A. 781-826-3878; www.protectowire.com An ISO 9001:2008 Registered Company

LOCOMOTIVE

BY CHRIS GUSS

Alternators and generators The unsung heroes of locomotives take mechanical energy and turn it into electrical power Alternators and generators are the unsung heroes on a locomotive, converting mechanical energy from the prime mover to electrical energy for almost every component, from illuminating the headlights to pulling the train. Technological advances have improved the type and size of alternators and generators, enabling builders and rebuilders to simplify or eliminate electrical systems once necessary to achieve maximum output while under load. Up until the mid-1960s, it was basically an all-D.C. world, with main generators providing direct current to run the systems and move the train. D.C. generators were normally limited to 600 volts output and had parts such as carbon brushes and copper commutators that required precise alignment, maintenance, and replacement. They also had reliability issues such as highvoltage arcing while working in a harsh environment that attracted dirt and dust into the generator. In the mid-1960s both ElectroMotive Division and General Electric were beginning to use A.C. alternators. This was before EMD’s Dash-2 models and at the last of GE’s U-boats. EMD’s Dash-2 line and GEs Dash-7 series ushered in the era of A.C.-traction alternators. With D.C. generators and early A.C. alternators, builders were forced to use a combination of shunting on the alternator or generator and special wiring and electrical equipment that would enable the locomotive to switch between parallel and series wiring on the traction motors. This was necessary to utilize the maximum output of either the alternator or generator and capacity of the traction motors. This changeover is what’s known as a locomo-

tive making transition and typically occurs in the 20-25 mph range. The output limitation was due to the inability of the generator or alternator to produce a large amount of voltage for all speed ranges. At low speeds, an alternator or generator will produce high current and low voltage, and as

4

5

1

2

3

1 Traction alternator 2 Auxiliary alternator 3 Slip ring assembly 4 Alternator blower intake 5 Prime mover

speed increases, it changes to a low-current and high-voltage output. During low speeds, the traction motors are operated in series, transitioning to parallel after speed increases and transition are made. The inverse occurs as a locomotive’s speed is reduced.

Motor transition was replaced with alternator transition in the 1980s when alternator technology improved to the point that 1,200 volts could be produced at all speed ranges, thus allowing a reduction and simplification in electrical equipment. Traction motors could also be permanently wired in parallel. Today, alternators can produce well in excess of 1,200 volts for traction purposes. They can also be built with one or more set of windings, allowing separate outputs directly to rectifiers or other equipment downstream, electrically, from the alternator. The alternator traditionally provides 100 percent of its output for the traction motors while a companion or auxiliary alternator is mated to it, providing power for other electrical needs. This device is attached to the end of the alternator, and both are bolted directly to the prime mover. A companion alternator typically has more than one set of windings to create multiple power outputs dedicated to different locomotive functions. The companion alternator design and number of outputs can vary from builder to builder and even from one locomotive model to another, but will provide electricity for the various cooling fans, computer systems, battery charging, and alternator excitation, among other things. A shop trend is to replace D.C. main generators in older EMD locomotives during major electrical upgrades or overhauls. EMD’s AR10 A.C. alternator fits well in the older D32 D.C. main generator’s footprint inside a locomotive’s carbody, making this a popular swap. This increases the reliability of the locomotive while reducing longterm maintenance costs.

>> Heading north to test liqueﬁed natural gas power

Diesel fuel prices may be down, but railroads are still seeking alternatives: A northbound Canadian National through Wisconsin in April ferries two liqueﬁed natural gas tenders to Alberta for testing with modiﬁed SD70M-2s. Two photos, Cody Grivno; inset above, Chris Guss

16

Trains JULY 2015

Trains 75 Anniversary Gala th

1940

YEARS

2015

at the Harley-Davidson Museum

®

Celebrate TRAINS magazine’s 75th anniversary with a gala dinner at the landmark Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, Wis. Join past and present editors, columnists, writers, and photographers to celebrate the legacy of great writing and dazzling photography that entertains and educates while giving voice to generations of railroaders and railfans.

Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015, 4-9 p.m.

This once-in-a-lifetime event includes a cocktail reception, dinner, dessert, and keepsake souvenir. Harley-Davidson Museum admission is included. Enjoy special presentations from longtime friends of the magazine, Norfolk Southern Chairman Wick Moorman, legendary photographer David Plowden, and others. Make your reservations today. Admission is $75 per person plus applicable taxes. Seating is limited, so make your plans soon. Special hotel rates are available. Please see conﬁrmation email for complete information.

For more information and to order, visit www.TrainsMag.com/trains75 or call 800-533-6644 Main photo: Tom Danneman

RDC

Presenting sponsors

RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

Get the Premier Railroading Magazine Every issue of Trains magazine brings you: • In-depth feature articles on railroading, from the colorful past to today’s industry. • News and analysis of industry trends & developments. • Tips and insights on enjoying the railroad hobby. • First-hand stories from real railroaders. • Subscriber-only online access to the railroad map archive, locomotive rosters, PDF packages, the daily online News Wire, TrainsTube videos and interviews. • And so much more!

>> Visit us online at TrainsMag.com

SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

Call 800-533-6644

Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. CT. Outside the U.S. and Canada, call 262-796-8776, ext. 661 P25454

A57T www.TrainsMag.com

17

18

Trains JULY 2015

Not mentioned in ﬁnal rules. Double-shelf couplers are already mandated for all tank cars.

Couplers

Tank shell 9⁄16 inch

Thermal protection thickness as needed

Jacketing material 1⁄8 inch

Head shield 1⁄2 inch

(Actual size)

How thick?

Head shield

Jacketing

Thermal Tank shell protection

DOT-117: Weather-tight outer layer of minimum 11-gauge (1⁄8-inch) ASTM A1011 steel. This type of steel is used in barrels, automobile frames, and farm implements. DOT-111: None required.

DOT-117: Full-height head shields with minimum thickness of 1⁄2-inch steel. Steel used must withstand 55,000 psi. DOT-111: None required.

Type/packaging group DOT-111 w/o jacket/PGI DOT-111 w/jacket/PGI CPC-1232 w/o jacket/PGI DOT-111 w/o jacket/PGII DOT-111 w/jacket/PGII CPC-1232 w/o jacket/PGII All remaining in service

*Unit trains without electronically controlled pneumatic brakes are restricted to 30 mph after new braking rules take effect.

New rule: Maximum 50 mph. Further limited to 40 mph in high-threat urban areas as deﬁned by the U.S government when tank cars do not meet DOT-117, DOT-117P, or DOT-117R standards.* Old rule: Maximum determined by local track speeds and emergency orders.

Speed restrictions in unit train ﬂammable liquids service

Group Flash point Boiling point PGI: ≤140°F <95°F PGII: <73°F >95°F PGIII: ≥73°F, ≤140°F >95°F Why it’s not clear: Shippers are required to test liquids and verify contents regularly. Results can vary.

DOT-117: A layer between the shell and jacket to protect contents when exposed to ﬁres for 100 minutes or hit with a torch ﬂame for 30 minutes. DOT-111: None required.

Thermal protection

DOT-117: Incorporate an outlet handle that will not open during an accident. DOT-111: Bottom outlets optional; when included, shipper reference.

New rule: Rules require unit trains of high-hazard ﬂammable liquids to use electronically controlled pneumatic brakes for PGI-service tank cars after Jan. 1, 2021 and all packing groups after Jan. 1, 2023. This is in addition to existing distributed power and end-of-train device use requirements. Old rule: Shipper preference on brakes (electronic or straight pneumatic).

Illustration by Rick Johnson Illustration not to scale

*TC-128 is an Association of American Railroads‘ standard steel for pressure vessels, especially tank cars. Normalized steel has been heated to make the steel plate uniform in its consistency and free from internal stresses. Not required for DOT-111 manufacture.

DOT-117: 9⁄16 inch DOT-111: 7⁄16 inch Steel used: TC-128* Grade B, normalized steel.

Tank shell/wall thickness

Brakes and braking

DOT-117: Protection for ﬁttings on the tops of cars to keep hatches and safety valves from breaking open in a roll-over accident or collision. DOT-111: None required.

Top-ﬁttings protection

Bottom-outlet protection

Retroﬁt or retire Jan. 1, 2018 March 1, 2018 April 1, 2020 May 1, 2023 May 1, 2023 July 1, 2023 May 1, 2025

Phase-out schedule for ﬂammable-liquids service tank cars

Jacketing

Head shields

Packing groups, or contents

The rulebook is “written in blood,” railroaders often say. On May 1, the U.S. and Canada jointly announced 395 pages of new regulations and supporting documents for moving crude oil on railroads. The rules are the governments’ attempt to address a spate of crude oil and ethanol unit train wrecks. The worst of these was on July 6, 2013, in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, where a wreck and oil fire killed 47 people. The most significant of the new rules are specifications for a new tank car, DOT-117, which will replace all DOT-111 and CPC-1232 tank cars used in “high-hazard flammable trains.” — Steve Sweeney and Bill Diven, a New Mexico-based rail journalist

US, Canadian agencies collaborate on regulations, designs that replace the older cars under scrutiny

Meet the new tank car: DOT-117

TECHNOLOGY

Ron’s Books www.ronsbooks.com >> TECHNOLOGY BRIEF

Metra hires Parsons for PTC The board of directors for Chicago’s Metra commuter railroad hired Parsons Corp. as the railroad’s system integrator for making sure all positive train control systems — radios, signals, wayside units, and back-ofﬁce systems —work correctly and comply with federal PTC requirements. The contract is valued at $80 million and is being ﬁnanced with local, state, and federal funds, a Metra spokesman says.

All aboard for new signals Florida passenger start-up signs for PTC-compliant systems

P.O. BOX 714, HARRISON, NY 10528 • [email protected] (914)967-7541 11AM to 10PM EST FAX (914)967-7492 24HR

NEVER a Shipping Charge within the U.S.*

Akron, Canton & Youngstown and Akron & Barberton Belt in Color . .48.75 Alaska Railroad in Color Vol 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48.75 Along the Mount Beacon Incline Railway – Arcadia . . . . . . . .21.50 Canadian Trackside Guide 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35.00 Carolinas Short Lines in Color Vol 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48.75 Central Illinois Rails Vol 2 1950s-1970s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55.75 Central Railroad of Oregon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49.50 Chesapeake & Ohio Tunnels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23.75 Chicago & North Western The 400 Club – Presidential F Units . .27.75 Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Facilities in Color Vol 2 . . . . . .48.75 Chicago Streetcar Pictorial The PCC Car Era 1936-1958 . . .65.75 Classic Railroad Signals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32.75 Colorado & Southern No. 9 One Short Season . . . . . . . . . . .27.75 Conrail Power in Color Vol 1: 1000-3999 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48.75 Dereco (EL & D&H 1968-72) in Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48.75 Dominion Atlantic Railway 1894-1994 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23.75 EMD SD70 Class Volume 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36.75 Encyclopedia of B&O Cabooses Vol 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38.75 Florida East Coast Railway in Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48.75 Franklin County Narrow Gauge Vol 2 The Next Stop is Phillips . .50.75 Freight Cars of the ‘40s and ‘50s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20.75 German Railway Gun 28cm K5(E) Leopold . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38.75 GM&O The Alton Route Vol 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48.75 Hiawatha Nothing Faster on Rails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100.00 Iowa Route A History of the Burlington Cedar Rapids & Northern Ry .70.75 James J Hill’s Legacy to Railway Operations . . . . . . . . . . . .38.75 Just a Short Line The Story of the Rahway Valley RR V2 1951-2009 .55.75 Lehigh Valley Diesel Pictorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23.75 Logging Along the Moose River The Story of the Victory Branch RR .23.75 Making Trains Sound Like Trains – Locomotive Whistles . . .36.75 Mine to Mill-Hist of Great Lakes Iron Trade Iron Ranges-Sault Ste Marie 27.75 Morristown & Erie Vol 2 Service is Our Business 1952-82 . .45.75 Norfolk Southern 2014-2015 Locomotive Directory . . . . . . . .32.75 Overland Route Passenger Trains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65.75 Pictorial Hist of C&O Train and Auto Ferries & Pere Marquette Steamers .30.00 Railroading on the Wabash Fourth District . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36.75 Railway Prototype Cyclopedia Vol 28 or 29 each . . . . . . . . .28.50 Reich Rails – Prussia, Imperial Germany & The First World War .32.75 Rock Down, Coal Up The Story of the Quincy & Torch Lake RR . .23.75 Salute to the Hudswells- Australian Narrow Gauge Sugar Cane RRs .42.00 Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes RR & Predecessors Equipment V4 .55.75 Silver Rails - The Railroads of Leadville, Colorado . . . . . . . .55.75 Southern Pacific Historic Diesels V20 Passenger Cab Units Reprise .35.75 Southern Pacific Through Passenger Service in Color . . . . .48.75 Staten Island Rapid Transit – Arcadia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21.50 Steel From Mine to Mill the Metal that Made America . . . . . .32.75 Steel Making Cleveland District Plants – Republic Steel . . . .27.00 Strasburg Rail Road in Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48.75 This is the Bessemer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27.00 Trackside in the Maritimes 1967-1993 w/Linley . . . . . . . . . . .48.75 Union Pacific Northwest – Revised & Expanded . . . . . . . . . .80.75 Waynesburg & Washington Railroad Second Number 4 . . . .25.75 X Car (Private Owner) Color Guide Vol 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48.75 You Can’t Beat the Train – Highway Rail Grade Crossing Safety . . . . .19.50 *$20.00 MINIMUM order for free USA shipping . Under $20 add $3. Send $3 for latest list. All orders U.S. funds only. NY &CT res. add sales tax. Print name, address and phone. Credit card users add card number, CVC code & expiration date. Allow 4 weeks delivery. All foreign orders sent airmail and billed accordingly. Checks payable to Ron’s Books. Inquiries must include SASE. Prices subject to change. WE BUY COLLECTIONS.

THE DANUBE

EXPRESS THE SOCIETY OF INTERNATIONAL RAILWAY TRAVELERS®

THE BALKANS BY EUROPE’S MOST COMFORTABLE TRAIN

12 DAYS • JUNE 1-12, 2O16 & JULY 4-15, 2O16 Budapest-Soﬁa-Belgrade-Sarajevo Zagreb-Ljubljana-Venice MJGH=9FGMFLJA=Kc9HAL9DK En-suite Cabins, Diner, Lounge

www.irtsociety.com (8OO) 478-4881 Q (5O2) 897-1725 2424 FRANKFORT AVE., STE.2 &)/#-0#&& %3)) /-

Available Again as a Limited Reprint! Southern Pacific Freight Cars, Vol. 4, “Box Cars” (Revised Edition) by Anthony W. Thompson $GHWDLOHGKLVWRU\RI6RXWKHUQ3DFLÀFER[FDUVWR ZLWKH[WHQVLYHURVWHUVVHUYLFHUHFRUGVDQGWKRURXJKSKRWR JUDSKLFFRYHUDJHSDJHVSKRWRVGUDZLQJV

Price:

Passenger trains will run alongside Florida East Coast Railway freights in a corridor with new signals. TR A I NS : Drew Halverson

Florida East Coast Industries’ All Aboard Florida passenger rail start-up will soon get positive train control-compliant signalling systems after inking a deal with GE Transportation in April. The deal will include GE’s Enhanced Automatic Train Control that will integrate with Florida East Coast Railway’s existing cab signal system and 40 MHz control frequency. All Aboard will also use proprietary GE systems for interlocking and crossing control, locomotive-based computers, and grade-crossing activation. GE’s technology will be applied as an overlay to the existing signals. The company estimates that more than 500 grade crossings will require upgrades with a goal of protecting or closing a crossing for no more than 60 seconds at a time for a passing higher speed train. — Steve Sweeney

California residents add $5.60 sales tax. )UHHVKLSSLQJGRPHVWLFLQGLYLGXDORUGHUV VKLSSLQJ&DQDGDVKLSSLQJRWKHUIRUHLJQRUGHUV

SIGNATURE PRESS

Order direct: 11508 Green Rd., Wilton, CA 95693 9LVD 0DVWHUFDUGRUGHUV

DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED

see our web site for information on all our books

or order securely at: www.signaturepress.com

M DOC RAILROAD

Certified Conductor & Locomotive Engineer Training

SINCE 1995 Your #1 resource for Certified Conductors Your #1 resource for Locomotive Engineers • FRA Approved Part 240 Engineer Training • FRA Approved Part 242 Conductor Training • FRA Approved Part 243 Training Program & Submission

[email protected] www.modocrailroadacademy.com www.TrainsMag.com

19

PASSENGER

BY BOB JOHNSTON

Amtrak drops ‘Silver Star’ diner New York-Miami train to test lower sleeping-car fares, unbundled from dining-car meals Will the lack of sit-down meal service discourage high per-passenger sleepingcar-ticket revenue? Or will cheaper fares — coupled with the savings from not paying dining-car staff on four sets of equipment running each day — help Amtrak’s bottom line by eliminating that amenity? The company will find out, using its one set of long-distance network endpoints, New York-Miami, where passengers have a choice of trains. Beginning July 1, 2015, the Silver Star will lose its dining car and the Silver Meteor will continue to offer the standard “meals included” option in a test set to run through Jan. 31, 2016. In 1986, Amtrak raised sleeping-car prices 10 percent and began offering “complimentary” breakfasts, lunches, and dinners in long-distance dining cars. Since then, food and labor costs have risen, and yield management pricing — based on passenger counts for any departure — has created wide fluctuations in both coach and sleeper fares [see “Hitting the Sweet Spot,” “Passenger,” May 2015]. Dining-car ledgers receive predictable income from a portion of sleeping-car revenue. Fares reflect the number of meals available during a trip, whether or not patrons actually eat in the diner. Into this intertwined product-price environment, Amtrak food and route managers have introduced a plan they believe will help evaluate the impact on ridership, revenue, and operating costs when an overnight train operates with only a café car. Sleeping-car space on the Star was withdrawn from sale in March through mid-April while Amtrak tackled recalculating “unbundled” roomette and bedroom fares for all city pairs between New York and Miami. This prompted concerns that the sleepers were being dropped entirely, but that option was never considered. Mark Murphy, Amtrak’s long-distance senior vice president and general manager,

An Amﬂeet II café (shown subbing for a Lake Shore Limited diner in 2007) also provides the Star’s only lounge space.

20

Trains JULY 2015

The Silver Star arrives in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Feb. 9, 2015.

tells Trains the hiatus was to give alreadybooked passengers a choice: a refund or ability to switch to the Silver Meteor if they wanted dining-car meals. Affected on-board employees also needed an opportunity to rebid jobs, though he says they will have other positions available during the test. “We’re making one significant change: removal of the diner from the Silver Star. All other elements will remain the same,” Murphy says. “We are doing research before the switch so we have a baseline as to how people view the values on the Star right now.” Amtrak will get frequent updates throughout the test, he says, using Electronic Customer Satisfaction Index responses, an online version of post-trip questionnaire data, to calculate ratings of train cleanliness, food quality, service, and other parameters. The Star’s café car will have one lead attendant serving fare — such as hamburgers, pizza, and breakfast sandwiches — offered on other long-distance trains with dining cars. There will be no additional offerings like specialty sandwiches or craft beers, available on Northeast Regionals or the daytime New York-Savannah, Ga., Palmetto. “The more changes you introduce, the murkier the waters get,” Murphy says. “There were discussions about adding enhanced items, but in order to get a true test about bundled versus unbundled, we decided to leave the menu the same.” Analyzing results will be daunting. The Silver Star shares 26 stations with the Silver Meteor, but serves more population centers (see map on page 21) in the Carolinas, Tampa, and Florida communities with Amtrak Thruway bus connections. Even with a longer, slower trip, its fares are often higher.

Two photos, Bob Johnston

A check of Silver Star fares from Washington to Miami, conducted April 20, shows that in a period beginning May 20, prior to the test, Star roomettes were higher than the same day’s Meteor on 10 of the next 25 days, equal on 11, and lower only four times. A spot check of dates throughout the test — designed to compare demand through summer, off-peak, and snowbird seasons — always shows cheaper fares for the Star, with the lowest adult roomette fare between those cities at $306 versus $429 for the Meteor. The differential could be greater or less because each train’s price buckets are determined by their sellout level. But seriously, is this the only “test” Amtrak can come up with? With a new Viewliner II dining-car fleet about to debut, how about an “expensive and worth it” option? It would feature a high-quality menu with more adventurous entrées, white tablecloths and china, served by exceptional onboard personnel with financial and customer-focused incentives to deliver superior service. Emails to previous Star, Meteor, and Auto Train passengers can target likely customers. (Sound familiar? This is the Coast Starlight model from the 1990s.) The challenges in implementing such service are overcoming Congressional ignorance on transportation/hospitality matters, and union agreements, since personnel assignments are determined and protected by seniority rules in more than one craft. The Silver Star test shows Amtrak continues to explore the relationship between product, price, and the cost of service. Such initiatives date from the conversion of Superliner dining cars into “Cross Country Café” diner-lounges and the creation of

A new book published by North Texas Chapter, NRHS written by David M. Bernstein

Amtrak To Washington, D.C. South Atlantic Mount routes CaryRocky Raleigh Wilson Comparing routes of the Silver Star, Silver Meteor, and Palmetto

Southern Pacific’s Eastern Lines 1946-1996

400 pages illustrated with color and black & white photos and !! & " guide to operation and history of S.P. Lines in Texas and Louisiana from the end of World War II ! & Order your copy Today!

SelmaSmithﬁeld

Southern Pines

Fayetteville

Hamlet

NORTH CAROLINA Dillon Florence

Camden Columbia

Kingstree

SOUTH CAROLINA

RADIO

Denmark

HOSPITAL

Charleston Yemassee Palmetto route Silver Meteor route Silver Star route Shared stations Palmetto stations Silver Meteor stations Silver Star stations

Savannah

Jesup

GEORGIA 0

Scale

6HUYLQJVKRUWOLQHUHJLRQDODQGWUDQVLWUDLOURDGVZLWKLQGXVWU\ OHDGLQJV\VWHPVIURPWKHVHILQHPDQXIDFWXUHUV

100 miles

© 2015 Kalmbach Publishing Co. TRAINS: Rick Johnson

Jacksonville N

419-303-2690 / [email protected] www.radiohospital.com

Palatka

608 North Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45801 DeLand

Lakeland Tampa

Winter Haven

North America’s original railroad historical society

Sebring

tHIST OR

“Diner Lite” Amfleet II café/dining cars after another political inquisition in 2005. More experimentation is ahead. Soon, City of New Orleans dining and café service will feature meals requiring less preparation, handled by two employees out of its dinerlounge. The train will retain its Sightseer Lounge. How will that turn out? Stay tuned.

THE R AI

West Palm Beach Delray Beach Deerﬁeld Beach Fort Lauderdale Hollywood Miami

E OTIV OM

AY&LOC W L

Okeechobee

N Ct

Kissimmee

IC

Y tI

Winter Park Orlando

ET

FLORIDA

A L S O CI

Founded in 1921, R&LHS is the oldest railroad historical society in North America. Our award-winning journal Railroad History blends scholarly writing and in-depth book reviews with a vibrant format, and is one of the world’s premier publications devoted to the history of technology. Membership also includes the Quarterly Newsletter and offers optional afﬁliation with any of ten regional Chapters. R&LHS also sponsors annual awards honoring the best in railroad writing and photography.

R&LHS, Dept T PO Box 2913, Pﬂugerville, TX 78691-2913

Sign up securely using MasterCard, Visa, or Discover at www.rlhs.org www.TrainsMag.com

21

MAP OF THE MONTH

Moving freight through Chicago Twelve years after the July 2003 special issue on the Windy City, check out the nation’s rail hub now CP C&M Sub

CN to Waukegan, Ill.

CP to Milwaukee

Tower A-20

Deerﬁeld

METRA to Fox Lake, Ill.

ie Bu View ffa lo Gr ov e No rt hW So ut hee h W lin Pr he g e os pe ling ct

Pr air

to n

16 t. Jc

17 t. Jc

CN Waukesha Sub

Tower B-12

e ar

Se eg er

Norma

CP Park CP 384

on

Bryn Mawr

UP Milwaukee Sub

Ed

Sutton

CP 369

Tower B-17

Grand Ave.

CPR BENSENVILLE YARD

Roselle West

25 UP YARD 9

UP PROVISO YARD

CPY012 Provo Jct.

METRA to Elgin, Ill.

CN Leithton Sub

4

Park

Highlands

Thorn

CP McCook (IHB) B&OCT RRX (BN)

West Hinsdale Fairview Ave. UP Geneva Sub

Turner

Aurora Jct. 2

CP 151

BNSF WILLOW SPRINGS YARD

Naperville

Eola (CN)

Harbor

Lisle

CP 187

Ju st ice

West Chicago

BNSF Chicago Sub

CP 173 CP 176

Eola

BNSF WEST YARD

Liberty Flagstone BNSF Chillicothe Sub

BNSF EAST YARD

Normantown

CN Joliet Sub

3

Field

Romeo METRA Southwest District

River

22

Trains JULY 2015

CN to Joliet, Ill.

a

Joliet Yard

ke n

Ruff BNSF to Fort Madison, Iowa

METRA Rock Island District Rock (CN) METRA to Joliet, Ill.

Mo

West Bridge Jct.

Stateville

Ea st Jo lie t

CN Illinois River Sub

Ea st Jc Bri t. dg e

BNSF to Aurora, Ill.

IHB LA GRANGE YARD

La Grange (BNSF) CP 309 (IHB)

East Jay Pratt

UP to Geneva, Ill.

CP 359 CP 349 Broadview (CN)

CP 328

North Iowa

CN to Rockford, Ill.

Vale

CP 341

UP GLOBAL 2 DEPARTURE YARD

CN Freeport Sub

UP to Rockford, Ill.

e.

CP 369

METRA Milwaukee District West Line (CP Elgin Sub)

al

Spaulding (CN)

IHB Main Line

Av

UP to Harvard, Ill.

Ca n

Barrington (CN)

gin

gt

Gil

th

Lake

s ne lai sP De

Deval 1

UP Harvard Sub

CN SCHILLER PARK YARD

H O’

Leithton

Shermer

19 t. Jc

CN to Waukesha, Wis.

Morton Grove

METRA Milwaukee District North Line (CP C&M Sub)

CN Waukegan Sub

METRA to Manhattan, Ill.

CP

METRA Milwaukee District North Line (CP Fox Lake Sub)

Tr af

UP to Kenosha, Wis.

UP Milwaukee Sub Rondout

CP Argo

Improvements in progress or completed since 2003 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

UP to Ogilvie Transportation Center

8 9 10 11 12

Tower A-5

13 14

/ st We ro gin ce ra Ci C

d oo lew st Ga Ea

UP Geneva Sub

To Chicago Union Station

Kedzie

UP to Ogilvie Transportation Center

To Chicago Union Station

UP Rockwell Sub

AMTRAK

To LaSalle Street Station

UP GLOBAL 1

BRC Kenton Line Sub

Ogden Jct.

Union Ave.

METRA Rock Island District 21st St.

CSX Altenheim Sub Out of service

46th St.

14th St. 5

CSX Blue Island Sub

12th St. Laramie Forest Madison St. Park

14th St.

Cicero B

BNSF CICERO YARD

“Hole in the fence” Ash St.

Bridgeport CP Halstead

e BNSF NERSKA JCT. YARD

Nerska (BNSF)

Berwyn

35th St. 67th St. Pershing

BNSF CORWITH YARD

Englewood

CSX 59th St. INTERMODAL FACILITY

CN GLENN YARD

55th St. BRC ROCKWELL STREET YARD

BRC Kenton Line Sub 80th St.

Forest Hill Jct.

lt ion Be ect nn Co

BRC 59th St. Sub 68th St. Wye

NS 63RD ST. YARD

51st St.

Elsdon

65th St.

7

39th St.

Lemoyne (BRC)

Narragansett

CP 513

74th St. Corwith

45 Xover 47 Xover

39th St.

CP 518 NS ASHLAND AVE. YARD

CP Brighton Rockwell

rn

ho

wt Ha

Cr Be os lt sin g( CN )

13

CN HAWTHORNE YARD

CN Chicago Sub

UP CANAL ST. YARD

BRC 22ND ST. YARD

BNSF Chicago Sub

La Ve rg ne

CN BRIDGEPORT YARD

BNSF WESTERN AVE. YARD

Central

BNSF CONGRESS PARK YARD

16th St.

CroGran ssi d ng

Mayfair

New CN/former EJ&E connecting tracks at Leithton COMPLETED New CN/UP connecting tracks at West Chicago COMPLETED Five new BNSF storage tracks at Eola COMPLETED New IHB/UP ﬂyover track and third main line at Proviso COMPLETED Three new BNSF storage tracks at Western Ave. Yard COMPLETED New connecting track at Forest Hill Jct. COMPLETED Englewood ﬂyover track COMPLETED New connections at Blue Island Jct. COMPLETED New CSX connection at Thornton Jct. COMPLETED New CN/former EJ&E connections at Matteson COMPLETED New connections into Kirk Yard COMPLETED CSX perpetual easement over Elsdon Sub COMPLETED New CTC and signalling for Western Ave. corridor IN PROGRESS Five new crossovers and 7 miles NS third track, Illinois state line to Porter, Ind. IN PROGRESS

Belt Jct. Kensington

6

Hayford

CSX FOREST HILL YARD

82nd St. Ashburn East End Switches

NS LANDERS INTERMODAL Landers FACILITY

BRC CLEARING YARD

UP Villa Grove Sub

CSX Blue Island Sub 88th St.

CSX BARR YARD

an

dJ

ct

.

Vermont St.

Riv er da le

BRC WEST DEPARTURE CP West Sub YARD

CP 113

Isl

CP 154

CSX BEDFORD PARK YARD

Roll Ave. LAND

UE IS B BL

IH

CP 173

IHB Main Line

Ha CP rv ey

CP Ridge

METRA Rock Island District

Fo r

t

k

CN Matteson Sub Fr an

CP 238

Bl ue

8

YARD

To Leithton

To Rondout

CN TR ME

De va l

UP

La ke

UP

CN

ig

Cragin

an

METRA

UP PROVISO YARD

ich

Mayfair CP Park

Tower A-5

UP

CHICAGO

Kedzie CN

METRA

Englewood BRC

Forest Hill Jct. NS UP

TR

ME

CN KIRK YARD

Ho

Thornton Jct. CSX

Gibson Ivanhoe

Os

CN MARKHAM YARD

CN

te ns Mu

No scale; not all lines shown

2 50 CP

on oc CP LinSta e te

CSX EAST CHICAGO YARD

CP 497 CSX Jct. Pine Jct.

11

CSX Porter Sub

Cavanaugh Clarke Jct.

IHB Kankakee Line

CSX Barr Sub

CSX to Willard, Ohio

NS P

To lle st on

St . th 110

NS BURNHAM YARD

ARD INE Y

St

CP

50 7 CP

Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District

CN KIRK YARD

kt

6 50

S) (N 9 50 CP

NS CALUMET YARD

NS to Elkhart, Ind.

is rt Cu st Ea

Rock Island Jct. (BRC)

et lum Ca

95th St.

IHB MICHIGAN AVE. YARD

14

NS COLEHOUR YARD

Pullman Jct.

CF&E

Grifﬁth

CN Lakefront Sub

) NS n 1 ( to 50 ﬁng X) CP Buf (CS

BRC COMMERCIAL AVE. YARD

Van Loon CN

r

NS LAKE FRONT YARD

NS Chicago Line

on st lle To

an

hm

Homewood

State Line IHB

IHB BLUE ISLAND YARD

N

CP 502

CSX

Blue Island Jct.

rn

A

Kensington

IHB

CSX BARR YARD

CP 506

CN

IHB

CSX

CP Ridge

bo

Hayford BNSF

CN

Norfolk Southern Union Paciﬁc

INDIANA

Corwith Elsdon

BRC CLEARING YARD

McCook

Amtrak BNSF Railway Belt Railway of Chicago Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern Canadian National Canadian Paciﬁc Railway CSX Transportation Indiana Harbor Belt

Cicero

La Grange

ILLINOIS

Provo Jct. CN

BNSF

M

CP BENSENVILLE YARD

NS

UP

AMTK BNSF BRC CF&E CN CP CSX IHB METRA NS UP

A

UP

CSX to Porter, Ind.

CP Ivanhoe CP

an

hm

Cottage Grove

UP YARD CENTER

CN Matteson Sub NS Kankakee Branch

CJ Jct. South Jct. 162nd St.

CN Chicago Sub

Sibley Blvd. Thornton Jct.

CSX Elsdon Sub 12

9

CN MARKHAM YARD

Robin

Hays Grifﬁth Munster CN GRIFFITH YARD

NS to Kankakee, Ill. © 2015 Kalmbach Publishing Co., TRAINS: Bill Metzger and Bob Wegner Thanks to Marshall Beecher, Rick Moser, Mark Hinsdale, and Chris Guss Not all lines, stations, or control points shown

UP Villa Grove Sub Matteson

we Lo

Harris CN to Champaign, Ill.

10

CN South Bend Sub

CSX Monon Sub CN Matteson Sub

Vollmer Swede

CN to Battle Creek, Mich.

CN Elsdon Sub

Dyer Chicago Heights

Homewood

us e Ho

Osborn NA DIA IS INO

144th St.

CN Jct. (CSX)

Van Loon

NS Chicago District ILL

13

NS to Ft. Wayne, Ind.

IN

North Jct. (CN)

CP Gibson CP 42

CP

et lum Ca ark CP P

n

lto

Do

rd ale

IHB GIBSON YARD

Highlawn (CN)

Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern

28

Ho

Wildwood

UP to St. Louis; CSX to Evansville, Ind.

CSX to Lafayette, Ind.

Union Paciﬁc trains bracket an Indiana Harbor Belt light-engine move at Broadview, Ill., on the IHB, as a train with BNSF and CSX power crosses on the Canadian National on Jan. 21, 2014. Marshall W. Beecher

COVER STORY

A CSX train waits out Metra’s afternoon rush at Forest Hill Junction, part of the proposed 75th Street project.

Three photos, TR A I NS : David Lassen

Are railroads ready and willing to repair the nation’s rail hub? by Fred W. Frailey

F

ew cities define an industry the way Chicago does its railroads. Cindy Sanborn, the executive vice president-operations of CSX Transportation, says it best: “When Chicago works, that’s where you want to go, because everyone’s there.” But when it doesn’t work, the pain is almost physical. Thus, on New Year’s Day of 1999, Chicago was buried by a blizzard that froze its unprepared railroads in place. Not until April did they dig

28

Trains JULY 2015

out and start to catch up. Then on June 1, 1999, CSX and Norfolk Southern split Conrail, beginning five more months of chaos. “It was the longest summer of my life,” recalls Charles Allen, then general manager of Indiana Harbor Belt. Echoes Mark Hinsdale, CSX Chicago Division manager in ’99: “I can’t count the sleepless nights.” That bruising experience revealed just how little wiggle room remained in the Windy City. It spawned a $3.8 billion pub-

lic-private partnership called CREATE (the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program) to streamline the city’s rail infrastructure, and a Chicago coordinating office to improve communications and cooperation among the players. As years went by, these efforts seemed to work. True, CREATE stalled out when public money became scarce. And as years passed, the Chicago Transportation Coordination Office seemed irrelevant to some

railroads. After all, during the Great Recession of 2007-2009, loads of excess capacity existed. Everyone admits to complacency. Below the calm surface, strains on the system resumed. Rail traffic recovered from the recession faster than did the underlying economy. Switching became concentrated in fewer classification yards. So more cars crowded onto fewer tracks, competing for space with increasing hordes of unit trains needing to interchange between railroads. Unbeknownst to everyone, Chicago was again one bad event from a meltdown. Winter 2014 became that event. The city experienced the coldest four-month period since weather tracking began in the 1870s. Eighty inches of snow fell. Switches froze, yards congealed, locomotives failed, and crew boards emptied. Then with spring came an unpredicted surge of railroad traffic across the northern part of the U.S., a 20-25 percent jump from a year earlier, and all of it seemingly addressed to Chicago. Again, the mess took all year to clear up. How on earth could so much seem to go so wrong so fast? Railroad chief executives had to wonder, is this the new normal? Stunned, they picked six retired executives (quickly dubbed the Village Elders or Retiree Brain Trust) to take a close look at Chicago and recommend changes. That they would do this publicly seemed to say that railroads would consider dramatic remedies.

Belt Railway of Chicago, Norfolk Southern, and Metra tracks cross the CSX at Forest Hill Junction, a bottleneck where a train crosses the diamonds roughly every 15 minutes.

CENTER OF THE STORM This is ground zero, the most congested railroad point in the Chicago terminal. You’re on the South Side near 75th Street and Ashland Avenue, a neighborhood of small, unpretentious single-family homes. Here at Belt Junction, Metra SouthWest Service commuter trains from Union Station turn west briefly to negotiate a series of crossovers that take them across tracks of the Belt Railway of Chicago heading toward Clearing Yard and Norfolk Southern heading toward its nearby Landers intermodal facility. Union Pacific trains from south suburban Yard Center use this line to reach Clearing and other UP properties. Look west a mile to see Forest Hill Junction, where the Belt, Metra, and NS tracks (four in all) are crossed at grade by CSX Transportation’s two-track Blue Island Subdivision: Just north of Forest Hill is the big CSX 59th Street intermodal facility, at one time the Pennsylvania Railroad’s main class yard in Chicago (a double-hump affair until 1965). A train hits those diamonds about once every 15 minutes. Or turn at Belt Junction to look a mile and a half to the southeast, and there lies 80th Street Junction, where the Belt, NS, and UP, along with Amtrak’s Cardinal and Hoosier State, split to go their separate ways (while trains on Metra’s Rock Island District fly overhead). All three

Just before sunset on a frigid Feb. 27, 2015, a Metra SouthWest Service train hurries from Belt Junction toward Forest Hill Junction, followed by a Norfolk Southern light-engine move.

facilities are linked tightly, a textbook case of what happens when you try to squeeze too much railroad into too little space. For a big mess, a big plan. [See map on page 30.] CREATE wants to construct two flyovers. One would take the north-south CSX Blue Island Sub over the BRC, Metra, and NS tracks at Forest Hill. The second would have the Metra tracks go over the BRC and NS tracks east of Belt Junction and then keep going northeast on an elevated right-of-way to intersect the Metra Rock Island District line. This would bring SouthWest Service trains into LaSalle Street Station, creating slots in capacity-starved Union Station. In the other direction, southwest, Metra trains would loop around Landers on a new double track. This and other elements of the plan would eliminate most conflicting moves in the area and permit Metra to ultimately double its number of SouthWest trains. Says Metra board member Norman Carlson: “This is huge for us.” Alas, nobody will pay the bill. The price

is officially $750 million, but Ed Hamberger, president of the Association of American Railroads, is thinking $1 billion, and it could be more. “I don’t know where that money will come from,” Hamberger concedes. If the U.S. Congress passes legislation to fund surface transportation projects — the authorization for such spending was to expire in late May — Hamberger hopes it would contain provisions for “projects of national importance,” such as 75th Street. Lack of funding affects almost all of CREATE’s unfinished business. Railroads have put $234 million of their money into the CREATE package. But Illinois is broke. Federal budget surpluses are a memory. Congress now bans earmarks for pet projects. Tea party Republicans growl at passenger trains. And railroads, far from poor, look silly carrying around a tin cup. But at 75th Street and elsewhere, the issue is complicated by the fact that a great deal of the benefits will accrue to Metra and Amtrak, and why should freight railroads pay for this and give www.TrainsMag.com

29

CREATE’S 75TH STREET CORRIDOR

Map area

Detail of 75th80th Street proposals

Me tra -SW S

CSX

Me tra -SW S

Not to scale

83rd Street

0

UP

2014 [see “Englewood Eases Congestion,” “News,” January 2015]. It sends Metra’s Rock Island District (69 trains each weekday) over the tracks of the NS Chicago Line (46 trains), which are also used by Amtrak (14 trains). In effect, NS gets up to six hours a day back by not being blocked at Englewood by the morning and evening Metra fleets. Another set of projects focused on the western half of Indiana Harbor Belt, which handles about 75 freight trains a day on its line around suburbia. Hand-throw switches were converted to power, and centralized traffic control was added, along with a third main track in some locations and higherspeed connections with Class I railroads. A third set of projects, to wrap up in 2016, affects a CSX and NS corridor parallel to Western Avenue, from a connection with UP at Ogden Junction, to 75th Street on CSX and through Ashland Avenue Yard to CP 518 on the NS Chicago Line. “I know it’s

C BR

Trains JULY 2015

1 mile

P)

New UP bridge over 87th St.

A BNSF train crosses the Chicago River on the route paralleling Western Avenue, subject of a set of CREATE projects.

Scale

© 2015 Kalmbach Publishing Co., TRAINS: Rick Johnson

K (U

AMT

Ashburn interlocking

them a free ride? And is it fair to make CSX, NS, UP, and owners of the Belt Railway pay for 75th Street, while railroads that don’t own lines in this tangle get off the hook? On a brighter note, CREATE has accomplished a lot. The most visible achievement is the Englewood flyover, completed late in

Metra -RI

N

Second Metra track

Realigned UP, Amtrak on current NS bridge

30

NS

PROPOSED

NS

Ashburn

Wrightwood

80th Street Junction

80th Street Junction

UP

Proposed pedestrian crossing

New BRC track

C BR

79th Street

87th Street

AMTK (UP)

New NS main Forest Hill Junction

Halsted Street

NS

BRC NS

Western Avenue

Landers Yard (NS)

S -SW tra Me

Metra Rock Island District Connection ﬂyover

C BR

CSX

BRC

New NS/Metra main

NS

Detail area

83rd Street

NS

CSX ﬂyover

NS

Ashburn interlocking

CSX bridge over 71st St.

80th Street Junction

tra Me WS S

BRC

Metra -RI

CSX

83rd Street

75th Street

Metra -RI

Wrightwood Single Metra track Pedestrian crossing

Ashburn

BRC

76th Street

CSX

79th Street

Metra-SWS

Halsted Street

NS

Metra-SWS

Racine Avenue

Western Avenue

WS ra-S Met

50 miles

Belt Junction

Ashland Avenue

Forest Hill Junction

Rockwell Yard (BRC)

Scale

AMTK (NS)

0

CURRENT BRC

Landers Yard (NS)

Metra-SWS

71st Street

AMTK (Metra-SWS)

Chicago

NS

BR C

CSX

AMTK Amtrak BRC Belt Railway of Chicago CSX (B&OCT) NS Norfolk Southern Metra-SWS Metra SouthWest Service Metra-RI Metra Rock Island District UP Union Paciﬁc Other lines Proposed changes Metra stops

Metra-R I

Clearing Yard

94

nuts,” Allen says, “but NS runs trains from North Jersey to Chicago on CTC, and BNSF does the same from LA to Chicago, but here they were on unsignaled railroad trying to reach each other.” CSX interchanges with BNSF on this corridor at Cicero, through hand-throw switches over a slow-speed track. Its name? “Hole in the Fence.” Still, it’s anyone’s guess what happens to 75th Street and other undone projects. One is an ambitious plan to reroute Amtrak trains from New Orleans and southern Illinois from Canadian National tracks (former Illinois Central) onto the NS Chicago Line at Grand Crossing. These and other Amtrak trains from the east would run on tracks separated from NS freight traffic, past Englewood to within 2 miles of Amtrak ownership south of Union Station. This would permit abandonment of the St. Charles Air Line south of the Loop. “At some point,” Hamberger says, “people are going to have

An oil train creeps off the Belt Railway of Chicago and into BNSF’s Cicero Yard on a tight-radius connection. Trafﬁc-clogging interchanges exist throughout the city, notably at the nearby “Hole in the Fence” connection between BNSF and CSX. Three photos, TR A I NS : David Lassen

to recognize there will be public funding, or there will not. And if there will not, what’s the backup plan? I suspect the Retiree Brain Trust is thinking the same thing.” Even if completed, CREATE wouldn’t fix Chicago. “We can make it run more smoothly,” Hamberger says, “but Chicago will always be a challenge.” He’s proud that the time it takes the typical freight car to traverse the city has fallen from 44 hours when CREATE began to a recent 33.

CHI-TOWN SHOWDOWN In any event, not all of Chicago’s problems carry dollar signs. Start with pride of possession. Nobody, but nobody, wants to cede an ounce of authority or a foot of property. Railroaders have a low opinion of the Chicago Transportation Coordination Office (CTCO), one reason being that it is ineffectual. To give CTCO teeth would cede that ounce of authority that railroads jealously protect. Get past pride of possession, and almost anything could be accomplished. You’re in CTCO’s office on South Canal Street, talking to Stephen Hoye, its director, who is employed by Belt Railway of Chicago and widely respected by his peers. “Our mission is to oversee the operation of the Chicago terminal,” he says, carefully choosing his words. “By that, I mean making sure the traffic flow is moving, that the proper communication has taken place between railroads, and that railroads have the proper tools, meaning communications devices, radios, and processes that mirror each other.” That railroads now talk to each other is a good start, but Hoye continues. “We looked hard at last winter, what we did right and wrong. We knew things had to change. We took our alert plan, which may not have worked in 2014, and turned it upside down. In essence, we went from a grocery cart of steps from which railroads could pick and choose what to do, to a >> For a slide show and video of operations in Chicago, visit www.TrainsMag.com

mandatory directive, based on the data.” Under this new system, CTCO monitors the big yards for car inventory and dwell times, and key corridors for inbound train numbers and velocity. It also tracks weather forecasts for snowfall, snow accumulation, and high temperature. When more than three of those components deteriorate, CTCO institutes a “Operating Condition Yellow” alert that requires railroads to reduce freight volume by 15 percent through the affected yards and routes. When six components become critical, a “OpCon Red” mandates a reduction of 25 percent. The system got its first test on Jan. 31, when the fifth-biggest snowfall in the city’s recorded history blew in, causing an OpCon Red the next day. Hoye says the reductions applied to trains and cars using IHB and BRC. “We had to make certain they stayed fluid.” Railroads built run-through trains at outlying classification yards that avoided Clearing, or rerouted trains. OpCon Red worked “extremely well,” says Hoye. Chicago trembled but didn’t crumble. But where is CTCO when it comes to taking the next steps in cooperation between railroads? Crews could be universally qualified to operate anywhere in the terminal regardless of ownership, but are not. New routes could be identified that jump from one railroad’s ownership to another’s in order to move trains to their destinations faster, along the path of least resistance. That’s not happening, either. Asked what he wishes had happened differently in 2014, Canadian Pacific President Keith Creel responds: “I wish the railroads would have had the same level of cooperation that we do today. Conditions would not have been as bad.” Trust and respect among railroaders who both know Chicago and have the authority to make major decisions is on the uptick but remain in short supply. Related to all this is the fact that the

WHY CHICAGO MATTERS 83.4 million Metra commuter train riders in 2014.

3.37 million Amtrak riders in 2014. 50,000 Freight cars heading toward Chicago every day. 15,000 Freight cars processed by Chicago yards every day.

800 Passenger trains entering or leaving Chicago on weekdays. 500 Freight trains operated in the terminal each day.

241 Metra commuter train stations. 70 Percentage of CREATE projects completed, being built, in ﬁnal design, or under review. yards and tracks and other assets are loosely used. Ron Batory, who revived the flagging Belt Railway during the 1990s, wonders why the BRC and Indiana Harbor Belt aren’t being managed as one railroad by a holding company. If they were, he says, a lot more traffic could be pushed through Chicago. “Class I railroads realized enormous synergies by consolidating,” Batory says. “The same should hold true of the switching companies.” Plus, to quote Batory, Chicago “has a diminishing amount of capacity to absorb prolonged traffic surges,” such as occurred just as the winter crisis ended in 2014. Yards have closed as railroads rely more on either the Belt Railway to sort manifest cars at Clearing, or at outlying terminals to build www.TrainsMag.com

31

Indiana Harbor Belt and CSX trains meet near Riverdale, Ill., on the IHB.

run-through trains at places like Galesburg, Ill.; Elkhart, Ind.; Bellevue, Ohio, and North Platte, Neb. Meanwhile, unit trains of coal, grain, crude oil, ethanol, sand, and potash now descend on the terminal at unpredictable times, interfering with scheduled freight traffic and plugging main tracks because there are few places to store long trains while interchanges are arranged.

INDIANA UNBOUND On a bitterly cold February morning, you’re standing at the epicenter of Chicago freight railroading. But you’re not in Chicago or even in Illinois. This is Pine Junction, just a bit south of Lake Michigan in Gary, Ind., where the vast majority of freight trains from the east briefly come together. Just feet apart are the double-track Chicago Line of Norfolk Southern from Cleveland and Elkhart and the double-track Barr Subdivision of CSX from Cleveland and Willard, Ohio. Both routes easily see 60-plus trains a

Marshall W. Beecher

day. Close by and parallel to these are lead tracks to Canadian National’s Kirk Yard, now CN’s principal classification yard in the region. Just west from where you stand at Clark Road is the overpass above CSX and NS that brings CN trains to Kirk from the east, west, and south, via Griffith, Ind. The point is, a year ago Pine Junction was where you could go to witness the mayhem, the lines of stopped CSX and NS trains (many parked without crews) waiting for a nod to get into the Chicago terminal. Today, winter weather be damned, everything is moving. At 9:10 a.m. comes NS train 21M from Croxton, N.J., followed five minutes later by CSX Q156 to South Kearny, N.J., and then a westbound CSX intermodal train. On the overpass above both railroads you see a CN train entering Kirk. On and on come the trains, 13 in one hour, and none as much as slows down. A lot of the congestion that befell Chicago in 2014 had its origins in northwest

Indiana, a crazy quilt of active railroads that cross and intersect one another. By the same token, this region is also seeing railroad-initiated solutions to that congestion. For instance, Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern, a Genesee & Wyoming property, spent a lot of money on the former Pennsy main line through Crestline, Ohio, and Fort Wayne, Ind., to Gary, which it leases from CSX, raising track speed from as little as 10 mph to 40 mph. This permits Norfolk Southern to run up to six trains a day on the regional railroad, using its trackage rights. Eastbound NS trains enter CF&E at East Hobart, Ind., where a new power switch connects the CF&E with NS’s Chicago District line to Fort Wayne (a former Nickel Plate route). This began in February. NS this spring also brought its expanded classification yard in Bellevue, up to full speed. Bellevue can shoot manifest trains to Chicago via either the Chicago Line or Chicago District, taking pressure off the big hump yard in Elkhart. And on its Chicago Line, NS in 2014 embarked on a $71 million governmentfunded upgrade, the Indiana Gateway Project, that will see five crossovers and a total of about seven miles of third main track added between the Illinois state line and just east of Porter (Chesterton), Ind. Also part of that project is a siding on Amtrak’s Michigan Line northeast of Porter, to allow Amtrak trains to meet without tying up NS tracks. Across the state line in Illinois, CSX Transportation had a terrible time getting its trains from the south to their principal destinations in Chicago, Clearing Yard (manifest) and adjacent Bedford Park (intermodal). After passing Thornton Junction on the Villa Grove Sub (jointly owned with UP and dispatched by the other road), they had to

EIGHT WAYS TO FIX CHICAGO seems unfair, then charge Metra user fees each time it runs a train over one of these improvements. Bottom line: Railroads are rich but still act as if they are poor. The sooner they do high-return projects, the sooner they reap the beneﬁts.

Jon Waide

As railroads seek to open up Chicago and avoid future crises, they are considering any number of options. TRAINS spoke to present and retired rail executives who have grappled with problems in that city. These are among their suggestions for making a difference. Bear in mind that if change were easy, these things would have long ago been accomplished. 1 If it needs doing, do it yourself. CREATE was conceived as a private-public partnership, but that model no longer works. If the beneﬁt is great enough, pay for these projects yourself, even if it means paying Metra’s share. If that

32

Trains JULY 2015

the Harbor to propose a recapitalization in which all railroads that want to beneﬁt from having a 21st Century belt railway contribute hunks of money or infrastructure. This would need to include Union Paciﬁc and BNSF Railway. This makes the Harbor a fast, smooth railroad freeway through town, possibly including a new yard to stage and service intermodal and unit trains being interchanged. It worked with the Alameda project (at left), which created a connection from ports to main lines east of LA.

2 Make Indiana Harbor Belt a Chicago version of the Alameda Corridor. CSX and NS

3 Establish a control center with teeth. It could be

use their 51-percent ownership of

the Chicago Transportation

Coordination Ofﬁce, but in that case CTCO would need highercaliber people involved. The purpose would not be to dispatch trains within the terminal or tell railroads which trains they can run. But it would establish a benchmark that represents a comfort level for congestion. When trafﬁc grows beyond that, begin telling carriers they cannot move more trafﬁc into town until they take that amount out, or that they can run X trains into the city the next 12 or 24 hours. The control center could also work with railroads to develop schedules and tight windows for moving freight trains through the terminal and the critical junctions.

Norfolk Southern train 21M bears down on Pine Junction in Gary, Ind., on Feb. 19, 2015. To the right is CSX’s main line.

fight their way north through Yard Center, past the IHB and CSX east-west crossings in Dolton and then through the hyper-congested 80th Street, Belt Junction, and Forest Hill interlockings. This took hours. All that pain is largely ended. In 2013, in a swap of rights, CSX began operating and maintaining Canadian National’s Elsdon Subdivision from Munster, Ind. and Elsdon, directly south of BNSF’s Corwith Yard. CN’s acquisition of Elgin, Joliet & Eastern had made this former Grand Trunk Western double-track main line unneeded west of Griffith. In mid-2014 a new CREATE-funded connecting track at Thornton Junction allowed CSX to enter its new territory and go directly (with minimal interference) to both Clearing and Bedford Park, via Hayford interlocking.

4 Qualify crews terminalwide. There is almost always at

In addition, once a new connection is built at Wellsboro, Ind., CSX has trackage rights to run four trains a day over CN between Munster and Wellsboro, on that part of the Elsdon that CN still operates. Expect to see the four hottest CSX east-west trains take this quick shortcut. Finally, CSX and BNSF have a new interchange: Smithboro, Ill., 250 miles from Chicago and just northeast of St. Louis. It’s on the Beardstown Sub of BNSF and the Indianapolis-St. Louis line of CSX. The connecting track has hand-throw switches, but it’s a start, and it gets oil trains out of Chicago.

shut down for retarder maintenance. Inside the massive tower at the crest, you find yardmaster Nick Pehlke and yard conductor Nick Zegar minding the eastbound hump, and there’s a problem. An empty tank car just came to a halt on a retarder track, possibly because air had not

INTO THE CITY The morning you visit Clearing Yard, Belt Railway of Chicago is breathing with one lung, the westbound hump having

5 Communicate effectively.

6 Avoid the city. Canadian

Develop a standardized, highly focused means of talking, one railroad to the other, so time is not

National has its Elgin, Joliet & Eastern (above at JB Tower in West Chicago on CN’s ﬁrst day in control

7 Find places to berth unit trains and run-throughs.

Mark Llanuza

wasted when things go wrong. Maximize responsibilities and accountabilities among the fewest possible decision makers. When disagreements can’t be bridged, have rapid means of escalating the disagreement to senior executives.

Up to six Norfolk Southern trains per day use the Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern (here at Hanna, Ind., in July 2011). R.B. Olson

in 2009) to ease congestion. But BNSF and NS can make more use of the NS Kankakee Branch with a modest investment. Or absorb a short line and re-lay 15 miles of track over abandoned rights-of-way to stretch the Kankakee line to Wellsboro, Ind., to connect with CN and CSX (and NS at South Bend via trackage rights over CN). The Great Lakes Basin Railroad, envisioned to run around Chicago, could conceivably handle the overhead trafﬁc, and the $6 billion to build it wouldn’t be on the balance sheets of the Class I railroads.

least one other way to get from A to B in the terminal — if the crew is qualiﬁed. So work toward qualifying crews over a wider area, to give dispatchers more choices in congested places. This is where CTCO or another command structure, run on a 24/7 basis, would come into play, suggesting to dispatchers alternate ways to cross the city. But crews have to be qualiﬁed or this is for naught.

Fred W. Frailey

Most traditional switching yards are gone, and in any case tracks are often too short. So trains stand on main lines or plug sidings in a 150mile radius of Chicago. Create a place where these trains can be held and serviced on rent-by-the-hour tracks while awaiting interchange. For example, there appears to be room for such a place between CSX Barr Yard and IHB Blue Island Yard.

8 Be humble. Recognize that pride of possession is not a virtue but an impediment to change. A better way to run Chicago may mean giving up that foot of property, that ounce of authority. — Fred W. Frailey www.TrainsMag.com

33

A CSX train connects to the UP Villa Grove Sub at Dolton Tower. CSX uses the former CN Elsdon Sub to improve its trafﬁc ﬂow. Kevin

Hump conductor Mike Bartz oversees trafﬁc at Clearing Yard. The monitor shows an engine getting a stranded car. Fred W. Frailey

been fully drained from its brake line. In any event, the two men improvise a plan that sends cars for the blocked classification tracks to other tracks. Once the long cut is humped, the Belt’s locomotive couples onto the errant tanker and shoves it on its way. The Belt is as much a Chicago institution as the White Sox and Soldier Field, and older than both of them, tracing its start to 1882. Its 28 mainline miles are in the shape of an upside-down T, the northsouth part running from Canadian Pacific at Cragin (CP calls it Cicero West) on the North Side to the vicinity of 75th Street. There, one arm turns east to CP 509 on Norfolk Southern’s Chicago Line near Lake Michigan, and the other turns west to Clearing Yard, a 786-acre forest of tracks that seems to engulf Bedford Park, the suburb in which it resides. “We’re pushing our limits,” reports Belt President Pat O’Brien. “Right now our hump number is about 3,000 cars a day. Last fall we peaked at 3,300-3,400. That’s the 34

Trains JULY 2015

upper end of what we can do.” This cannot be good news for its owners, the six Class I railroads entering the city. As railroads shut down humps and convert yards from carload to intermodal, it falls more and more on Clearing to classify and distribute general freight. This it does with gusto, in early 2015 making up roughly 30 trains a day. The box score today: six trains for BNSF Railway, two each for CN and CP, eight for CSX, five for NS, four for Union Pacific, two for the Belt’s South Chicago yard and one each for IHB and Wisconsin & Southern. Indiana Harbor Belt flanks BRC around the city, from CP at Bensenville in the northwest suburbs, past its Blue Island hump yard in the south suburbs, to Gibson Yard in Hammond, Ind. If the Belt’s main job is classifying cars, the Harbor is mostly a line-haul carrier for trains of user railroads to get around Chicago’s perimeter and an industrial switching company, primarily for steel and other manufacturers in Indiana. Gibson’s role is to take loaded automobile trains from CN, CP, CSX, and NS, and make up outbound auto trains for BNSF and UP. The Harbor is owned 49 percent by CP and 25.5 percent each by CSX and NS. (Interestingly, CSX and NS shares in IHB are owned by Conrail, which they in turn own, making it difficult for either railroad to dispose of its shares without the consent of the other.) Both terminal railroads are in good shape. So why not, as Batory suggests, merge them in a holding company and manage the Belt and Harbor as one property, to better utilize the assets and increase capacity? “I know it has been studied by the

Sadowski

owning railroads,” the Belt’s O’Brien says. “But it’s a hard question. The railroads are so different.” Adds Cindy Sanborn: “I’m not sure there is a whole lot of synergy.” Probably no other Class I road is more entwined in the Chicago terminal than Canadian Pacific. CP routes about 10 trains a day through the heart of Chicago to reconnect with its eastern lines in Windsor, Ont., via trackage rights on Norfolk Southern. And what a path those trains take through town: from Bensenville, 9 miles east on the CP Elgin Sub (dodging Metra trains) to the Belt Railway at Cragin/Cicero West, then on BRC almost 12 miles straight south, parallel to Cicero Avenue and past Midway International Airport, to Hayford interlocking, followed by a final 11 miles east (through the funnel at Forest Park and Belt Junction) to reach the NS Chicago Line at CP 509 in South Chicago. Some of that traffic could as easily take an all-Canada route. As Creel explains: “The shortest route for our crude oil, for

PROPOSED GREAT LAKES BASIN Great Lakes Basin Other railroads Possible junctions

Janesville Wisconsin Beloit 0

Rockford

Scale

100 miles

© 2015 Kalmbach Publishing Co. TRAINS: Rick Johnson

Elgin

Chicago

Rochelle Aurora

Michigan City Joliet Valparaiso

Indiana

Illinois Kankakee

instance, is through Chicago. But if Chicago gets congested, we can flip the switch and go above the Great Lakes.” In its frustrations during 2014, CP proposed taking over management of the Indiana Harbor Belt or buying out partners CSX and NS. “We know how to run a railroad pretty well and saw this as an opportunity,” Creel says. “But 49-percent ownership doesn’t get you a lot.” The other owners of IHB said no thanks. The other railroads would like to be in the position of BNSF Railway and Canadian National. BNSF can run a limited number of freights in and out of Cicero Yard during a commuter train rush, thanks to having three or more main tracks between Union Avenue near downtown and Eola, near Aurora, on the former Burlington Northern line. The railroad got another turn of good luck last September, when Metra moved its Rock Island District terminus from Joliet Union Station to a new facility that does not cross BNSF’s former Santa Fe line. Thus, freights got 90 more minutes of green signals at Joliet each weekday rush period. Canadian National’s solution to getting through Chicago and connecting its pieces was to go completely around the city, by buying the outer belt line, Elgin, Joliet & Eastern, from U.S. Steel, in 2009. That project was undertaken by Claude Mongeau, now CN’s president, in 2003, while he was chief financial officer. The EJ&E starts at Kirk Yard in Gary and sweeps around Chicago, meeting CN lines at Griffith (Grand Trunk Western), Matteson (Illinois Central), Joliet (Gulf Mobile & Ohio), North Iowa (IC Iowa extension), and Leithton (Wisconsin Central). CN then moved most freight switching to Kirk from Harvey, Ill., freeing the latter facility to be its intermodal hub. Mongeau figures CN has spent $700 million on this project, including $150 million on improvements at Kirk, whose hump processes up to 2,000 cars a day in the shadow of U.S. Steel’s massive Gary Works. So effectively did EJ&E solve CN’s Chicago problem that it is no longer a financial contributor to CREATE, although it remains a member. Mongeau is no doubt correct in saying, “We created capacity for other railroads to use in Chicago.” Union Pacific will soon have BNSF’s flexibility on 44 miles of its Geneva Subdivision, from Ogilvie Transportation Center to Elburn. This segment hosts 59 Metra West Line trains and a like number of UP freights each weekday. UP is working to fill the last triple-track gaps, 6.2 miles from West Chicago (Kress) to Geneva (Peck), and 1.6 miles from River Forest (Vale) to the east end of Proviso Yard. Last year a CREATE project brought an IHB connection over UP tracks at east Proviso and added 3 miles of

Norfolk Southern and Belt Railway of Chicago trains work at Pullman Junction, Ill., on July 1, 2008. The Belt is owned by the six Class I roads serving the city. Marshall W. Beecher

At Union Paciﬁc’s Bryn Mawr control point, north of Bensenville, Ill., Canadian Paciﬁc and UP trains near their yards as a United Airlines plane prepares to land at O’Hare. Laurence Pearlman

third main adjacent to the yard. “We stand our trains down from 6 to 9 each morning and 4 to 7 each afternoon,” says Doug Garton, the Chicago Service Unit’s director of transportation services. “Generally we don’t operate at all.” Completion of these projects (co-funded with the state of Illinois) means UP will get its railroad back. And finally, there’s what you cannot yet see: Great Lakes Basin Railroad, the brainchild of software developer Frank Patton. He envisions a $6 billion outer-outer belt around Chicago that would begin just southwest of Janesville, Wis., and make an arc through Illinois, avoiding towns (towns mean NIMBYs) by going west of Rockford (CN), DeKalb (UP), Earlville (BNSF), Coal City (BNSF), and Peotone (CN). It would then enter Indiana and head north, passing east of Wanatah (NS and CF&E), Wellsboro (CN, CSX) and LaPorte (NS) before ending at Michigan City (South Shore Line). At each rail intersection, Great Lakes would

build flyovers and holding tracks. Trains would use each owner’s locomotives but Great Lakes crews. Think of it as a toll road. Patton maintains that he has been warmly received by the Class I railroads, but none has made commitments to use his railroad. However, until they do commit, how will he attract investors and lenders? Says CSX’s Sanborn: “No railroad will shut the door on something that gives you more capacity through Chicago. But will it be built? And what will it cost to use?” Patton, the 71-year-old businessman, is the latest in a storied line of railroad promoters that go back almost two centuries. The fact is, some of them succeeded, a few wildly so, because they filled aching needs. You might look upon the Great Lakes Basin this way: It requires a miracle to be built. But if it or even some foreshortened version of it comes to pass, it will cause a second miracle by draining the pressure from Chicago before its railroad world explodes again. 2 www.TrainsMag.com

35

Of railroads, rain, and restlessness in Feather River Canyon Story and photos by Scott Lothes The chasm of the Feather River’s North Fork runs to a depth of 2,000 feet at Pulga, Calif., where the narrow shoulder of state Highway 70 offers one of the signature views of Western American railroading. On a shelf carved out of granite, the main line of the Western Paciﬁc Railroad — today Union Paciﬁc’s aptly named Canyon Subdivision — follows seemingly every twist and turn of the river. Where the east wall of the canyon becomes too steep, the railroad vaults across the river on a silver, three-span, through-truss bridge and continues on the slightly more hospitable west bank. The highway came later and runs much higher here than the railroad. At 250 feet directly above the railroad bridge, Route 70 soars across the gorge on a graceful arch that frames the scene below in sinewy, polished steel. The canyon walls tower above, while below, the river tumbles white and frothy with a roar that echoes the birth of these mountains. In the wee hours of March 16, 2009, an eastbound BNSF mixed freight casts a wash of light through the rainy darkness at Pulga, Calif., illuminating the twin bridges over the Feather River, while a clear signal beckons around the curve.

I was 5 years old the first time I saw the view at Pulga. It came to me at my grandmother’s house in West Virginia on the glossy page of a Union Pacific calendar. I must have visited Hawks Nest by then, a signature railroad location in its own right where the Chesapeake & Ohio crosses the New River. But Pulga boasts two bridges, with the canyon deeper and more rugged and the river more wild. I had never heard of the Western Pacific and had no idea it recently had been merged into the Union Pacific system — the Armour Yellow diesels looked exotic

A westbound UP container train rolls over the river and down the canyon at Tobin, California.

The rain has ended but the fog is thick at Keddie, where an eastbound BNSF mixed freight lights up a bridge and tunnel portal, as it prepares to enter the High Line.

38

Trains JULY 2015

and alluring to this child of Appalachia. I gave that calendar page a special place in my desk, and throughout my childhood I’d take it out on rainy days and dream of trains in faraway lands. The first time I laid eyes on the Pulga bridges, it was much like a dream: in the middle of the night as the rain fell and headlights offered the only illumination. In March 2009, following the Winterail show in Stockton, Calif., and meetings at the California State Railroad Museum, and with that calendar photograph etched 25 years deep in my mind, I rented a car

on a Sunday night and made the 95-mile drive north from Sacramento. By midnight, I reached Pulga. I found the highway bridge by driving across it, and then I backtracked to a pullout where I suspected the vantage point must be. With no other cars on the roads and low clouds hanging overhead, the only light I could see came from the signal at the west switch of Pulga siding. From a half-mile away, those lights appeared as no more than two tiny red dots in a watery black sea. And then they appeared as a green dot over a red dot. An eastbound train was approaching. The first lights through the canyon came not from a train but from its escort, a hi-rail pickup truck running 2 miles ahead of the eastbound as “Bronco Alpha.” The name dates back to the Western Pacific’s hirail fleet of Ford Broncos. Those trucks are long gone, but the name remains, as does the practice of escorting trains through the slide- and washout-prone canyon whenever rain or snow falls. The pickup’s headlights were just bright enough for me to compose and focus my camera, and a few minutes later I photographed my first train at the Pulga bridges, a wash of

On a misty March afternoon at Keddie, four BNSF locomotives lead a southbound (westbound on the UP) mixed freight off the High Line and over the famous wye bridge for a trip down the Feather River.

To Bieber BNSF Gateway Sub “High Line”

Pulga Pulga bridge

Keddie Wye Keddie

Twain UP

89 70

Quincy

N

Quincy Junction 0

y Quinc ad Railro

Scale

25 miles

© 2015 Kalmbach Publishing Co., TRAINS: Rick Johnson Not all lines shown

Portola

No rth

FE AT HE Fo RR rk IVE Fe ath RC er AN Ri Y v er

ON

Union Paciﬁc’s Canyon Subdivision

89

Blairsden

To Reno and Winnemucca, Nev.

UP

70

To Truckee

70

89

Loyalton Bieber UP

F BNS

Keddie Oroville

Oroville UP

Oakland San Francisco

Reno

UP

Lake Oroville

Portola

Donner Pass Sacramento N E VA DA Stockton

To Sacramento

CALIFORNIA

www.TrainsMag.com

39

As morning sun chases away clouds and shadows, a westbound UP container train heads down the canyon at Cresta.

light in the wee hours. I had been prepared to wait hours between trains in the Feather River Canyon, but the railroad was busy that night, with two eastbound manifests working their way up the canyon against a fleet of westbound stack trains. A 3-hour lull that began just after dawn finally allowed me to catch a few winks of sleep in the car. I spent the next four days photographing trains up and down the canyon between Oroville and Portola, and rail traffic was steady throughout my visit. When the Western Pacific finished building its main line through the Feather River Canyon in 1909, it became the first direct competition to the original transcontinental route over Donner Pass. Underdog WP competed fiercely with Southern Pacific for east-west business between California’s Bay Area and the Utah gateways of Ogden and Salt Lake City, where the WP and SP met the UP and the 40 Trains JULY 2015

Denver & Rio Grande Western. On Dec. 22, 1982, UP achieved a longtime goal of its own route into central California by acquiring the WP. For the next 14 years, the Feather River Canyon hummed with UP’s cross-country business, especially the burgeoning container traffic in and out of the Port of Oakland. Then in 1996, the UP bought the SP and found itself with two routes in and out of the Bay Area. The line over Donner Pass is 70 miles shorter but has much steeper grades and at the time lacked clearance for double-stacked containers. This led to a practice of container trains and heavy freights using the longer but better-engineered Feather River Route, while hot piggyback and perishFog still hangs in the pine boughs and the river glistens at Rich Bar as a westbound container train passes on March 17, 2009.

In the blue dawn of March 18, 2009, an eastbound UP container train out of Oakland slices through the fog at Keddie.

easy access from Highway 70, I was actively engaged in photography through nearly all of my waking hours. The rain ended by the evening of the first day, and after some fog the following morning, I enjoyed clear skies for the rest of the trip.

Re-enchantment

Rain turns trickles into cascading torrents, like this one at the Honeymoon Tunnels near Belden, raising the threat of mud and rock slides, while a BNSF train heads west.

able traffic contended with Donner’s stiffer grades. This was the pattern I witnessed in 2009. On each weekday, the Port of Oakland dispatched four eastbound container trains that typically made their way up the canyon during daylight hours on the following day. Their westbound counterparts were less predict-

able but just as steady. Rounding out the mix was a single pair of Union Pacific manifests and two to three pairs of BNSF manifests running on trackage rights to and from the Pacific Northwest via the “High Line,” which departs the Feather River Route at the famous wye bridge at Keddie, Calif. With 15 trains per day and

Despite the pull of that Union Pacific calendar view of Pulga, two decades had passed before any other images of the Feather River Canyon so enchanted me. What finally returned my attention to the canyon was the work of Ted Benson. His lyrical black-andwhite views of Western Pacific in the late 1960s and early 1970s are reproduced on a few alluring spreads of his 1999 book, “One Track Mind.” It was one of the first volumes I acquired for my own railroad library when I became interested in photography in the early 2000s. A few years later, through my work for the Center for

Railroad Photography & Art, I asked Benson about his early trips to the canyon. It was great fun listening as he talked about the first- and second-generation diesels that prowled the canyon in those years, “suspended on the spidery steel of the Clear Creek Bridge an hour before sundown.” What moved me the most, though — and what I know moved Benson the most, too — were his stories of people. He and traveling companion Tom Taylor got lineups from station agents working in active trainorder offices, and they witnessed a small crowd gather in Keddie for the passage of the California Zephyr. They rode freight trains up and down the High Line, thanks to sympathetic engineer Jim Boynton and a letter of introduction from railroad historian Guy Dunscomb. Boynton even arranged for them to sleep with the train crews in the Bieber, Calif., bunkhouse. Those were happy days for www.TrainsMag.com

41

budding railroad photographers in California, but those days were numbered. Benson bore witness to the changes of the ensuing decades with melancholy. First came the demise of the beloved Zephyr in 1970, followed by the end of the Keddie-Bieber crew district in 1978, and Bieber depot’s closing in 1983. During my four-day visit to the canyon in March 2009, I saw more than 40 trains but I talked face-to-face with zero railroaders. In fact, had it not been for the proprietor of the Twain General Store a few miles west of Keddie, I may have gone all four days without talking to anyone in the canyon at all. I should say here that I am not old enough to have experi42

Trains JULY 2015

enced a well-populated railroad landscape. I was barely starting school when cabooses disappeared, seemingly overnight, from the Chessie System coal trains that I grew up watching in West Virginia. With my mother’s help, I even wrote a letter to our Congressman expressing my displeasure. Remarkably, I received a hand-signed reply that he shared my disappointment. Not that it mattered. Cabooses, and the additional crew members they carried, were already gone. By the time I took up photography, most train crews consisted of two people stationed in the safety cabs of third-generation diesels. Contact between railroader and photographer still happens,

In rain and fog on March 13, 2012, three BNSF locomotives howl up the 2.2-percent grade along Spanish Creek, lifting a northbound freight out of the canyon, en route to Pasco, Wash.

of course, and I have been lucky to have had memorable experiences — mainly on short lines and branch lines. But in the 21st century, those experiences are decidedly the exceptions. My interactions in the canyon, limited to the occasional waves with train crews and maintenance-ofway workers, are more typical. The closest I came to the canyon’s railroaders was the sound of their voices, transmitted through the single, lowfidelity speaker of my scanning radio. On that first night and day, when Broncos escorted every train, the radio offered a nearly constant stream of com-

munication as the dispatcher, Bronco drivers, and train crews coordinated movement. When the rain ended and the Broncos weren’t necessary, the absolute signals of centralized traffic control communicated most of the information necessary to keep the trains running. Under clear skies, the radio generally crackled to life only for maintenance crews, track warrants for trains on the High Line, and with the computerized voice of equipment defect detectors. After the rain, photographing trains in the canyon became a quieter — and in some ways lonelier — pursuit.

Listening to voices over a low-fidelity speaker is no substitute to interacting with real humans. The scanning radio and FCC regulations allow me, the outsider, to listen but never to speak. The words flow in one direction only. Yet in the 21st century, listening to radio transmis-

sions is one of the last open windows for outsiders to observe the inner workings of railroads. When the rain ended and the transmissions slowed to a trickle, I found myself hanging on the radio’s every word. Between trains I would often drive to high ground in an effort to

increase the range of my reception and catch some distant missive issuing from down the valley at Oroville or up in the mountains around Portola. I have come to enjoy the solitude that photography in places like the Feather River Canyon affords, but I am not immune to

On a star-studded night in the canyon, an eastbound BNSF freight adds its lights to the cosmos as it soars over Rock Creek, bound for Keddie.

An opening in the Elephant Butte highway tunnel frames cascading water and a westbound UP container train from Chicago as it heads toward the Port of Oakland.

www.TrainsMag.com

43

Bronco Echo and its eastbound BNSF train hold the siding at Pulga for a second section of Union Paciﬁc’s daily freight from North Platte, Neb., to Roseville, Calif.

Unused code-line wires hang from a forlorn pole at Keddie, where a westbound BNSF freight emerges from a tunnel after coming down the High Line. BNSF has trackage rights over the UP Canyon Sub between Keddie and Oroville.

the inescapable need for human connection. The railroad does not exist for my or any other enthusiast’s entertainment. It is a business, built for interstate commerce and to provide its shareholders with a return on their investment. Railroad workers are professionals who have jobs to do and often little time to answer questions or make conversation with an itinerant photographer. Yet the stories that Ted Benson related of photographing trains in the canyon 40 years earlier spoke to a different experience, even to a different world. A world that relied a little more on human capital, and a little less on technology. It was a world that had a little 44 Trains JULY 2015

more time for questions and conversation, but it was also a world that was decidedly less efficient. Compared with today, railroads in 1970 employed more than twice as many people and moved only about half as much freight. I may never have experienced that world in the United States, but I did catch a fleeting glimpse of it while photographing the end of the steam era in China in 2005. We have gained a great deal as a society since the then-teenaged Ted Benson and Tom Taylor walked into the Keddie depot and got lineups from the station agent more than four decades ago, but as I sat alone clutching my radio and waiting intently for its next squawk, I

had to wonder whether we may have lost something, too.

Back again I have returned to the canyon twice since that first visit in March 2009. The first came just six months later, on two gloriously sunny autumn days. The light was brilliant and the trains were plentiful, but few details stick in my mind. My last visit was another trip in March, this time in 2012 and lasting barely more than an afternoon and the following day. The world — or at least the railroad world in central California — had changed again in the 21⁄2 years between those last two trips. Union Pacific had completed an extensive up-

grade of Donner Pass, raising the clearances through its many tunnels and snow sheds to accommodate trains of doublestacked containers. The maturation of distributed-power technology had finally tamed Donner’s grades to the extent that the 70-mile-longer Feather River Route has few remaining advantages. Today, most trains, including the double-stacks in and out of the Port of Oakland, run via Donner. The canyon still hosts all of the BNSF trains on and off the High Line, but typical UP traffic is generally limited to a scant handful of heavy westbounds. I was aware of this when I made my plans to visit the canyon in 2012, and I was looking

forward to its solitude and hoping simply to catch a couple of trains. Instead, a major trackwork project on Donner sent a fleet of westbounds down the canyon, and a day of torrential rain meant that each of them ran with a Bronco escort. In 10 hours on March 13, the canyon hosted nine trains — six UP westbounds, two BNSF eastbounds, and UP’s eastbound “Canyon Flyer” local freight. The radio offered an unending stream of voices as the dispatcher setup one escort after another and the Bronco drivers conversed with their trains. The Broncos and their increased radio traffic are not the only advantages the rain offers the photographer along the Feather River. Stunningly beautiful in all seasons and weather, for me the canyon is magical in the rain. The rocks glisten, mist hangs in the pine boughs, and streams that are normally trickles come cascading down the

steep walls. Beneath it all, the river rages, unceasingly, hellbent on reaching the Pacific. Later that evening, I would bask in the warm glow of an inviting restaurant back in the Central Valley, grateful to be out of the rain, eating, and around people again. In the moment, though, at the twin bridges of Pulga, I switched off my radio and stood out in the rain, glad to hear nothing but the drops spattering on my umbrella and the deep, muffled roar of the river. 2 SCOTT LOTHES is a frequent Trains contributor and is president and executive director of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art (www.railphoto-art.org) in Madison, Wis., where he lives with his wife, Maureen Muldoon. The last of six UP westbounds to come down the canyon on March 13, 2012, crosses Rock Creek in waning daylight.

SunRail rises Central Florida’s new commuter line gains riders despite initial opposition by Jeffrey R. Orenstein Orlando is home to famed theme parks, pleasant weather, and nearly legendary traffic jams. Add to these one seemingly magical commuter railroad. SunRail arrived in May 2014 as an answer for residents tired of getting ensnared in traffic jams on Interstate 4 and other Central Florida highways. Thirty-one-mile, state-run SunRail boasts of a small, but growing, ridership base while expansion plans inch forward. Decades of opposition to SunRail, or something similar, means this popular commuter railroad might have a touch of pixie dust guiding its destiny.

When you wish ... A recent worldwide report on traffic congestion from Kirkland, Wash.,-based data firm INRIX says that the average Interstate 4 commuter near Orlando spent 46 hours in traffic congestion a year. The report confirmed other studies that pointed to the potential importance of rail, but had little effect on decision makers until recently. “Central Florida tried to get transit for 20 years,” says Noranne Downs, Florida Department of Transportation secretary for a nine-county area, and SunRail’s manager. “About a decade ago, it emerged that the best mode we could develop was commuter rail. Our studies showed that it was the best solution for the environment, the budget, and its ability to move people.” Despite this evidence, SunRail was nearly killed before contractors could turn a shovel. That was in 2011 when Florida Gov. Rick 46

Trains JULY 2015

Scott rejected $2.4 billion in federal funds for a proposed Tampa, Fla.-to-Orlando high-speed-rail line. Courting anti-rail factions in Florida politics, Scott also froze SunRail contracts and ordered a project review. Floridians widely believed that Scott would cancel the commuter project. Instead, Scott let SunRail move forward in July 2011 to the cheers of Central Florida business owners and key Republican legislative leaders. Though they were of the same party as Scott, those Florida Republicans pre-empted future governors by earmarking funds for the project in 2009. Florida Chamber of Commerce President and Chief Executive Mark Wilson issued a statement applauding the governor and calling SunRail “a smart infrastructure investment.” Downs attributes SunRail’s eventual completion to determined local leaders who raised it from a regional planning organization’s drawing board, where local officials set priorities and established a vision for what they wanted. They have long

If you go ... SunRail is Central Florida’s commuter railroad, running 18 round trips per day between DeBary, Orlando, and Sand Lake. An adult fare for an end-to-end one-way trip is $5. Trains run from about 5 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., weekdays. Radio frequencies: Road, 160.725; dispatcher, 161.565. More information: www.sunrail.com

ranked SunRail as a top transit priority for the region. The biggest challenge was negotiating complex local agreements that officials in Volusia, Seminole, Orange, and Osceola counties and the city of Orlando eventually approved. So far, SunRail has its critics beaten. Planners projected daily ridership to be 4,300 passengers after one year. SunRail now hosts an average 3,645 riders a day — and on-time performance as of November 2014 was 97.8 percent. SunRail managers and observers predicted that mostly weekday commuters would take the train. They were surprised when more than 9,000 people rode on the day after Thanksgiving 2014, when downtown Orlando businesses are typically closed. On a Tuesday in December, daily ridership also notched to more than 4,700,

Bombardier cab car No. 2008 leads a train south after taking passengers at Winter Park. Meanwhile, Motive Power MP32PH-Q No. 102 gets ﬂagged through a crossing at Church Street. More MP32PHs are ready for route extensions and additional service. Above, Eric Hendrickson; right, Dennis Zaccardi

with trainloads of passengers traveling to and from an Orlando Magic pro basketball home game. The day after Christmas, there were 6,400 riders, and New Year’s Eve saw 4,200 paying passengers board. This is positive news since SunRail managers say the commuter railroad is aimed at luring automobiles off roads, spurring transit-oriented development — projects that build near commuter stations — and reviving downtown Orlando commercial and residential areas.

DeLand

SunRail commuter railroad Map area

LAKE COUNTY

VOLUSIA COUNTY

4

FLORIDA

Sun Rail phase I, in service Sun Rail phase II, planned Other lines Interstate highways State highways Other roads Station locations (approximate)

DeBary

Lake Monroe

Maintenance shops

Sanford Auto Train unloading

Lake Mary

ORANGE COUNTY 4

Longwood

SEMINOLE COUNTY 441

Altamonte Springs Maitland

Winter Park Florida Hospital Health Village 0

Scale

5 miles

© 2015 Kalmbach Publishing Co. TRAINS: Rick Johnson Not all lines shown

Lynx Central Church Street Orlando Health/Amtrak station ORLANDO

Sand Lake Orlando International Airport

4

SeaWorld N

441

Meadow Woods

Tupperware Station/ Hunter’s Creek Kissimmee/ Amtrak station

OSCEOLA COUNTY

Poinciana 441

48 Trains JULY 2015

Bombardier maintains 20 bilevel cars and 10 Motive Power locomotives at shops northwest of Sanford. The Canadian company’s contract extends for 10 years. Bill

“Over $500 million in [transit-orienteddevelopment projects are] being built now, and that could be double. The next generation [of residents] wants to be mobile and live near stations,” says Downs, the state DOT official. “The locals had choices. We gave communities a base station, and three communities — Church Street in downtown Orlando, Winter Park, and Longwood — chose to fund major upgrades.” New development projects created to connect with SunRail include Station Pointe at Lake Mary, a mixed-use development adjacent to the Lake Mary station. The housing project is close to completion. The Central Florida Partnership, a consortium of business groups and politicians, estimated that SunRail would generate 10,000 jobs “immediately.” Certain officials are even more optimistic. “Over the next 25 years, SunRail will create more than 250,000 jobs and more than $8 billion in economic impact,” says Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who is currently SunRail’s board chairman. He says that ridership on a free rapid bus service that connects with SunRail “has jumped by 33 percent because of SunRail. These transit options are changing the way people make their way to and through our downtown.” Though obviously smaller than established commuter systems, SunRail’s successes bode well for a Phase II expansion planned for 2017. That expansion has partial funding, and pieces of the pre-construction engineering are work complete. Although President Barack Obama’s budget left out federal support for SunRail expansion in 2016, supporters hope it will get the highball in 2017, in part because the commuter railroad has support in the state legislature and from Florida representatives in Congress. Expansion plans would extend service

Cobb

north from the current end of the line at DeBary (just north of Sanford, the Auto Train terminus) to the DeLand Amtrak station and south to Poinciana, using the existing Kissimmee Amtrak station and building new stations in Hunter’s Creek and Meadow Woods. Also under active study, though not yet funded, are extensions southeast to the Orlando International Airport (and possible cross-platform transfers to All Aboard Florida’s future private passenger-train service from Miami) and northeast to Daytona Beach, Fla.

Off to work they go ... SunRail passengers ride on portions of a 61-mile right-of-way the state of Florida purchased from CSX Transportation in 2009. It is known as the “A-line” for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, whose silverand-purple locomotives once led Florida Special and Champion named trains on this line for Florida visitors until the 1960s. Although most CSX traffic shifted to the former Seaboard Air Line main line, or “S-line,” the freight railroad still maintains a single Orlando-to-Waycross, Ga., manifest train in each direction (Q455 and Q456). CSX also delivers Indiana coal to an Orlando-area power plant four times a week and moves shuttle trains of aggregates, including one for Conrad Yelvington Distributors that operates as often as twice a week. “[CSX] still runs a few trains over our line in the midnight-to-5 a.m. window and in a few mixed-use windows between rush hours,” says Tawny Olore, a SunRail project manager who works for the state. “We get along very well with CSX. If they need to move a train, we accommodate them and vice versa.” As part of its upgrades to benefit com-

muters, the state double-tracked much of SunRail’s route since purchasing the rightof-way. This enables the bright yellowtrimmed trains to operate between stations at speeds up to 79 mph, averaging 33 mph over the whole line, including stops. There are 36 trains daily, 18 in each direction. Service schedules are more frequent for the morning and afternoon commutes, but there are midday trains and an evening train that accommodate people traveling to sporting events and entertainment venues in downtown Orlando. In addition to SunRail trains, Amtrak uses the A-line for daily round trips of the Silver Meteor, Silver Star, and the Auto Train. Seven MP32PH-Q locomotives from Boise, Idaho-based Motive Power Inc., costing $2.4 million each, power the existing trains in Phase I push-pull service. Three more MP32PHs are on the property, awaiting completion of Phase II stations and track in the coming years. Passengers ride in 20 bilevel Bombardier coaches and cab cars built in Plattsburgh, N.Y. Cars are wheelchair-accessible and have tables, a lavatory, bicycle racks, electrical outlets, and free wireless Internet. Each of SunRail’s stations has extensive connections with local public transportation, especially at downtown Orlando stations, and a van service paid for by Florida and Orange County taxpayers. It launched in December 2014 to provide transportation from the Maitland station to Orlando’s largest business core. Stations also have passenger safety features including bells, gates, and LED displays warning about approaching trains. Riders use either disposable tickets or reloadable “SunCards” to pay fares, which are based on the number of zones traveled. Basic fare is $2 and there is a $1 fee for each additional zone. Riders “tap on” at a validator unit at the station prior to boarding and must “tap off ” their ticket at another validator at their destination before exiting the station. For now, the state pays for “station ambassadors” to assist riders with navigating the fare process and getting where they want to go via train and local transit connections.

Passengers head south from Sanford to Lake Mary. SunRail’s Bombardier-built bilevel coaches are wheelchair-accessible and have Wi-Fi, lavatories and tables. Eric Hendrickson

Commuter rail start-ups compared The 21st century has been a good time for the birth of new commuter railroads in the United States. Not counting light rail systems, nine other commuter railroad operations besides SunRail started up since 2000, and two more began in the four years preceding the turn of the century, for a total of 26 systems in operation. Several more are being planned. Heavy rail commuter systems now serve terminus cities, ranging in size from New York City to Santa Fe, N.M. The Tampa-St. Petersburg area in Florida, with a population of more than 2.8 million, is among the largest metropolitan areas in the United States without commuter rail. Well-known heavy rail operations throughout the United States include Metra and South Shore in the greater Chicago area; Metro-North, Long Island Rail Road, and NJ Transit, near New York City; and Metrolink in metropolitan Los Angeles. — Jeffrey R. Orenstein Commuter railroad

Start date

Cities served

SunRail

2014 Orlando

2014 annual ridership

Routemiles

Stations

540,700

31.7

12

A-Train

2011 Denton, Texas

570,100

21

6

Capital MetroRail

2011 Austin, Texas

782,100

32

9

Westside Express Service

2009 Beaverton, Ore.

501,100

14.7

5

Northstar Line

2009 Minneapolis

721,200

40

7

Utah FrontRunner

2008

4,416,100

44

16

New Mexico Rail Runner Express

2006 Albuquerque, N.M.

1,062,700

97

14

101 details

Music City Star

2006

Nashville, Tenn.

256,700

32

6

Federal taxpayers financed half of SunRail’s $1.2 billion construction cost. The Federal Transit Administration alone ponied up about $230 million for SunRail. Florida and local taxpayers each shouldered a quarter of the remaining costs. Planners estimated that the railroad would cost $615 million for construction plus $432 million to purchase the right-ofway and tracks. The state Department of Transportation runs the 12-station railroad. The state will run it seven years then hand it over to the five cooperating municipalities.

Sounder Commuter Rail

2000

Seattle

3,362,800

83

12

Altamont Corridor Express

1998 San Jose, Calif.

1,179,400

82

10

Trinity Railway Express

1996 Dallas, Fort Worth, Texas

2,293,500

34

10

Salt Lake City, Ogden, Utah

Five full-time state employees work on SunRail and “a lot of it is consultant-driven,” Downs says. The state Department of Transportation, not a local authority, is responsible for SunRail and its performance, while Bombardier operates the railroad under

the terms of a 10-year, $195 million contract. The Canadian company dispatches for SunRail out of Sanford, Fla.’s Rand Yard; maintains track, equipment, and communications; provides customer service; and maintains vehicles, station platforms, and other buildings. Bombardier www.TrainsMag.com

49

managers say they take advantage of inhouse expertise when operating their own equipment, as they do with SunRail, but are capable of handling any manufacturer’s products.

To inﬁnity ... and beyond With its one double-tracked line and 31 miles of service, SunRail may not be in the same league as Chicago’s Metra, Southern California’s Metrolink, or NJ Transit — yet. Florida is growing fast, already surpassing New York State as the nation’s third most populous state. Meanwhile, Tampa is only an hour away and is a huge metropolitan area that can easily support commuter rail service. In the distant future, a Daytona Beach-Orlando-Tampa railroad paralleling Interstate 4 is a distinct possibility. In the near future, weekend and evening 50

Trains JULY 2015

runs may increase and include a single round-trip night train; SunRail is experimenting with this now. And, Phase II completion is all but assured. According to a published report in the Orlando Sentinel, an aide with the Federal Transit Administration sent an email message to the newspaper saying that the “[Federal Transit Administration] has left the door open for the SunRail Phase 2 South and Phase 2 North projects to progress to construction grant agreements if [the Department of Transportation] can provide updated information.” There is enough momentum to see the expansion through to completion, albeit not as quickly as the state predicted. Construction is likely to begin in 2017, and service should begin late that year or in 2018. Local leaders expect the project to cost $91 million for the Osceola extension and $35 million

SunRail trains operate push-pull over exAtlantic Coast Line tracks through Orlando. Features include this bascule bridge at Lake Monroe. Eric Hendrickson

for the DeLand extension. As of early May, DeLand extension funding was in doubt, while local officials said Osceola extension funds appeared secure. Together, these projects would bring the route up to 61 miles instead of the current 31 miles, and increase the pool of eligible riders. It will be none too soon.The state is already at the beginning of a seven-year, $2.3 billion reconstruction project on 21 miles of Interstate 4 through Orlando, which is set to make the already-bad automobile congestion worse. It is possible that construction conges-

>> SunRail ride video Follow along with TRAINS’ David Lassen for a railfan view of the commuter railroad: www.TrainsMag.com

SunRail trains, including this one led by MP32PH-Q No. 101 at Winter Park, are cleared for 79-mph service between stations on a double-tracked main line. Kevin Andrusia

Estimating ridership for start-up railroads

tion will coax commuters to try SunRail. This is what happened to suburban Miami’s Tri-Rail during Interstate 95 reconstruction, and there is no reason to conclude that it will be different in Orlando. On top of that, transit-oriented-development projects under construction or planned near SunRail stations have the potential to boost ridership. Additionally, if All Aboard Florida private passenger trains reach Orlando International Airport from Miami, which currently seems likely, the momentum for a Phase III airport extension will be just about irresistible. 2 JEFFREY R. ORENSTEIN is a retired political science professor who serves on the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority’s community advisory committee. He and his wife, Virginia, live in Lakewood Ranch, Fla.

Transit is much like other goods or services bought and sold in the economy: Whether and how many people will use it depends on its cost. Cost is both money and the time it takes out of a person’s life — and what the alternatives are. Forecasting the demand for a yet-to-open rail-transit service (commuter rail, light rail, subway, or streetcar) requires reliable information and being familiar with the economic concepts. The fact that it’s much harder to estimate a new line’s future beneﬁts for potential riders than it is to determine how much it will cost to build typically frustrates transit supporters. Luckily, proposed new lines today have recent examples from other U.S. cities with which to compare theirs. Calculating the degree to which a change in cost (either money or time) will affect ridership works reasonably well when estimating the short-term (six months to one year) effects of a change in fare or in the frequency or span (number of hours each day) of service. However, for more major service changes or for introducing a new service, planners use more-complex tools. These tools model such factors as where trips are likely to begin and end, the expected levels of transit ridership in certain paths, and patronage on speciﬁc routes and services. Planners take into account factors such as population and employment in each zone along the planned line, the level of transit service the new line is expected to provide (including its connectivity with existing service), the fare to be charged, and the time and money costs of driving and parking, which is the main competing mode of travel. These models have many sources for possible error, and they typically overestimate or underestimate future ridership. There is also the possibility that a new service will lure people to travel who were previously making fewer or no trips. A traditional four-step urban transportation forecasting model places value on travelers’ time, and it discounts many of the ﬁxed expenses (other than gasoline) associated with owning and maintaining a car. This model is inherently biased toward the vast majority of trips being made by private auto. However, a more sophisticated model that breaks down trips by trip purpose (commute, shopping, social, recreational, etc.), length, and demographic factors provides a more accurate picture of what kinds of trips will be taken by transit. However, the potential to attract new riders is often not the primary basis for a decision to build a new rail line. Goals such as spurring economic development, creating more walkable neighborhoods, and reducing pollution tend to outweigh merely increasing mobility A view from a southbound (accommodating more trips), and these outcomes are SunRail cab car front window. not measured through ridership alone. — Malcolm Downtown Orlando is in the Kenton, a Washington, D.C.-based transit advocate distance. Jef frey R. Orenstein

www.TrainsMag.com

51

‘Horsepower-hour,’ ‘free runners,’ and units often far from home by Chris Guss

Colorful consists abound, but why? A BNSF eastbound stack train with power from UP and NS rounds a curve at Heman, Okla., on June 25, 2006. The UP and NS units are known as “free runners,” working off horsepower-hours owed to BNSF. Bruce D. Barret t

NS black, meet BNSF orange and CP red. An NS ES44AC leads two other General Electric wide-cab locomotives past a cemetery at Naugatuck, W.Va., on a westbound stack train on May 2, 2014. Chase Gunnoe

itting trackside along the busy BNSF Transcon in rural Illinois, you’re set up to enjoy a day of photographing trains and locomotives adorned in the Fort Worth, Texas-based railroad’s striking orangeand-black-paint scheme. A headlight appears in the distance and you get ready. Slamming past you is a brace of Norfolk Southern units hauling a long double-stack train to the California coast. A bit later, a manifest train with Canadian National power screams past, followed by an intermodal train with a mix of BNSF and Canadian Pacific locomotives racing the opposite way. Finally, a train passes with a pair of orange-and-black BNSF units pulling a long auto-rack train. What’s going on here, with seemingly every Class I railroad’s locomotives ranging far and wide, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and everywhere in between? While locomotives operating from one railroad to another have been around since the 1930s, the practice is more prevalent today, mainly due to the efficiencies of expediting traffic and minimizing congestion in large cities that have many interchanges. It’s easier to leave the power on a train and keep going than it is to switch units every time they reach a junction. But the systems that occur behind the scenes to track and account for each locomotive when it leaves its owner’s property are complex, and there are almost 30,000 locomotives on the seven Class I railroads combined. Let’s explore the topic.

HOW AND WHAT TO TRACK Decades ago, railroads devised a simple way to track the usage of a particular locomotive when it was working on another railroad. Called a 54 Trains JULY 2015

“horsepower-hour,” it’s a simple measure that calculates each horsepower a locomotive generates for every hour it’s used. For example, a 2,000-hp GP38-2 would accumulate 2,000 horsepowerhours for each hour it’s on another railroad. If this locomotive is off-line for two days, it will accrue 96,000 horsepower-hours. This value is tracked across all locomotives from a particular railroad, and it becomes a debt that the other railroad is required to repay. Since railroads don’t keep detailed rosters of each other’s fleets, a railroad has to be able to determine a specific locomotive’s horsepower rating to accurately track horsepower-hours. Enter Umler, an acronym for Universal Machine Language Equipment Register, a database system managed by Railinc of Cary, N.C. Umler contains detailed records of all locomotives and railcars operated in North America. Each entry has pertinent facts, such as dimensions, capacities, owner, lessee (if any), reporting marks, etc. For example, when Norfolk Southern receives Union Pacific No. 8809 in interchange, Umler tells NS the locomotive is an EMD SD70ACe with 4,300 hp for accounting. Umler also identifies the lessee of any leased locomotives that show up at interchange so the proper account can be charged.

WANDERING OFF-LINE The most common way locomotives leave home rails is via a run-through agreement that’s negotiated with another railroad. These agreements, typically only in place between Class I railroads, can be for any type of traffic that moves from one railroad to another such as coal, grain, intermodal, or merchandise trains. Run-through agreements are also among the most complex arrangements on a railroad. It’s important to note that run-through agreements only address locomotives. Documents called

An eastbound Canadian Paciﬁc train with SD60M No. 6259 in the lead meets a westbound with CSX SD40-3 No. 4013 on the point at Grand Avenue in Milwaukee on June 12, 2014. Nick Brown

interchange agreements cover the freight moving from one railroad to another. This is done to ensure there are no conflicts between the provisions of the different agreements. The run-through agreement spells out such details as the set exchange point of the locomotives, minimum number of locomotives required, and the general type of locomotive expected to be used on the run-through train, such as three D.C. locomotives, two A.C. locomotives, etc. Typically, these agreements also state that the train must have enough power to reach the next point after the exchange point where power can be added if needed. For example, if a delivering railroad is operating over flat, level track before an exchange and the receiving railroad has several mountains to cross be-

fore its next point where locomotives can be added, the train should be delivered at the exchange point with enough power to get it over the mountains. Just a few of the other items spelled out in these agreements include how a mechanical failure is handled if one occurs off-line, and what happens if a locomotive is damaged in a derailment or involved in a grade-crossing accident. This happens infrequently and is often dealt with on a case-by-case basis as terms vary greatly. Special considerations for fuel usage will be clearly defined. Also included is a cancellation clause for the entire agreement, which is typically 60 days from notification, and the monetary value of each horsepower-hour, should a cash payout be required at any point. The agreements also outline www.TrainsMag.com

55

BEGINNINGS OF LOCOMOTIVE RUN-THROUGH AGREEMENTS In steam days, in at least one case, locomotives ran through

Canadians in the Carolinas: A pair of Canadian Paciﬁc ES44s and a Norfolk Southern unit lead eastbound NS coal train No. 744 across the High Fill near Old Fort, N.C., in former Southern Railway territory on Dec. 10, 2014. Grady McKinley

to another railroad whose engine crews took over the foreign-line engine when it was on their home rails. Maine Central steam locomotives ran through on the Boston & Maine between Boston and Portland on certain trains. With the advent of diesel-electric power, run-through operation began to occur on passenger trains elsewhere, starting with the Chicago & North Western-Union PaciﬁcSouthern Paciﬁc operation of the early streamliners. The ﬁrst of these was the M-10001 on the City of Portland, with revenue service starting June 5, 1935, between Chicago and Portland, Ore., with UP-owned locomotives operated east of Omaha, Neb., by C&NW crews. The ﬁrst three-road run-through came with the inauguration of the City of San Francisco on June 15, 1936. The UP-owned locomotive was operated by SP crews west of Ogden, Utah, to Oakland, Calif., in addition to the C&NW arrangement east of Omaha. The agreement was changed in December 1938 so that the locomotives became jointly owned and so lettered. The original M-10001 trainset, with its associated power car, had been replaced in January 1938 with new equipment pulled by ElectroMotive model E2 locomotives, Nos. SF-1, SF-2, and SF-3. The three joint

owners’ heralds were displayed on the E2A noses after the new agreement went into effect. The C&NW also took joint ownership of units used on the City of Los Angeles, and when those units were shifted to City of San Francisco after a 1939 derailment that wrecked SF-1, -2, and -3, the ownership had to be changed to include SP. The inﬂexibility of these early agreements, tying particular locomotives to particular trains, led to simpler arrangements later. The easiest solution was simply to agree on per diem and mileage rates. Another early passenger locomotive run-through was the operation of Baltimore & Ohio E6s on the Baltimore-Washington-Detroit Ambassador over Pere Marquette with PM engine crews between Toledo and Fort Street Union Depot in Detroit, which was in effect by 1943. This was replaced in late 1945 when B&O assumed trackage rights over the New York Central System between Toledo and Michigan Central Station in Detroit. A prominent passenger run-through of the postwar era was the joint use of E7As of Frisco and Katy (two from each road, all delivered in March 1947) on the Texas Special between St. Louis and Dallas via Vinita, Okla. Distinct from run-through agreements were pooling agreements, in which railroads, with the permission of the Interstate

Commerce Commission under a provision of the Transportation Act of 1920, pooled their revenues and uniﬁed their operations in a deﬁned area, dividing the results on a percentage basis. Milwaukee Road and C&NW implemented such an agreement for their ore operations in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in 1934. Steam locomotives of both roads, based from the C&NW roundhouse in Escanaba, Mich., were seen on trains of mixed Milwaukee and C&NW ore cars between the mines and the ore dock there. In 1953, the operation was dieselized with Fairbanks-Morse H16-66s, purchased to identical speciﬁcations by both roads. Thereafter, mixed power consists with units from both railroads were common on these trains. Another variation on the theme was seasonal sharing of power. In 1951, Bangor & Aroostook purchased 10 GP7s under a seven-year agreement with the Pennsylvania Railroad whereby the Maine railroad used the units during the winter potato rush, and in the summer PRR used them to help handle ore trafﬁc between Lake Erie and Pittsburgh. Modern run-through agreements began on April 1, 1960, when the Union Paciﬁc and Burlington began using run-through power between Burlington’s Chicago terminal at Cicero, Ill., and UP’s major classiﬁcation yard and power-cycle

1

1 Five Geeps bring a Burlington-UP run-through train into Mendota, Ill., on Dec. 18, 1960, while a CB&Q 4-8-4 slumbers. George L. Schlaepfer

2 A northbound Seaboard Coast Line freight with GP40s bracketing Frisco SD45s roars through Greystone, N.C., on Dec. 11, 1976. Cur t Tillotson Jr.

2

break point at North Platte, Neb. The operation started with mixed consists of GP9s, and by 1961 had progressed to GP20s, continuing with later models as they were acquired. UP started a run-through with Frisco over the connection at Kansas City in November 1966, and by 1971 this became the ﬁrst three-railroad run-through when

3

Waycross, Ga.-North Platte trains were established with Seaboard Coast Line. As modern run-throughs have developed, the variation in models of locomotives being mixed has led to the adoption of horsepowerhours as the preferred method of equalizing motive-power expenses, and this leads to locomotives

where the run-through locomotives are expected to be turned before heading back toward their home road. As described earlier, the point where cars are handed from one railroad to another is called the interchange point, while the point where locomotives are handed off is called the exchange point. These two points are typically one and the same, but rare exceptions exist. Run-through and interchange agreements can both last for decades with little or no change. Due to their complexity and the fact that railroads typically have a large quantity of runthrough agreements to hold and manage, a movement was started a little less than a decade ago by the Class I railroads to streamline the overall process. The companies identified the many commonalities between each run-through agreement and began to develop what’s known as a master runthrough agreement. The master agreement is writ-

3 A stray Southern Paciﬁc GP35 from the New OrleansJacksonville, Fla., pool leads a SCL C420, RS3, and a GP30 at Cusseta, Ga., on the Columbus-Bainbridge, Ga., branch on June 19, 1971. Jack Armstrong

wandering away from the runthrough route as horsepower-hour imbalances are worked off. Runthroughs have now developed to the point that there is practically a national pool of locomotives for mainline trains, with mixed consists running everywhere. – Jerry A. Pinkepank, author of Kalmbach’s “Diesel Spotter’s Guide”

ten between two railroads and acts as an umbrella that addresses many of the traits that each individual agreement shares, such as locomotive failures off-line, damage, liability and indemnity provisions, as well as horsepower-hour value, and processes for fuel and horsepower equalization. Accompanying the master agreement are addenda. Each addendum addresses a single run-through corridor and manages the particulars that are unique to this exchange, such as specific origin/ destination, train type, exchange point, type and quantity of locomotives required, and other issues. When railroads hand off their locomotives to operators other than another Class I railroad, a document called a Locomotive Use Agreement is typically employed. These spell out the various aspects of the units’ use while off-line and cover many of the same issues found in run-through agreements. There’s one exception: Class I railroads usually do www.TrainsMag.com

57

UP units sandwich a CSX locomotive heading westbound on a freight at Missouri Valley, Iowa, on Dec. 27, 2014. In the distance are stored UP SD9043MACs. TR A I NS : Jim Wrinn

not exchange power with shortline or regional railroads, so horsepower-hour and fuel equalization are built into the marketing agreements. Railroads use these types of agreements between third-party operators that may unload a coal train at a power plant or operate an oil train at a crude-oil terminal, or with short lines that may receive a grain train for loading or unloading. Railroads typically have a large number of these agreements to manage, compared to run-through agreements. Locomotive Use Agreements typically have greater penalties for misuse than run-through agreements have. This is done to deter misuse of the locomotives while off-line. An example might be a short line that uses locomotives off a grain train it received in interchange to power its own freight trains while the grain train is being loaded/unloaded on the short line.

FEEL THE BURN When a train operating in run-through service moves through its exchange point, the receiving railroad begins to track fuel usage on foreign locomotives in the consist to a location outlined in the run-through agreement or addendum known as the designated fueling point. Once a run-through locomotive reaches the fueling point, the measuring stops and the fuel used from that point forward becomes the responsibility of the host railroad. Fuel usage varies by locomotive and the type of train it’s hauling at the time. To measure this, each railroad has burn-rate charts that outline the amount of diesel fuel used, based on the type of train the locomotive is hauling. For example, an 58

Trains JULY 2015

ES44AC pulling a loaded coal train will burn much more fuel than when it’s hauling empty hoppers. Railroads hope to do away with the miles/ time and fuel burn-rate measurement process in the future. As fuel gauge and GPS communication technology progress, actual fuel used may become the standard for measuring fuel consumed on a run-through consist.

SORTING IT ALL OUT Every month, railroads quantify the horsepowerhours accumulated, along with the fuel used by runthrough locomotives from interchange point to fueling point. The manager handling the horsepowerhour accounts will then discuss the accumulated debt with his counterparts. Since run-through agreements are a two-way street, much of the debt on each side will offset the other, leaving a smaller amount outstanding that needs to be settled. Railroads are almost constantly out of balance with each other. This can happen when one railroad retains another’s locomotives for a longer period of time, such as using the locomotives on another train outside of the run-through-agreement corridor.

CANADIAN NATIONAL ONE-DAY FOREIGN POWER SNAPSHOT FROM MARCH 2015 BNSF – 20 CP – 4 CSXT – 2

KCS – 1 NS – 12 UP – 11

Why is that one always in the lead, and what about Canada? While run-through power can be found trailing in a locomotive consist anywhere in North America, if you are looking for places to see the lead locomotive of the railroad you are on, here are suggestions on where to go. Find a subdivision on Union Paciﬁc, Norfolk Southern, or CSX that requires cab signals. Railroads typically install cab-signal equipment on locomotives that are designed to work only on their property. Kansas City Southern, BNSF, Canadian National, and Canadian Paciﬁc do not have cab signals for their freight trains. Internet discussion lists can help you ﬁnd which subdivisions are equipped. Canadian National and Canadian Paciﬁc have agreements on most of their lines in Canada with their operating unions that require certain amenities to be present in the cab of the locomotive leading a train. These items, such as microwaves and hot plates, aren’t found in locomotives operated by the other ﬁve Class I railroads.

KEEPING IT SIMPLE

Other reasons for the imbalance can be a runthrough agreement that has a substantially longer run on one railroad than the other. For example, a coal train operating between the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and a power plant has a runthrough agreement that operates 1,500 miles on one railroad and 500 miles on the other. Once horsepower-hour debts are sorted out each month, they then move to any fuel imbalance between the two railroads. As these accounts become more skewed toward one side, a railroad will inform the indebted railroad that the imbalance is becoming excessive. This generally occurs when one owes the other hundreds of millions of horsepower-hours. While these debts can be paid off financially using a set rate per horsepower-hour negotiated in the runthrough agreement (or master agreement), the most common repayment method is accomplished by the debtor providing locomotives to operate freely on the creditor’s railroad. These locomotives are called “free runners,” and are able to operate anywhere on the receiving carrier. Some run-through agreements, such as the example of a coal train operating from the Powder River Basin to a power plant, are so offbalance that the railroad with the 500-mile haul would need to keep a set amount of locomotives on the other railroad’s property 24/7 just to keep parity. In order to keep from reaching the penalty imbalance, most railroads adjust the number of free runners on the carrier to which they owe horsepower-hours.

Most run-through agreements have a clause prohibiting locomotives from a railroad that’s not part of the agreement from being used. If they do end up on a run-through train, the locomotives are treated the same as the interchanging railroad’s locomotives would be in terms of accumulating debt. For example, NS and BNSF have a run-through agreement and BNSF and Canadian Pacific have a separate agreement elsewhere. If an NS locomotive operating onto BNSF via a run-through train is then delivered to CP, then CP would count any horsepower-hours and fuel debt accumulated by the NS locomotive back to the BNSF account. Without this clause, railroads could rid themselves of any foreign locomotives accumulating debt on their accounts via the closest exchange point of run-through agreement, whether the locomotive was headed back to its home road or not. When factors such as severe weather occur, or a railroad becomes short of power due to an unplanned uptick in business, the already-complex horsepower-hour system can begin to swell much larger, creating additional work for those involved in managing it. Power-short railroads can hold onto locomotives received via interchange to operate other trains on their system. When this happens, the railroad that provided the locomotives may become short of power, as well. If enough locomotives aren’t returned to the railroad, it forces the newly power-short railroad to use locomotives received at different interchange points, thus creating a snowball effect across several railroads. Horsepower-hour accounts can swell out of control, often taking months to return the power home and work down the debts accrued to a more manageable size. With railroads constantly looking to improve efficiency from within and with each other, and with continuing growth of trainload interchange traffic that benefits from locomotive run-through operation, the rainbow locomotive consists will continue to be a fixture of North American railroading for a long time to come. 2 www.TrainsMag.com

59

PRESERVATION

BY WAYNE LAEPPLE

No. 2100 comes back East If fundraising is successful the famous Reading T-1 could return to steam as early as 2017

“Made in Reading,” chalked on the front, decorated Reading 4-8-4 No. 2100 as it rode through Culbertson, Mont., April 19, on the way to its new home in Cleveland. Michael Green

A 4-8-4 remembered as a pioneer of early steam excursions is back east of the Mississippi River, though not quite back to the mountains and valleys of its native Pennsylvania. Reading T-1 No. 2100 has been leased by American Steam Railroad Preservation Association Inc. and was shipped east from Richland, Wash., to Cleveland, Ohio, in April and May for restoration at the Midwest Railway Preservation Society’s roundhouse there. The association launched a fundraising website, www.fireup2100.org, with a goal of $700,000. These funds will be used to perform tests and inspections as well as repairs. Association President Steve Harvey says the goal is to return No. 2100 to service by 2017,

“but if we raise enough to hire professionals, it could be sooner.” In mid-April crews jacked up No. 2100, stored for five years after a failed attempt at converting it from coal fuel to oil firing and running excursions at Tacoma, Wash. They loaded the 441,300-pound locomotive aboard a heavy-duty flatcar, accompanied by its two tenders on separate flats. It moved in regular freights via BNSF Railway and Norfolk Southern, with final delivery by CSX Transportation. Harvey says the locomotive is in good condition. Its current owner, whom he declined to identify, wants to see it operate. The question, Harvey says, is whether the railfan community wants to see that happen.

“It still has time on its boiler,” Harvey says, “and we will reconvert it to burn coal. We’ve arranged to pick up its original stoker, and there are other ailments to be fixed.” At Cleveland, it will see a hydrostatic test of the boiler, ultrasonic testing of the firebox, inspection and repairs as needed to appliances, and removal of the drivers to permit inspection of the main journals, as well as all rods and pins. The Northern, sometimes referred to as “a T-hog” despite its graceful skirting, smooth boiler jacket, shielded air compressors, and all-welded tender, has operated only a few times since the Reading retired it at the end of the famous Iron Horse Rambles excursions in 1964. No. 2100 will join former Grand Trunk Western 2-8-2 No. 4070 in the former Baltimore & Ohio roundhouse, said Steve Korpos Jr., Midwest’s roundhouse supervisor. Both groups will share tools, equipment, and expertise, Korpos says, to get both locomotives back in steam. In addition, another Mikado owned by American Steam, Frisco No. 1352, may join the others. Harvey said both Midwest and American Steam are “concentrating on locomotives, letting others do the cars, ticketing, and so.” No. 4070 formerly pulled trains on the nearby Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, which runs through Cuyahoga Valley National Park. “The park service would like to see steam back there again,” Korpos says. No. 2100, the first Reading T-1, pulled more than 40 Iron Horse Rambles over the Reading’s compact system in eastern Pennsylvania between 1960 and 1964. It was featured, along with sister 2124, in a Life magazine photo story and in several Trains articles. Of the 30 T-1 engines rebuilt from 1923 Consolidations in the Reading’s own shops from 1945 to 1947, four survive. No. 2101 is at the B&O Museum in Baltimore; No. 2102 is in storage pending overhaul on the Reading & Northern at Port Clinton, Pa.; and No. 2124 is on display at Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pa.

Reading T-1 No. 2100

ASRPA

Originally: 2-8-0 No. 2045 Rebuilder and date: Reading, 1945 Wheel arrangement: 4-8-4 Class: First of 30 locomotives, 1945-47 Driver diameter: 70 inches

60

Trains JULY 2015

Weight on drivers: 278,200 pounds Maximum boiler pressure: 240 psi Tractive effort: 68,000 pounds; 79,100 with Franklin booster engaged Retired: 1956

Allentown & Auburn started operating tourist service on 4 miles of track between Topton, Pa., and Kutztown, Pa., on a former Reading Co. branch. The company is the latest designated operator of the line that the Kutztown Transportation Authority owns. The line went dormant after the last customer closed in 2013. Power is ElectroMotive Corp. No. 206, built in 1937 for the Steelton & Highspire and rebuilt in 1957 to SW900 standards. It later served the Philadelphia, Bethlehem & New England; Maryland & Pennsylvania; and Stewartstown. The switcher wore black primer paint for its inaugural runs for the Easter holiday, but it was later painted in a Reading-like dark-green scheme. Additional tourist runs are planned for the summer. Michael T. Burkhar t

Flying Heisler: A crane sets the boiler, frame, and front trucks of Sunset Timber Co. three-truck Heisler No. 1 onto a truck at Fremont, Calif., for movement to Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad in Garibaldi, Ore., where it will be returned to steam. The Paciﬁc Locomotive Association traded the 1913, 85ton locomotive for boiler work that will return the association’s former Sierra Railway 2-6-2 No. 30 to operation at the Niles Canyon Railway. No. 1 was last operated by Pickering Lumber Co. of Standard, Calif.; it has been in longterm storage. It will get a new tender tank and cab panels in addition to mechanical work. Christopher R. Hauf

800-462-5664 Stearns, KY

ZZZEVIVU\LQIR

New Pennsylvania tourist line opens

ZZZEVIVU\LQIR

>> PRESERVATION BRIEFS

Sign up today for FREE E-NEWSLETTERS www.TrainsMag.com

61

HOT SPOTS

BY MATT DONNELLY

Hudson River hideout Bear Mountain sees heavy freight and passenger traffic all day Amtrak train No. 49, the Lake Shore Limited, quickly outpaces a boat on the Hudson River.

LOCATION: Scenic Bear Mountain

Metro-North/Amtrak CSX Transportation

To Albany

To Albany Manitou Metro-North station

9W Mine Dock Park

9D

6

N E W YO R K Map area

tro

TRAIN-WATCHING: CSX’s Albany-Northern New Jersey main line, technically the River Subdivision, runs along the west bank of the Hudson River and offers about 30 freight trains a day. Across the river is the state-owned Metro-North line. It sees more than 60 weekday commuter trains, along with Amtrak’s regional Empire Service and long-distance Lake Shore Limited, which add more than 20 passenger trains on weekdays, and fewer numbers on weekends. Midday offers some opportunity to see southbound trains from the walkway on Bear Mountain Bridge. In the early afternoon, check out Mine Dock Park, just north of the bridge on the west shore. In the evenings, spectacular images can be made from both the Bear Mountain Bridge and an overlook on the mountain at Perkins Memorial Observatory, just southwest from the bridge. From this location, visitors can see northbound passenger trains approach from as far away as Peekskill, more than 4 miles away. Taking a good telephoto lens or binoculars ensures the best viewing opportunities.

A northbound CSX freight crosses a long trestle north of Iona Island. Scot t A. Har tley

RADIO FREQUENCIES: CSX road, 160.980; CSX dispatcher, 160. 620; Metro-North, 160.950. FOR YOUR FAMILY: Bear Mountain State Park offers a variety of seasonal and year-round activities, including lake and river ﬁshing, swimming, museums, recreation trails, and ice skating. MATT DONNELLY is a railroad professional, originally from Auburn, N.Y.

-No rth

Bear Mountain Bridge

Me /Am

tra k

on ds Hu

202

r ve Ri

To Perkins Memorial Observatory

Iona Island

Bear Mountain State Park Scale

202

9W 1 mile

© 2015 Kalmbach Publishing Co., TRAINS: Rick Johnson Not all roads shown

62

To New York City To Newark, N.J.

N

0

6

X CS

THIS MONTH: BEAR MOUNTAIN, N.Y.

is located about 45 miles north of New York City along the Hudson River. It offers a host of vantage points along the CSX Transportation “River Line” and Metro-North Hudson Line. Locations between Cold Spring and Peekskill, including Bear Mountain Bridge, provide public access to watch and photograph trains. The area is stunning in fall, when the autumn colors are ablaze along the river. Visitors and train-watchers ﬁnd the local scenery enticing year-round, however.

Two photos, Mat t Donnelly

Trains JULY 2015

A Metro-North commuter train passes the famed Bear Mountain Bridge in October 2013, as seen from the Perkins Memorial Observatory.

• Restored 1910 Pennsylvania Railroad Station and Interlocking Tower • Alongside Amtrak/MARC Rail Lines 8614 Chestnut Avenue, in historic Old Bowie, Maryland. Open Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Free admission.

Groups of 10 or more by appointment at other times. 301-809-3089 • www.cityofbowie.org/museum

PACKAGE 7UDLQV7LFNHW ADVENTURE Ext. 109 Ride Cass Scenic Railroad and the Cheat Mountain Salamander - all in One Trip!

We’ve saved a

SPOT

for you.

Bring this ad to the visitors center in Douglas, Wyoming, to receive your free limited edition coin!

CONVERSECOUNTYTOURISM.COM 877.937.4996 ~ 307.358.2950

Experience an original early 1900s steam-driven Shay and a 1940s dieselpowered locomotive while viewing the most remote and mountainous region of the Mountain State! On-board food service included in ticket price. Departs Elkins and Cass - May thru October! Overnight Lodging, Dining, Attraction & Entertainment Options available at both Destinations. All Trains Operated by the Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad

0RXQWDLQ5DLO6SHFLDO(YHQW

The Great WV Train Race July 18 & 19 Watch Steam and Diesel vie for the position of “Most Powerful Mountain Climbing” train in West Virginia! Picnic and live entertainment.

R E S E RVAT I O N S

866-779-4828 0WQ5DLOFRP www.TrainsMag.com

63

this

Douglas Railroad Museum

Bowie Train Station Museum

Ride train!

&

DOUGLAS GLENROCK

:25/'·6 /$5*(6702'(/ 75$,1',63/$<

$PHULFD·V0RVW $PD]LQJ)DPLO\ $WWUDFWLRQ

64)7

www.nprailfest.com

SEPTEMBER 18–20, 2015

7UDLQ-RXUQH\ ,PDJLQDWLRQ-XQFWLRQ $PHULFDQ5DLOURDG0XVHXP ([SR&HQWHU $0D]H1)XQKRXVH &RQH\,VODQG5HSOLFD ´7UDYHO*HPµ +REE\7R\6KRS $$$ *LIW6KRS 6TXLUH&RXUW :HVW&KHVWHU2+ ²

ZZZ(QWHU7UDLQPHQW-XQFWLRQFRP

Tour the world’s largest rail classification yard! North Platte, Nebraska

v v v v v v

UP Heritage Locomotives Golden Spike Tower & Visitors Center Bus Tours of Bailey Yard Miniature Train Rides Town U il SA a Model Train Show R So Much More!

Join us for three days of everything trains! 308-221-6104

te Lat hP a N o rt sk ra N eb

Ad sponsored in part by a grant from the North Platte/Lincoln County Convention and Visitors Bureau

THE MOUNT WASHINGTON

Monticello Railway Museum Open Weekends May-October Located at I-72 Exit No. 166 Monticello IL Steam Weekends Behind Southern Railway No. 401 July 18-19; August 15-16; October 17-18 Railroad Days – September 19-20 – All-day Ticket Ride Diesel and Steam Passenger and Freight Trains Motorcar Rides – Special Displays – Food Tent Tickets Available On-line at MRYM.org Phone 877-762-9011

A NATIONAL HISTORIC ENGINEERING LANDMARK

byTrain!

Ride the World’s First Mountain Climbing Cog Railway up legendary Mount Washington!

EXPERIENCE old-fashioned

train rides, all departing from our 1874 Victorian station in North Conway Village, NH.

• Only cog railway east of Rockies • Choose steam or biodiesel power for the 3-hr round trip • Now- Enjoy more time at Summit • Museum, giftshop & restaurant

this

Ride train!

Climb the Highest Peak in the Northeast...

800-922-8825• THECOG.COM =OA/P=PEKJ.@ )=NODAH@/P=PEKJ*$ I% BNKI.P ÓDEOPKNE?NAPPKJ3KK@O

64

Trains JULY 2015

EXCURSIONS FROM 1 TO 5 HOURS Coach · First Class · Dining Cars

ConwayScenic.com • 800-232-5251 • 603-356-5251

ASK TRAINS

Q

For years, I’ve wondered how a train turns on a wye. It seems that the crew only has a choice of left or right, heading say, “north.” How does the train end up headed “south” after going through a wye? — Robert A. Steele, Joplin, Mo.

Great question. For starters, a “wye” has a combination of three A track sections connected by three

C

2. Locomotive stops at switch B and throws it to the diverging route if needed, then proceeds to clear switch points.

C

3. Locomotive A

stops at switch C and throws it to the main route if needed, then proceeds to clear switch points.

A

D

4. Switch C is thrown to diverging route and locomotive proceeds to switch A. Switch A is thrown to other route and switch D is thrown to diverging route.

1. Train stops at wye switch A with cars clear of siding, then uncouples locomotive. Switch A is thrown in desired direction if needed. Siding clear zone

E 5. Locomotive proceeds to “run around” the cars and stop at end of siding. Switch E is thrown to diverging route and locomotive proceeds to clear switch.

6. Switch E is

E

thrown to main route and locomotive backs to re-couple with its cars. Train then proceeds in opposite direction. Illustration by Rick Johnson

A wye, or wye track, is an arrangement of tracks and turnouts in the shape of a “Y” or a triangle that enable a railroad to turn locomotives and freight or passenger cars to head in the opposite direction. Railroads have used wyes for more than a century.

Ride train!

New River

Train ®

this

switches. When viewed from above or as a track diagram, the tracks form what looks like a triangle with tails coming out of each corner. Depending on the need and the length of a train, and length of a track available, a locomotive or a portion of a train can be turned on the wye. For simplicity, we diagramed what a turn would look like for an F unit on a local passenger train. Step 1: The crew of a stopped train safely uncouples the locomotive from the train, lines a switch for the wye and moves ahead. Step 2: The crew stops the engine short of the second switch to line it for forward movement; once lined, the crew takes the locomotive through the turnout to beyond the switch. They stop, line the switch to take another tangent and proceed in reverse. Step 3: The crew works the engine and stops short of the third switch, lines it and proceeds in reverse until they’ve cleared the third turnout and stopped. Step 4: The crew lines the third switch, allowing the locomotive to proceed on the third track. The crew continues to the first switch where they line to locomotive to proceed on the original branch line or siding where the train still sits. Step 5: The crew could couple the locomotive onto the train from here, but more often they will run around the train on another siding, lining the switches appropriately at each end until coming out on the original track. Step 6: On the original track, but facing the opposite direction on the other end of the train, the crew will reverse, re-couple the train and proceed. — Steve Sweeney

B

EXCURSIONS EXCURSIONS Since 1966

W

VTO

800

U R ISM.CO

M

- 22 5 - 5 9 8 2

www.TrainsMag.com

65

DIRECTORY OF TOURIST LINES AND RAIL MUSEUMS Step back in time to experience the golden age of railroading. North America’s railroad museums and tourist lines provide affordable fun for the whole family! Plan your complete vacation with visits to these leading attractions. For information on advertising in this section, call Todd Schwartz toll-free at 888-558-1544, Ext 537. CALIFORNIA

Clear Lake/Nice

CABOOSE BED AND BREAKFAST

2870 Lakeshore Blvd., Nice Relax in one of 9 refurbished railroad cabooses decorated with unique themes. Park-like setting on the shore of Clear Lake. Jacuzzi tubs, A/C, all amenities. The perfect retreat for rail fans. Located within an easy drive of the Skunk Train, CA RR Museum and other great rail destinations in wine country.

www.featherbedrailroad.com

1-800-966-6322

CALIFORNIA NAPA VALLEY WINE TRAIN, INC.

Napa

COLORADO Golden COLORADO RAILROAD MUSEUM

ILLINOIS Monticello MONTICELLO RAILWAY MUSEUM

17155 W. 44th Avenue

991 Iron Horse Place — Monticello Illinois 61856

There’s something amazing about trains. The familiar whistle has always promised adventure. Experience it again with a visit to the Colorado Railroad Museum featuring a 15-acre railyard, renowned library, Roundhouse restoration facility and working Turntable. Train Rides Every Saturday. Group rates and programs available. ColoradoRailroadMuseum.org

800-365-6263

COLORADO Leadville LEADVILLE COLORADO & SOUTHERN

Enjoy a comical murder mystery show while our chef prepares your five course dinner with a choice of 3 entrees. The Murder Mystery Dinner Train operates 5 nights a week all year from the Colonial Station (2805 Colonial Blvd, Fort Myers, FL 33966). Get-Away packages with hotel stay available with special pricing available only through Seminole Gulf Railway. www.semgulf.com 800-SEM-GULF (736-4853) Folkston THE INN AT FOLKSTON B&B 3576 Main Street (Formerly 509 West Main Street)

www.santacruzrailway.com

Bed & Breakfast at The Folkston Funnel. A five minute walk to covered train-viewing platform on CSXT’s double-track main line 40 miles N of Jacksonville, FL. Hearty breakfasts, comfortable feather beds. Train watchers weekday specials! New Webcam with CSX Scanner Audio at TrainWatch.com. www.InnAtFolkston.com Toll Free 888-509-6246 GEORGIA Folkston FOLKSTON FUNNEL

888-978-5562

www.whitewatervalleyrr.org

765-825-2054

INDIANA North Judson HOOSIER VALLEY RAILROAD MUSEUM

574-896-3950 Fort Madison

KINGSLEY INN 707 Ave H

Make your Colorado memories on the rails this year! Enjoy standard-gauge comfort and new, scenic dome cars as you roll through dramatic mountain passes, colorful canyons and charming Colorado towns. Lots of wildlife, bring your camera! Close to Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve. Connection with Cumbres & Toltec available. Season runs May-Oct, special events year-round.

877-726-RAIL Your City

Advertise your tourist railroad here! Contact Todd Schwartz at 888-558-1544 Ext. 537

Trains JULY 2015

Travel through time on Indiana’s most scenic railroad. 33-mile round trip to Metamora, May through Oct. Special events Feb through Dec. Vintage diesels: 1951 Lima-Ham 750HP SW, 1954 EMD/Milw. SD10, 1948 Alco S1. Gift Shop.

www.hoosiervalley.org

Rail Watch ~ April 11, 2015

66

5th and Grand

IOWA

610 State Street

YOUR STATE

INDIANA Connersville WHITEWATER VALLEY RAILROAD

507 Mulberry Street From the junction of four former railroads, travel through rural farm country and across the Kankakee River in vintage cabooses or open-air cars. 10- & 20- mile round-trip themed train rides, May –Oct & special events. Family and group rates. Guest Engineer Program. Free admission to the museum. Static displays, operating signals and railroadiana. Open Saturdays year-round, 9-4 central time.

3795 Main Street

COLORADO Alamosa RIO GRANDE SCENIC RAILROAD

www.coloradotrain.com

7000 Olson Road

Home of Nebraska Zephyr. Steam, diesel trains, electric cars. Send $5.00 for 32 page Guide Book; or #10 SASE for color brochure with schedule & discount coupon. Trains operate Sat: May-Oct, Sun: Apr-Oct, Daily: Memorial Day-Labor Day. Museum open Apr-Oct. Lodging: 847-695-7540 and 815-363-6177. www.irm.org 815-923-4000

1-75 exit 136 at Colonial Blvd.

GEORGIA

Union ILLINOIS RAILWAY MUSEUM

2015 Schedule: May 23 – June 12 1:00pm. June 13 – August 16 10:00am & 2:00pm. August 17 – October 4 weekdays 1:00pm, weekends 10:00am & 2:00pm. Spectacular trip travels into the high Rocky Mountains, the railroad follows old C&S roadbed & 1893 restored depot. Family friendly, pets allowed. For more info visit our web site. www.leadville-train.com 1-866-386-3936 FLORIDA Fort Myers SEMINOLE GULF RAILWAY Murder Mystery Dinner Train

The Pacific Coast has long used rails for mining and logging but now passengers can enjoy the serenity of coastal beaches and sunset rides in vintage cars. r%JOJOHDBSTXJUIGSFTISFHJPOBMNFOVT r8JOF5SBJOT r4QFDJBMFWFOUTBOEUIFNFEUSBJOT

www.MRYM.org / 877-762-9011 ILLINOIS

326 East 7th

1275 McKinstry Street

The Napa Valley Wine Train is a fully restored, antique train which runs through the heart of the Napa Valley. Enjoy a freshly prepared meal on board Napa’s most distinctive restaurant. Wine tours, wine tasting, great dining – a fabulous trip into America’s luxurious past. winetrain.com 800-WINETRAIN CALIFORNIA Santa Cruz SANTA CRUZ & MONTEREY BAY RAILWAY

Ride beautifully-restored diesel and steam trains every Saturday and Sunday May thru October. Steam using Southern 2-8-0 No. 401 one weekend every month. Complete schedules and information at MRYM.org. Charter our dining or business cars for your private group. Call us for rates and dates. I-72 at Exit 166. Bus Parking Space - Picnic Grove. Like us on Facebook!

The “Folkston Funnel” is CSXT’s double track line which serves as the main artery for railroad traffic to & from Florida. Visitors can watch upwards of 60 trains a day pass through this charming, southeast Georgia town. The platform is equipped with wifi, scanner, fans & floodlights for night train watching. Diagonally across the street is the restored Train Depot, home of the Train Museum, the “Cookie Williams” Model Train Room, the radio exhibit & museum gift shop. The Depot has a covered pavilion perfect for cookouts. Open areas are perfect for taking pictures or video. If you love trains, you’ll love Folkston. www.folkston.com 912-496-2536 GEORGIA Homeland OKEFENOKEE RV PARK 252 Bowery Lane

Located in the heart of train country in the Folkston Funnel. Watch the trains go by from your campsite. Beautiful sunsets. The perfect spot for camping rail fans. Open year round. Full hookup sites. $20 a night. Special weekly and monthly rates. Find us on facebook @ Okefenokee RV Park.

[email protected]

912-496-2220

Luxurious antique decor & Victorian ambiance. Gorgeous, front row views of the BNSF tracks, Mississippi River, and restored Rail Depot and palisade old Fort Madison. Near SantaFe swing span bridge. Rail Fan packages with some meals included. Onsite restaurant and lounge. Event space available. Come make some memories. www.kingsleyinn.com 319-372-8747 [email protected]

KANSAS Abilene ABILENE & SMOKY VALLEY RAILROAD 200 SE Fifth Street

Ride the Rails of History. 11 mile round trip through the Smoky Hill River Valley. Also offering dinner trains, steam engine runs on the newly restored #3415 & private charters. Call for schedules & reservations. www.asvrr.org 888-426-6687

Subscribe to magazine! Call 800-533-6644 or visit TrainsMag.com today!

KENTUCKY New Haven KENTUCKY RAILWAY MUSEUM

MONTANA

Essex (Glacier Nat. Pk) IZAAK WALTON INN

OHIO Bellevue MAD RIVER & NKP RAILROAD SOCIETY

290 Izaak Walton Inn Rd.

136 S. Main St.

233 York Street

Open daily 12 – 4pm Memorial Day through Labor Day – weekends only May, Sept. and Oct. Visit our web site. www.madrivermuseum.org

419-483-2222

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City OKLAHOMA RAILWAY MUSEUM 3400 NE Grand Blvd

All Aboard !

Small town America at its best... Journey on a 22 mile train excursion through the Rolling Fork River Valley. Slow down and discover the joy of traveling by train. Stroll through the museum and outdoor displays. The gift store has everything for the train enthusiast. Special events include: Day Out With Thomas, Train Robberies, Mystery Trains, Dining Trains, Santa Trains and much more!

Trackside Glacier Park vacations in cozy cabooses or nostalgic rooms in our historic GN-built hotel on BNSF’s main line. Trestles, snowsheds, tunnels, Essex helper station. Dining Car Restaurant. Flagstop Bar. Amtrak stop. Open year round. New GN441 Luxury Locomotive Lodging.

Open Thur., Fri., Sat., 9:00-4:30. Rides on 1st & 3rd Sat. April to last Sat. in August. Trains leave the museum’s Oakwood Depot at 9:15, 11:15, 1:15 & 3:15 for a 40 min. round trip on former M-K-T mainline in Okla. City. For info, birthday parties & other functions give us a call or visit our web site

www.kyrail.org

www.izaakwaltoninn.com

www.oklahomarailwaymuseum.org

800-272-0152

KENTUCKY Versailles BLUEGRASS SCENIC RAILROAD AND MUSEUM

~ Celebrating 75 Years ~

406-888-5700

Come for a ride on our historic railroad

405-424-8222

NEBRASKA North Platte GOLDEN SPIKE TOWER & VISITOR CENTER

OREGON Garibaldi OREGON COAST SCENIC RAILROAD

1249 N Homestead Rd

402 S. American Way

175 Beasley Road

90-minute train rides through Thoroughbred horse country.

Central

Kentucky

Weekends May through October. www.BluegrassRailroad.com

800-755-2478

MARYLAND Baltimore BALTIMORE STREETCAR MUSEUM Excursions with a Heisler or an Alco 2-6-2 steam locomotive along Tillamook Bay. Regular excursions from May 16th through September 27th. Daily service June 20th through September 7th. Dinner Trains, Firework Spectacular, Fall Splendor, Salmonberry Excursions, and Candy Cane Express as well.

1901 Falls Road

www.oregoncoastscenic.org

Ride original Baltimore streetcars on a 1-1/4-mile round trip. Enjoy displays, tours, museum store. Sundays yearround; Saturdays & Sundays, June-October. Noon-5 p.m. Send long SASE for brochure. www.baltimorestreetcar.org

410-547-0264

Eight story tower offering a panoramic view of the Union Pacific’s Bailey Yard, the world’s largest classification yard. Thousands of railcars every day! Located minutes off of I-80 and Hwy 83 Hours: Open 9am-7pm daily Twilight Tours (open past sunset) the 3rd Saturday of each month www.goldenspiketower.com 308-532-9920

MASSACHUSETTS Hyannis CAPE COD CENTRAL RAILROAD

NEW YORK Catskill Mountains Delaware & Ulster Railroad

252 Main Street

43510 State Hwy 28, Arkville, NY 12406

OREGON

MOUNT HOOD RAILROAD

Ride the rails to

increased sales

Journey through the lush green forests of Columbia River Gorge to the valley’s fertile vineyards and orchards overlooked by the striking snow capped peak of Mt. Hood. r4QSJOH#MPTTPNTBOE'BMM'PMJBHFFYDVSTJPOT r4VOEBZ#SVODIBOE8FTUFSO5SBJO3PCCFSJFT r.VSEFS.ZTUFSJFTBOE.VTJDBM5SJCVUF"SUJTUT 800-872-4661

OREGON EAGLE CAP EXCURSION TRAIN

Elgin

300 Depot Street

Scenic excursions through New York’s legendary Catskill Mountains. Train Robberies - Twilight Excursions - First class meal service aboard The Rip Van Winkle Flyer for groups and individuals. www.durr.org

845-586-3877

NEW YORK Saratoga Springs SARATOGA & NORTH CREEK RAILWAY 26 Station Lane

Go where no car can take you! Follow the shores of the beautiful Grande Ronde and Wallowa Rivers in Northeast Oregon. Trips include lunch or dinner. Choose the Mystery Train, mounted bandits, hatchery tour or photo workshop.

with a Tourist Directory ad in Call Todd Schwartz today! 888-558-1544 Ext. 537

Hood River

110 Railroad Avenue

www.mthoodrr.com Travel to the hidden beauty of the Cape through marshes and dunes alive with sea birds where just around the bend the views offer glimpses of the open sea bay and picturesque island villages. r#SVODIBOE%JOOFS5SBJOT r.VSEFS.ZTUFSJFT r)PMJEBZUIFNFUSBJOT www.capetrain.com 888-797-RAIL

503-842-7972

www.eaglecaptrainrides.com

The Adirondacks offer four seasons of beauty best seen along breathtaking waterway vistas in heritage cars with exceptional service and classic rail dining. r'BMM'PMJBHFSJEFT r4OPX5SBJOUPXJOUFSSFTPSUT r)PMJEBZUIFNFUSBJOT www.SNCRR.com

877-726-7245

800-323-7330

GET MORE of what you love with

TrainsMag.com www.TrainsMag.com

67

PENNSYLVANIA Marysville Bridgeview Bed & Breakfast

TEXAS

Grapevine GRAPEVINE VINTAGE RAILROAD

810 S. Main St.

705 S. Main St.

Lately, train watching around The Bridgeview B&B has been extremely exciting with motive power from BNSF, UP, KCS, CP, CN, CSX and Ferromex often leading, plus add NS heritage units into the mix and you have some amazing lashup possibilities! Trains entering or exiting Enola Yard pass right by our front porch. From the spacious decks and sitting room, you can watch the Susquehanna River, Blue Mountains and train action on Rockville Bridge! Plus, visit Hershey, Gettysburg, and PA Dutch Country! Comfortable rooms all with private baths, A/C, Wifi, and a tasty breakfast are included with your stay. Take a virtual tour on our website and check us out on Facebook for daily updates, pictures and guest comments. www.bridgeviewbnb.com 717-957-2438

Step back in time aboard the Grapevine Vintage Railroad! Featuring four enclosed circa 1925 passenger coaches, two circa 1927 open-air coaches, Engine 2248 – an 1896 steam engine - and a 1953 GP-7 diesel engine, this train is the perfect excursion for the entire family. Hop aboard for round trips from Grapevine’s Cotton Belt Railroad Depot to Fort Worth’s Historic Stockyards, as well as a series of special events throughout the year.

PENNSYLVANIA

TEXAS

Robertsdale

FRIENDS OF THE EAST BROAD TOP 550 Main Street

WISCONSIN North Freedom MID-CONTINENT RAILWAY MUSEUM E8948 Museum Road

817-410-3185

Take a 55-minute, 7-mile round-trip ride over a former C&NW branchline. Ride in the coaches, caboose, or join the engineer in the locomotive. Mid-Continent’s collection of locomotives, rolling stock, and displays focuses on Upper Midwestern railroads from 1880-1916. Trains operate weekends May 9-June 7 & Aug. 29-Oct. 18 and daily June 8-Aug. 28. Three departures per day. Additional departures and ticket options offered during special event weekends. www.midcontinent.org 800-930-1385

Rusk & Palestine TEXAS STATE RAILROAD

WISCONSIN Spooner RAILROAD MEMORIES MUSEUM

www.gvrr.com

PO Box 166

Front and Walnut Streets, downtown Spooner

Visit the East Broad Top Railroad’s original southern operating terminus. Museum open first and third weekends, May through September, 10-5 Saturdays and 1-4 Sundays. Special hours in October. www.febt.org SOUTH CAROLINA

814-635-2388 Abbeville - Greenwood

TAKE THE RIGHT TRACK AND SEE OUR TRAIN TREASURES!

Dubbed a “Texas Treasure”, these historic rails travel through rolling hills and piney woods with wildlife sightings while sampling the service of true southern hospitality. r-VODIBOE%JOOFS5SBJOT r)PMJEBZUIFNFUSBJOT r'VMMDBNQHSPVOEGBDJMJUJFT

www.texasstaterr.com

877-726-7245

WASHINGTON Chehalis CHEHALIS CENTRALIA RAILROAD & MUSEUM 1101 SW Sylvenus Street

Spend an hour or a day... Explore an outstanding 13 room collection of historic documents, photos, railroad equipment and other memorabilia covering every aspect of railroading. Open: Memorial Day through Labor Day, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., 7 days a week. Memberships available. Handicap Accessible. Ample parking. Arrangements can be made for special tours by calling ahead. In 1902 Omaha/CNW Depot, downtown Spooner with an excellent selection of shops, restaurants, motels, and other attractions nearby. Mailing address: N8425 Island Lake Road, Spooner WI 54801-7834. GPS address: 424 N. Front Street, Spooner, WI 54801. www.railroadmemoriesmuseumspooner.org 715-635-2752 or 715-635-3325

• The Railroad Museum, 908 S. Main St., Greenwood, SC — an exhibit of railroad history, a gift shop and seven historic railroad cars • Seaboard Caboose No. 5759, McGowan-BarksdaleBundy House, 305 N. Main St., Abbeville, SC — a restored Seaboard Railroad caboose highlighting the railroad era at the headquarters of the Abbeville County Historical Society discoversc.net

1-800-849-9633

TEXAS Cedar Park AUSTIN STEAM TRAIN ASSOCIATION 401 E. Whitestone Blvd, Suite C-100

Hop on the Austin Steam Train Association and enjoy a scenic trip through the Texas Hill Country during your next visit to Cedar Park, Texas.

Steam Train Rides in 1920’s coaches pulled by a 1916 Steam Locomotive. May 23rd thru August 30th weekends and September 5th thru September 26th - Saturdays only. For special events and more information visit our website. www.steamtrainride.com

Take a trip back in time and experience the travel of yesteryear.

www.AustinSteamTrain.org

Route 52 (Between Eckman & Kimball)

(512) 477-8468

FLATONIA RAIL PARK

Flatonia

As seen on HGTV “Building Character” and “reZONED”! Newly restored “Coal Heritage Trail” Inn on NS Pocahontas railway line in scenic, southern, WV. Railview guest rooms, balcony and patio cafe. Call about our Railfan weekends. 14 guest rooms, claw-foot tubs, fireplace, vintage quilts, art, antiques & gift shop/museum room. Meals available. Sat TV, VCR, slide-viewer, studio & Wi-Fi internet. On Route 52, 30 minutes from Bluefield WV/VA. See our “railfan” pages on our web site. Local phone: 304-862-2031 www.elkhorninnwv.com

Two locations Downtown & at the Interlocker West of Town. Visit historic downtown Flatonia and see SP Tower#3, SP Caboose #4743 and the Rail History Center… filled with artifacts of the SP, T&NO and GH&SA. Photo Pavilion at the Interlocker open 24/7, handicapped accessible. Located on IH-10 between Houston and San Antonio. Flatonia welcomes railfans! www.railcrossroadstx.com [email protected]

68

Trains JULY 2015

121 W. 15th St. Cheyenne, WY 82001

Cheyenne Wyoming is home to the Cheyenne Depot Museum, operating in the historic Union Pacific Cheyenne Depot built in 1887. Cheyenne is home to the Union Pacific Steam program and filled with railroad heritage unlike any other city in the world. Open year round. Mention this ad and receive $1.00 off. CheyenneDepotMuseum.org 307-638-6338

ONTARIO Waterloo WATERLOO CENTRAL RAILWAY 330 Farmers Market Road

360-748-9593

WEST VIRGINIA Landgraff ELKHORN INN & THEATER

Visit www.AustinSteamTrain. org for details. Hop online, then hop aboard!

TEXAS

WYOMING Cheyenne CHEYENNE DEPOT MUSEUM

Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Market Train. With three round trips through the countryside to choose from, the day is up to you. Diesel-hauled train starts at the St. Jacobs Farmers’ Market and continues to the Village of St. Jacobs across the Conestogo River and beyond. Steam-hauled special events. Active restoration shop open for viewing. waterloocentralrailway.com 519-504-0527 WEST INDIES

ST. KITTS SCENIC RAILWAY

St. Kitts

800-708-2040

WISCONSIN Green Bay NATIONAL RAILROAD MUSEUM 2285 S. Broadway

All Aboard! Explore the UP Big Boy, Eisenhower’s WWII command train, the exhibit Pullman Porters: From Service to Civil Rights, and our new exhibit entitled “From Generation to Generation: The Love of Toy Trains”. View the Bauer Drumhead collection – 40 illuminated passenger train tail signs. Open year round. www.nationalrrmuseum.org 920-437-7623

Include St. Kitts in your Eastern Caribbean cruise itinerary. Narrow gauge St. Kitts Scenic Railway Tour circles this unspoiled island paradise, 18 miles by train, 12 miles by bus. Twin- level observation cars, fully narrated, complimentary drinks, a cappella Choir. One of the Great Little Railways of the World. www.stkittsscenicrailway.com (869) 465-7263

CLASSIFIEDS Word Rate: per issue: 1 insertion — $1.57 per word, 6 insertions — $1.47 per word, 12 insertions — $1.37 per word. $25.00 MINIMUM per ad. Payment must accompany ad. To receive the discount you must order and prepay for all ads at one time. Count all initials, single numbers, groups of numbers, names, address number, street number or name, city, state, zip, phone numbers each as one word. Example: Paul P. Potter, 2102 Paciﬁc St., Waukesha, WI 53202 would count as 9 words. All Copy: Set in standard 6 point type. First several words only set in bold face. If possible, ads should be sent typewritten and categorized to ensure accuracy. CLOSING DATES: Aug. closes May 27, Sept. closes June 23, Oct. closes July 22, Nov. closes Aug. 25, Dec. closes Sept. 23. For TRAINS’ private records, please furnish: a telephone number and when using a P.O. Box in your ad, a street address. magazine – Classiﬁed Advertising Send your ads to: 21027 Crossroads Circle, P.O. Box 1612 Waukesha, WI 53187-1612 Toll-free (888) 558-1544 Ext. 815 Fax: (262) 796-0126 E-mail: [email protected]

LODGING CABIN BY THE TRACKS, COLORADO ROCKIES, U.P. (D&RGW) MAINLINE. In foothills west of Denver. Railroad fan heaven. 303-233-9655. [email protected], www.coloradorailroadvacation.com WISCONSIN, FERRYVILLE - Custom built two-bedroom luxury vacation home along scenic Mississippi River and BNSF Railroad. www.153main.com 608-317-1530. WWW.MANASSASJUNCTION.COM Trackside lodging in luxurious Victorian B&B. View Amtrak Crescent, Norfolk & Southern and VRE Commuter from dining room or along tracks. 10 minute walk to board train at Historic Manassas, Virginia Depot. 703-216-7803. WWW.STATIONINNPA.COM Listen to active scanner transmissions and view passing trains on our website. The Station Inn, 814-886-4757, A Better Way to Railfan.

BOOKS AND MAGAZINES BACK ISSUES- Over 300 rail magazine titles and 1000’s of used/out of print rail books. Large, stamped SAE for list: Railpub, 161 Gilmore Rd., Wrentham, MA 02093. Or on-line at: www.railpub.com. GET A FREE COPY OF POWERSHIPS the ultimate source for stories about powered ships and their history. This prestigious magazine is published by Steamship Historical Society of America, the nation’s oldest ship history organization. Get a FREE copy and learn how you can subscribe. Email: [email protected], Visit: www.powerships.org or Call 401-463-3570.

COLLECTIBLES RAILROADIANA FOR SALE: Rare and diverse offering of railroad china, silver, lanterns, globes, brass locks, keys and miscellaneous for sale. Continuously offering service plates. George Washington china and unknown top-marked patterns. Send $2 and LSSAE for unique listing to Golden Spike Enterprises, PO Box 985, Land O Lakes, FL 34639.

PHOTOS, PRINTS AND SLIDES $1.00 ORIGINAL KODACHROME SLIDE list or order direct: www.bensonrailphotos.com Now offering prints, topdollar for slide collections. John C., Benson Slides, P.O. Box 18625, Cleveland Heights, OH 44118.

WANTED ARE YOU GETTING THE BEST PRICE FOR YOUR TRAIN COLLECTION? Our list of discriminating buyers grows each day. They want bigger and better train collections to choose from! We specialize in O Gauge trains- Lionel, MTH, K-Line, Williams, Weaver, 3rd Rail, etc. as well as better trains in all scales. We also purchase store inventories. Plus, we can auction your trains with rates starting as low as 15%. We travel extensively all over the US. Give us a call today! Send us your list or contact us for more information at www.trainz.com/sell Trainz, 2740 Faith Industrial Dr., Buford, GA 30518, 866-285-5840, [email protected] Fax: 866-935-9504 OLD RAILROAD ITEMS WANTED: lanterns, locks, badges, keys, tags, sealers, builder plates, china, signs, RR paper, etc. 916-663-2463. ORIGINAL SLIDE COLLECTIONS PURCHASED. Any railroad or railroad subjects. Call 908-755-5454. WANTING TO BUY 1947 FREEDOM TRAIN Collections, photos, scrapbooks, pins, footage and pennants, slides, toys. G.R. Barker, 2191 Cook Rd., Ballston Lake, NY 12019 or E-mail: [email protected]

RAIL SHOWS AND EVENTS JUNE 14, 2015: 38th Annual Kane County Railroadiana and Model Train Show. Kane County Fairgrounds 525 South Randall Road, St. Charles, IL. Sunday, 10:00am-3:00pm Admission: $6.00 w/tax. Tables $60.00. Information: 847358-1185, [email protected] or www.RRShows.com JULY 11, 2015: 52nd Florida Railfair (Model Train and Railroad Artifact Show). The Volusia County Fairgrounds (Tommy Lawrence Arena), Deland, Florida (SR 44 and I-4). Saturday 9:00am-4:00pm. Early admission available Friday PM (10th). Over 300 tables of model trains and railroad artifacts for sale. Miller, 3106 N. Rochester St., Arlington, VA 22213. 703-536-2954. Local 386-736-8185. E-mail: [email protected] or gserr.com JULY 18, 2015: Rail Fair, Copeland Park, Rose & Clinton Streets, La Crosse, WI. 10:00am-4:00pm. Admission $5.00 adults, under 12 free. Railroad Show, Sale & Exhibition, 608-781-9383. JULY 25-26, 2015: European Train Enthusiasts (http://www.ete.org) EUROWEST at Hiller Aviation Museum, San Carlos Airport, 601 Skyway Rd., San Carlos, CA 94070. Layouts, clinics, vendors, raffle. Admission (http://www.hiller.org) includes Air Museum, free parking. Sat. 10-5; Sun 10-4. Contact Jens Ullmann: [email protected]

AUCTIONS AMERICA’S PREMIER RAILROAD AUCTIONS: Consign your quality items. One piece to an entire collection. Large 8-1/2 X 11” auction catalogs contain full descriptions and hundreds of photographs. Auctions are jointly sponsored by the Depot Attic and Golden Spike Enterprises. The combined knowledge and experience of America’s largest railroadiana firms will earn you “top dollar”. Mail and fax bids are accepted. Information: Railroad Auction, PO Box 985, Land O Lakes, FL 34639. Phone: 813-949-7197.

ADVERTISERS The Advertiser Index is provided as a service to TRAINS magazine readers. The magazine is not responsible for omissions or for typographical errors in names or page numbers.

A & R Productions ...................................... 13 Big South Fork Scenic Railway .................... 61 Bowie Railway Station Museum ...................63 Brookville Equipment Corp. ...........................5 C R Scholes ............................................... 13 Conway Scenic Railroad ..............................64 Douglas Area Chamb of Commerce .............63 Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad .............63 EnterTRAINment Junction............................64 Four Ways West .......................................... 13 Greg Scholl Video Productions .................... 13 Herron Rail Video ........................................ 13 Knoxville Locomotive Works........................ 74 Modoc Railroad Academy ........................... 19 Monticello Railway Museum.........................64 Morning Sun Books, Inc. ...............................7 Mount Washington Cog Railway ...................64 MTU ........................................................... 74 New River Train Excursions .........................65 North Shore Scenic Railroad ....................... 61 North Texas Chapter NRHS, Inc................... 21 Ohio Locomotive Works .............................. 11 Only The Best Books, LLC........................... 13 Penn State Altoona .......................................9 Plasser American Corporation ......................2 Protectowire .............................................. 15 Radio Hospital ............................................ 21 Rail Fest .....................................................64 Railcom ...................................................... 13 railroadbooks.biz ........................................ 13 Railway & Locomotive Historical Society ..... 21 Ron’s Books ............................................... 19 Signature Press .......................................... 19 Society of International Railway Travelers .... 19 Tom E. Dailey Foundation, Inc. .................... 13 Trains 75th Anniversary Event ..................... 17 Trains magazine ......................................... 17 TTX Company...............................................7 Union Paciﬁc Historical Society .....................7 Western-Cullen-Hayes, Inc. .......................... 11 Whitewater Valley Railroad .......................... 61

AUGUST ’15 Special report: One-man crews, opportunity or disaster? Norfolk & Western No. 611 roars back to life on the main line Death of a tower: CSX’s Fostoria reaches the end. The latest tower count nationwide Streetcar named high tech: Exclusive staff report from the Middle East Plus: To B unit or not to B unit, that is the question Take a ride on the ‘Empire Builder’ Visit a California hot spot Latest news from the Wheel Rail Interaction conference Plus: Fred W. Frailey, Don Phillips, gallery, and much more!

On sale July 14, 2015 www.TrainsMag.com

69

Gallery Surf’s up on the Scenic Sub Waves splash along the shore of Puget Sound as Amtrak Cascades train No. 513, led by P42DC No. 196, heads south on BNSF Railway’s Scenic Subdivision at Edmonds, Wash., on Nov. 29, 2014. — Photo by Andrew Kim

Sunset freight action As the sun starts to dip behind the surrounding hills at Glen Lyn, Va., an eastbound Norfolk Southern Railway auto-rack train squeals through tight twists and turns along the former Norfolk & Western Railway line on April 30, 2013. — Photo by Samuel Phillips

Country route CSX Transportation train Q166 passes wheat and cornﬁelds at Altenwald, Pa., on its journey north to the terminal in Chambersburg, Pa., on June 17, 2011. — Photo by Jonathan Wright

>> Want more photos? 72

Trains JULY 2015

Check out the “Photo of the Day.” Go to www.TrainsMag.com

Spectacular view The passengers on Hellenic Railways Organization train No. 302 to Kalamata, Greece, led by Alco DL537 No. A9105, enjoy a brief but breathtaking look down into the Corinth Canal on July 25, 1997. A ship navigates the narrow canal below. — Photo by Rolf Stumpf