Trains Magazine 2015-08

ANOTHER TOWER FALLS: WHAT’S STILL STANDING

p. 48

www.TrainsMag.com • August 2015

THE magazine of railroading

Would PTC, video have prevented this? p. 6

ONE MAN CREWS Good idea or disaster? p. 22

611 roars back p. 38

PLUS

Streetcar named high tech p. 32 To B unit or not to B unit p. 16 BONUS ONLINE CONTENT CODE PG. 3

august 2015

Online Content Code: TRN1508 Enter this code at: www.TrainsMag.com/code to gain access to web-exclusive content

vol. 75, no. 8 news and features

FEATURES COVER STORY >>

22

Last man standing? Railroads, labor at odds over value and safety of one-person crews Justin Franz

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32

Streetcar named high tech Alstom ratchets up on tech and styling in Dubai’s new tram Steve Sweeney

48

F Tower finale Technology comes full circle at Ohio’s premier train-watching spot Brian Schmidt

38

611 reborn The Queen of Steam returns home to begin a third career Jim Wrinn

54

Three weeks gone in three minutes A CSX train with Union Pacific power blasted through the crossing at Perry, Ohio Robert S. Butler

46

Weathering the storm

of TRAINS Express downloadable PDF packages of past stories for $5.95 each

These are trying times for the Albany & Eastern Railroad’s Mill City local Scott Lothes

56

In My Own Words: Unexpected consequences

Ohio photos >> View more photos of

An office employee no longer feels protected Brian Buchanan

Fostoria’s nonstop rail action

<< ON THE COVER Terry Respondek prepares two

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locomotives for duty. Drew Halverson photo; Inset: Emergency

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personnel at scene of Amtrak wreck. AP Photo/Joseph Kaczmarek

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DEPARTMENTS 4 5 58 60 64 70 6 Would PTC, video have prevented this? 16 To B unit or not to B unit 22 One-man crews

32 Streetcar named high tech 38 No. 611 roars back 48 Another tower falls

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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.

FROM THE EDITOR EDITOR

Angela Pusztai-Pasternak

PRODUCTION EDITOR

JIM WRINN

Not the time for one-man crews The pros and cons of train crew sizes have been under debate for years, and on pages 22-31, author Justin Franz does a great job of explaining this issue. At this point, there only seems to be one answer. We need two people in the locomotive cab of most big, through freights .

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

Scott Krall

Drew Halverson Rick Johnson

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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

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CUSTOMER SERVICE

Why, in an age of alerters, inwardfacing cameras, and soon, positive train control, do we need two people in the cab? With technology, Air Force personnel fly drones thousands of miles away in the Middle East from stations in Southern California. Do we even need one person on a train? Couldn’t railroads automate trains and put the crews in a warehouse in Fort Worth, from which to run the freights across Arizona and New Mexico? We believe that railroading is a safe industry, but one that carries with it significant risk on a daily basis. Advancing technology is good, but we also recognize that it does not and cannot cover every eventuality that train crews will face in the field. Two alert, fast-thinking men or women railroaders who can back each other up in case of emergency makes more sense than one person and one computer, one person and a dispatcher at the end of a radio, or one person and a master conductor in an SUV down the road. As one observer pointed out in the case of the CSX Transportation derailment in

West Virginia earlier this year, the conductor and engineer responded quickly in an inaccessible area, uncoupling the locomotives and moving to safety. That is impossible to do with one person in the cab. The railroad industry is under serious pressure to do more about crude-oil-train safety, and that, coupled with the horrible wreck of Amtrak No. 188 (see pages 6-8), underscores the need to make the safety of train crews and the public the top priority. If American railroads want to get serious about one-person crews, they need to resolve nagging safety issues first. Years ago, I was taught that if you were on the left side of the cab, you were the eyes and ears of the engineer on that side of the train. It is still true. One person cannot see it all. Long ago, trains ran with crews of four and five people. Today, two is the norm. Let’s not go to one.

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A westbound Canadian Pacific train hauling empty oil tank cars crosses the Menomonee River in Wauwatosa, Wis. Are we better off with one or two people in the cab? TR A I NS : Jim Wrinn

4

Trains AUGUST 2015

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THE magazine of railroading

FRA, states clash on passenger trains

ON NORFOLK SOUTHERN

All tracks lead to Harrisburg A Norfolk Southern intermodal train on Rockville Bridge.

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>> CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATION April 2015: Page 18: The paint supplier that General Electric used at its Erie, Pa., and Fort Worth, Texas, plants was incorrect. GE uses Strathmore paint. Page 56: The type of mill in Johnstown, Pa., was misstated. It is the Gautier Steel 12-inch mill. Page 64: One of the railroad owners’ names was incorrect. BNSF Railway, Union Pacific, and Canadian National own St. Charles Air Line.

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NEWS&PHOTOS

ACS-64 locomotive

Business-class car

1 2 Amfleet coach

Amfleet coach

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5

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4 6

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7 Amfleet coach

This scene from the following day shows the seven-car train strewn through the curve at Frankford Junction.

Associated Press

>> EXCLUSIVE REPORT

Train 188 survivor: ‘I’m grateful’ Firsthand account shows how people worked together after May passenger train derailment I’m lucky. I’m grateful. I survived a train derailment. The ride on Amtrak Northeast Regional train No. 188 from Washington to New York City on May 12 started like any other ride. I took an empty seat near the back of the third car, I decided to sit on the west side of the train car so that I could watch the sunset. By the time we left Philadelphia I was just reading Twitter and trying to figure out if my favorite sushi parlor would still be open when I got home to the Upper East Side of Manhattan. At 9:21 p.m., it happened. The first of three distinctive memories: My body lurched forward. The car began to tilt to the right. I was fully aware that this was a derailment in progress and it was going to be bad. People began to scream. Those screams turned to the sound of screeching metal on rocks. I flew up and over the seats, halfway down the car. Then we stopped. The sound stopped. The second distinctive memory: I’m alive. I’m actually still alive. I’m on my back, 6

Trains AUGUST 2015

my head doesn’t hurt, and neither do my limbs. I survived. And then the sound of screams began again. I stood up and found that I had landed on my back in the luggage rack. A woman yelled from the front of the car, “Everyone, let’s get up and get out of here!” She had her wits about her and snapped me out of my shock. I saw a man lying at my feet and I helped him up. He said, “Am I okay?” The huge gashes on his face and head were already bleeding. I said, “Yeah, man, you’re fine. Let’s get out of here.” I yelled for anyone who still had a phone to turn on the flashlight. It was pitch black. Someone near me found the emergency exit window above us, but couldn’t reach to get it open. I climbed up the broken seats and figured out the mechanism. The broken seats worked pretty well as a ladder system. I found myself in a great position to pull people up and push them through the window. The first person that I lifted up was a young woman. After she got out of the car, she stood up, lifted her arms, and screamed

“Woohoo!” I couldn’t believe it and laughed a little. A woman with an injured arm was afraid she couldn’t climb out. “I can’t do this, I can’t do this!” she said. Everyone came together and encouraged her, “Yes you can. You’re going to do this!” Together we pushed her out as a team. After five or so people went through the exit, somebody outside reported seeing flames. Smoke was clearly filling the car. I didn’t want to die in that train. I monitored the amount of smoke. It was mostly burning rubber and I considered it manageable. Eventually everybody in our area, perhaps 25 people, had been pushed through that window. I went back down into the third car and tried to find more people and didn’t see anyone. I climbed toward the back of the car to see if I could easily find my bag to no avail. I was the last one out of that car. The third distinctive memory: I sat on the emergency window ledge, probably for only 10 seconds, but it felt like 10 minutes in my mind. I looked at the scene and >> Get the latest news updates on TRAINS News Wire. Visit: www.TrainsMag.com

Amtrak in Philadelphia

PTA SE

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Sc hu ylk ill Ri ve r

To Chestnut Hill

Amtrak reaffirms late 2015 PTC completion date

To New York

North Philadelphia station

Derailment site

ACSES to roll out over Northeast Corridor in phases

Conrail

Frankford Junction

P E N N S Y LVA N I A 30th Street Station

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Philadelphia 0

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4 miles

To Atlantic City, N.J.

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

took it all in. Two helicopters circled overhead. There were live wires, strewn metal, and glass everywhere. The completely twisted piece of metal to my right turned out to be the business-class car. It was a complete disaster area. I thought how lucky I was to be alive; it was clear that people had died in this crash. The firefighters helped me off the car by a ladder near the back wheel truck. I walked up to the tracks and found a guy with a phone. It was 9:40 p.m. — 17 minutes after the derailment. I called the only number I knew, my girlfriend’s, and left a message. I called back 30 seconds later and she picked up. She couldn’t believe what I was saying. I hung up and went back to the train cars to

Fast facts: • Amtrak Northeast Regional train No. 188 derailed at 9:21 p.m. on May 12 in Philadelphia. • The derailment occurred at Milepost 81.62 on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. • The train entered a 50-mph curve at 106 mph when the engineer made an emergency brake application. • There were 250 passengers and eight crew members on board. • More than 200 on board were injured; eight were killed. • The train consisted of one ACS-64 locomotive and seven Amfleet cars. • The derailment caused more than $9.2 million in damage.

help people walk to the triage area. After guiding a few people to the triage area, there was a call for able-bodied people to lift metal off a man under the debris near the remains of the first car. I saw he had an Amtrak ID card. He was sitting outside of the train car with his legs under metal, mumbling in pain, clearly in shock. Some guys were lifting up the metal, while others pulled him out from underneath the debris. My back pain suddenly became apparent. I was done. I walked back over to the survivor area and stood around to be processed. I was given a green number three, perhaps the luckiest number. People standing around were generally quiet, in pain, scared, and shocked. I made a few passing comments to people to distract myself from my own pain. I tried to let others take the ambulances first because my pain was manageable, but eventually the pain was overwhelming. I took the next available trip to the hospital, not in an ambulance but in a police wagon. When we finally got to the hospital, I was checked in at 10:55 p.m. — an hour and a half after the derailment. After being examined, I was discharged at 12:04 a.m. with blunt force trauma and chest contusions. I was able to arrange a ride to my girlfriend’s sister’s house in New Jersey. The next day my employer arranged a car service to take me back to New York City, and I spent the rest of the day updating people that I was alive and safe. I’m lucky. I’m grateful. I survived a train derailment. — W Vallen Graham, 36, is a biomedical research scientist from New York

Amtrak’s positive train control system, known as ACSES, or Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement System, is already in operation on portions of the Northeast Corridor. It is the only PTC system fully approved by the Federal Railroad Administration, and has been in continuous successful operation since 2000. It fully satisfies the three basic requirements of PTC: positive stop enforcement; speed enforcement on curves, bridges, and congested areas; and enforcement of temporary speed restrictions in work areas. At the time of the electrification and total upgrade of the Boston-to-New Haven, Conn., portion of the Corridor in preparation for the high-speed Acela Express service, Amtrak’s existing train control system was deemed impractical for speeds greater than 125 mph. Therefore, ACSES, which was under development and testing since the early 1990s, was installed over that 156mile portion of the route. The portion of the Corridor between New Haven and New Rochelle, N.Y., is controlled by Metro-North Railroad and does not have ACSES yet. Farther south, there are two areas of the Corridor where long stretches of tangent track can permit speeds of up to 135 mph. Here too, ACSES was required in order to allow such speeds. These sections, about 25 miles each, are located between New Brunswick and Trenton, N.J., and between Wilmington, Del., and Perryville, Md. ACSES depends upon two key infrastructure components for operation: transponders and data communication. The transponders are placed within the gauge of the track at key locations. They tell the locomotive precisely where it is, and they furnish other information regarding upcoming control points and speed restrictions. The data radio communicates continuously with the locomotive and monitors its progress along the system, enforcing speed restrictions for bridges, turnouts, congested areas, and full stops, where required. Until recently, the 220 MHz radio spectrum and radios required for further expansion of the system were unavailable; as of this writing, Amtrak has been able to obtain them, and is proceeding with plans for full activation along the balance of the New York-Washington portion by December 2015. — Al DiCenso, a frequent Trains contributor from Annapolis, Md. www.TrainsMag.com

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Amtrak to install in-cab cameras Inward-facing cameras will be installed on all ACS-64 locomotives before the end of the year Following the fatal wreck on the Northeast Corridor near Philadelphia (see page 6), Amtrak announced in late May it would be installing inward-facing cameras on its entire fleet of ACS-64 electric locomotives before the end of the year. Inwardfacing cameras will also become standard on all new locomotives purchased. “Inward-facing video cameras will help improve safety and serve as a valuable investigation tool,” Amtrak President and CEO Joe Boardman says. Metrolink was the first railroad to install video cameras to keep an eye on train crews. The action followed a fatal wreck in Chatsworth, Calif., in 2008 when an engineer ran a red signal because he was texting. Other freight and passenger railroads have followed in recent years, although labor groups have challenged the installation of in-cab cameras, because they believe it is an invasion of employee privacy. “Engineers and trainmen are being subjected to continual surveillance for up to 12 hours, moving or stopped with no way to ever take a break from that surveillance,” Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen National President Dennis R. Pierce says. The Federal Railroad Administration has come out in support of inward-facing locomotive cab cameras and is finalizing a proposed regulation on their use and installation. — Justin Franz

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Trains AUGUST 2015

Amtrak has painted a second locomotive honoring America’s military veterans: Siemens-built ACS-64 No. 642. The locomotive was released from the company’s Beech Grove, Ind., shop in mid-May. Gar y Pancavage

COMMENTARY

BY DON PHILLIPS

Amtrak 188 wreck leaves questions Where were Amtrak officials? And is the time now ripe for a railroad man in charge? “Neither the President of Amtrak, nor the Vice President of As this is written in late May, it is too early to determine what Operations, nor the head of the Northeast Corridor are expericaused Amtrak train No. 188 to enter a 50-mph curve in North enced railroad operating men. But Wick Moorman is retiring from Philadelphia at 106 mph and turn over. Too many uncertainties reNS and Bob VanderClute just retired from the AAR ... ” main. However, I can make comments, both positive and negative. The next president of Amtrak must be an experienced operating The positives shine with a bright light, led by the investigators at man who also is able to tiptoe through political minefields. He must the National Transportation Safety Board. The negatives are numerous, led by all television reporting, especially the 24-hour news attract experienced operating men to repair the terrible mess at Amtrak’s Washington headquarters. Moorman, NS chairman and CEO, networks. Most newspaper reporting is almost as bad. The major and VanderClute, who was a senior vice presexception is the Wall Street Journal, which ident at the Association of American Railhas done an outstanding job covering the THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF AMTRAK roads, both fit that description. So do two wreck. I’ll get back to this later. other candidates whose names I will not First I want to pass along an email mesMUST BE AN EXPERIENCED mention now. The current Amtrak board sage from the president of a railroad firm. (I OPERATING MAN ... ABLE TO TIPTOE must be eliminated or told to step aside excan’t be more specific without possibly idencept on brief board meeting days. tifying him.) The email popped into my THROUGH POLITICAL MINEFIELDS. On the night of the May 12 wreck, a TV mailbox shortly after the wreck, causing me station went to Amtrak’s headquarters and to ask: Why didn’t I think of that? found the lights off upstairs and downstairs. They waited a long Here is the whole email: “When Metrolink had the wreck that caused PTC [the 2008 collision in Chatsworth, Calif., is considered time, but no one stirred. Top Amtrak officials went nowhere near the wreck site, and no one was around to answer questions, except the catalyst for legislation requiring positive train control], the later by email. Amtrak President Joe Boardman was nowhere to be head of Metrolink stepped down and they appointed John Fenton, found, nor was any other top official. In contrast, after the 1996 an experienced railroad operating man. When Metro-North had Silver Spring, Md., wreck with a commuter train, then-public wrecks, the head stepped down and they appointed Joe Giulietti, relations chief Cliff Black stood at the fountain in front of Union an experienced railroad operating man.

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Station (great for TV shots) to answer all the questions he could, and to explain railroading to young reporters. The week after the latest wreck, I was on several television panels to discuss the incident. I discovered, again, that most “experts” have no idea what they are talking about. I’m not sure how I was included, but I could see two things immediately. First, the questions would be shallow. Second, what I said didn’t matter. I was mainly there to fill a chunk of the 24-hour-news cycle. Nonetheless, I did what I could to add light to the situation. Here’s an example. One panelist was generally OK until his main point: Passenger trains should have seat belts. I almost choked, but kept my cool. I explained why aircraft have seat belts, and why there is no need for them on trains where passenger cars are heavy and rugged. Besides, I said, why would anyone wear them? Would the crew have to enforce the seat-belt rules, and what would the rules be? The other guest acknowledged no one would wear them, but said they should be installed anyway. I gave up. Did he realize the belts would cost a fortune for nothing? It was sad, but it did fill time. Newspapers are generally better than TV, but don’t take anything in a newspaper as fact until you check it out. However, there is one newspaper that has proved it knows what it is talking about, at least on the news pages: the Wall Street Journal. The Journal isn’t just a financial daily. It has an excellent reporting staff. The editorial page is super-conservative, of course, although I find myself reading many of their editorials and agreeing with some of them. They are generally anti-passenger train. You can hold your nose as you go past the editorial page. But the news and financial pages are straightforward and excellent. It’s the first thing I read every morning. I found only a few mistakes during their wreck coverage. Then there is the National Transportation Safety Board. I’ve covered the board for decades, mostly through ups but also

Cassandra Johnson of the National Transportation Safety Board (with backpack) works with officials at the scene of the fatal Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia. National Transpor tation Safet y Board

through a couple of downs. The safety board is independent from any government agency. Congress loves the board and will have the head of anyone who tries to push it around. The board has no direct power over any government agency or any transportation company, but it has tremendous moral suasion. If any agency or company decides to go against the board, it must have a full and believable explanation. 2

Don Phillips, a reporter for more than four decades, writes this exclusive column for TRAINS. Email him at: [email protected]

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The Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad has reached a five-year operating lease agreement extension with the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority. The agreement covers more than 90 miles of track in Lackawanna, Wayne, Monroe, and Northampton counties in northeast Pennsylvania. The extension expires in 2020. The Greenbrier Companies Inc. closed on an acquisition of a 19.5percent ownership stake in AmstedMaxion Hortolandia, a South American railcar manufacturer. The deal is worth about $15 million. Greenbrier has an option to acquire an additional 40.5-percent ownership, to be exercised no later than Sept. 30, 2017.

>> OBITUARIES

Jim Evans Chairman

James H. Evans, 94, former chairman of Union Pacific, died May 11. He served as UP’s chairman of the board from 1977 to 1985. Evans was part of a leadership team that championed merger with both the Missouri Pacific and Western Pacific.

12

Trains AUGUST 2015

Simpson pulls the pin America’s last logging railroad calls it quits in Washington state took down a power line and left more A century-old tradition in the United than 700 local residents in the dark. Even States is coming to a close this summer: so, the red switchers continued to stay The nation’s last logging railroad is calling busy inside the waterfront mill site. it quits. While Simpson has decided to sell the In April, the Simpson Lumber Co. anmill, it plans on retaining the railroad in nounced that it would sell its lumber mill hopes of “repurposing” it. Vice President in Shelton, Wash., to Sierra Pacific Industries, which planned on closing the facility and General Counsel Betsy Stauffer says it is too early to know what might happen in June. Simpson’s railroad, considered by with the tracks, and that the company is many to be the last traditional logging focused on helping the displaced workers. railroad in the U.S., will also be shut City officials say they are looking fordown. About 270 people will lose their ward to working with the company to jobs because of the sale. find a new use for the right-of-way and Decades ago, Simpson’s roster of red are open to everything from creating a diesel switchers hauled logs and lumber trail to running excursions. across the company’s sprawling sysHowever, the locomotives, tem of branches in the woods WASHINGTON rolling stock, and other mesouth and west of the Puget Seattle Shelton chanical equipment in the mill Sound. By the 2000s, only 10 will be included in the sale to miles remained, connecting Sierra Pacific. Shelton with Mill 5. In recent Some in the railroad preservation years, logs were floated to Shelton community are hopeful that they will be and moved by rail to the inland mill able to save some of the soon-to-be-rewhere they were made into lumber. Simptired equipment in Shelton. Stathi Pappas, son stopped running trains on its main curator of collections at the Northwest line in December 2013 when an accident

Simpson SW1200 No. 1201 leads a loaded log train west of Shelton, Wash., on Sept. 16, 2013. Justin Franz

Railway Museum in Snoqualmie, Wash., says the museum is looking at acquiring some of the Simpson equipment. The equipment would help tell the story of logging railroads in the post-steam era. “Logging railroads didn’t end in the 1960s; they didn’t end with the steam era,” Pappas says. “The Simpson of today shares a lot of the same DNA with the logging railroads of the 1920s and 1930s. It was an unbroken link to the past.” The closure of the Simpson operation leaves just one traditional logging railroad in North America: Western Forest Product Co.’s Englewood Railway in British Columbia. — Justin Franz

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13

COMMENTARY

BY FRED W. FRAILEY

All the places we’ve gone together Never underestimate the power of curiosity. It took me a long way in this magazine My first story for Trains, published in 1979, was about my It startled me to realize the other day that I’ve been writing hometown railroad, Kansas City Southern. I knew everything for Trains for 36 years, more than half my life. That’s a long time about my little piece of it, the downtrodden Texas Subdivision, to do anything. How many people sustain a professional relationfrom Shreveport, La., to the fringes of Dallas. But I knew next to ship 36 years? I keep at it because there is so much to be gained, nothing about the rest of KCS, from Kansas City, Mo., to New Orand I don’t mean money. I’ll be explicit: I get to experience railleans. I didn’t know Bill Deramus III, the tough-as-leather presiroading in a way most of you would love to, if only you could. You dent of the railroad during the 1960s and 1970s — but I wanted to. cannot ride the locomotive. You cannot sit in the left-hand seat of I wanted to know why KCS had fallen upon such hard times by the an Acela power car doing 135 mph as its headlight jabs into the 1970s, almost tipping over. I wanted to night outside. You cannot tour the secret, know how it was progressing on the long nonpublic areas of New York’s Penn Station. I SELDOM UNDERTAKE A STORY road back. I wanted to see with my own eyes You cannot have an hour’s uninterrupted every last damn foot of Kansas City Southconversation with the chief executive of UNLESS IT PERMITS ME TO DO ern, still just names in a timetable to me. your favorite railroad. You cannot casually SOMETHING I WOULD OTHERWISE And I did those things because Trains walk across the floor of a locomotive factory. commissioned me to write a story — as simYou cannot go inside the car shop where 60NEVER, EVER BE ALLOWED TO DO. ple as that. Paid to have fun! I sat down with and 90-year-old Pullmans are being restored Deramus and his successor as KCS presito as-new condition. But I’ve done all these dent, Tom Carter (still my friend, I should add). Deramus, thought things and many more, and shared those experiences with you. to be haughty, was anything but, even allowing me to photograph And I still totter on. him smiling in his office, wearing his trademark hat. Both he and Here’s a confession: I seldom undertake a story unless it permits me to do something I would otherwise never, ever be allowed Carter spoke frankly to me, a stranger, about what had happened. Yes, I saw every foot of the Kansas City Southern, too, from locoto do. Coupled to that incentive is my huge, oversized curiosity. It motive cabs and hi-rail vehicles, and came home after two weeks doesn’t interest me much to write about things I already know. Inwith a story to tell. stead, I want to go places where I can learn something.

Removed for preservation, looking for appropriate homes. Interested parties should contact Gold Hill Historical Society at [email protected] or write P.O. box 1052, Virginia City, NV 89440 14

Trains AUGUST 2015

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In due time, the manuscript is mailed to Trains. Then I wait. One afternoon the phone rings, and it’s David P. Morgan, the magazine’s editor, on the other end. “Nice job,” he says, and I’m thinking, go on, go on, tell me the rest. “But it’s too long,” he continues. My heart sinks. Morgan says, “I’m just going to have to serialize it.” What does that mean, I ask, still downhearted? “Run it across two consecutive issues,” he replies. Maybe that was the happiest moment of my life (apologizes to two wives and five children). Yup, paid to have fun. That’s what it has been like. My ideas for stories bubble to the top of my mind this way: What am I most curious about? In 1985, it was all the hidden nooks and crannies of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. I made a list and took it to Amtrak. These are the places I want to take people, I said, and Cliff Black at Amtrak made it happen. So I sat beside Eddie DeBasky, a New York Division dispatcher, during the Commission Hour (evening rush) as he directed the towers between New Rochelle, N.Y., and Rahway, N.J. I saw those recesses of Penn Station. I visited the towers: Tower A above Penn Station, Union Tower in Rahway, and Zoo Tower in Philadelphia. I spoke to the guy who assembled all the train schedules. I rode Washington to New York in the cab of a AEM-7 fronting a Metroliner, and accompanied the Conrail local freight working overnight between Baltimore and the D.C. suburbs. I even walked through the dripping-wet B&P Tunnel with John Baesch, the assistant Baltimore Division superintendent, just to say I did it. That was probably my favorite story to write in Trains, so much a great memory that last year I did it again (see “Corridor Conundrum,” April 2014), telling the stoBill Deramus in 1978

Always curious, this columnist saw every part of Kansas City Southern, including Mena, Ark. A.C. Kalmbach; bot tom lef t, Fred W.

Frailey

ry of a Northeast Corridor in crisis by touching down in all those forbidden places, from the announcer’s desk somewhere in Penn Station to the shop floor in Wilmington, Del. When will I quit the foolishness and really retire, like an adult? I guess when my body or my curiosity deserts me. The past few years I’ve been fascinated most by smaller railroads whose stories can be told on a human scale. I’m thinking of Bob Bryant, who at retirement age acquired a branch line, named by him the Buckingham Branch Railroad, because it passed his boyhood farm, and made a go of it. I’m thinking of Henry Posner, who bought the Iowa Interstate and awoke one day to find it making loads of money; as Henry says, pure dumb luck is a viable business strategy if you have enough time. Yes, pure dumb luck: That’s me. 2

Fred W. Frailey is author of “Twilight of the Great Trains.” Reach him at [email protected].

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15

LOCOMOTIVE

BY CHRIS GUSS

To B or not to B unit Cabless hood units survive in 2015, but for how long?

BNSF Railway GP39-3 No. 2695 and GP50 No. 3120 sandwich four cabless GP60Bs, Nos. 327, 336, 331, and 328, on the southbound Chewelah Turn as they cross the Spokane River bridge in Spokane, Wash., on Aug. 30, 2014. David Honan

The cabless locomotive, or B unit, has been around since the beginning of dieselization. While EMD’s successful FT demonstrators of 1939 were constructed with drawbars between the A units and B units, their first customer, Santa Fe Railway, opted for traditional couplers between the locomotives for increased flexibility. During the so-called covered wagon era, hundreds of B units were constructed, creating sleeklooking multiple-unit consists that would equal or surpass the horsepower of the steam engines they were replacing. B-unit sales continued as railroads began slowly converting to hood units for freight service. Unfortunately, the demand for cabless hood units didn’t materialize, particularly on Midwestern and Eastern roads. A cabless or B unit is simply a locomotive without a cab for a crew to occupy. While a cabless unit can have hostler controls to enable an employee to move the unit around a yard or engine terminal, these controls were not designed for overthe-road service. Cabless units have been constructed new from the factory and also converted in-house by railroads or independent shops, either from a desire to convert a locomotive to cabless or following a wreck when the cab was severely damaged. Union Pacific is the undisputed king of B units, ordering more than 200 new cab16

Trains AUGUST 2015

less hood units in the 1950s and 1960s in four-, six-, and eight-axle arrangements. UP made another attempt at a fleet of B units in the 1990s. The railroad selected 70 SD40-2s and C30-7s to convert to B units by removing cab signals, seats, and other amenities in an attempt to save costs. Most only lasted a few years before being converted back to standard locomotives. Of the seven Class I railroads in North America, only two operate cabless locomotives today, BNSF Railway and Norfolk Southern. BNSF’s cabless fleet is the largest at 26 locomotives, culled down from a fleet of more than 150 inherited from merger partners Burlington Northern and Santa Fe in 1995. Today, successor BNSF stables 22 former Santa Fe GP60Bs, three former Burlington Northern cabless SD40-2s, plus a single GP38-2B, all of which hold down yard or local assignments. Norfolk Southern has the distinction of being the only Class I railroad to order a new cabless locomotive in the last two decades, with its purchase of two Railpower RP14BDs in 2008. Norfolk Southern never intended for these to be used in road service, and they were equipped with remotecontrol equipment when built for use in yard service only. Most of BNSF’s cabless locomotives that were purged after the merger came from

the 119-unit fleet of General Electric B30-7A cabless locomotives ordered new in the 1980s by Burlington Northern. While a great many of them met the scrapper’s torch, a handful were exported, and others were acquired by short lines in the U.S. The cabless fleet on short lines today is small, with former BNSF B30-7ABs found on the active rosters of Minnesota Commercial in the Twin Cities and Grenada Railway in Mississippi. While cabless units made financial sense to many railroads in the early years of dieselization, the high-horsepower locomotives of today allow for fewer locomotives to be used per train, virtually eliminating the cost benefits cabless locomotives enjoyed years ago.

Norfolk Southern ordered the only cabless units in the last two decades. RP14BD No. 2120 is used for switching. Tony Kimmel

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>> LOCOMOTIVE BRIEFS

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General Electric in Erie, Pa., was working on an order in mid-May for 51 locomotives in the latest order of Rio Tinto ES44ACi units. The units have longer frames and larger radiators to deal with desert heat in Australia on a privately operated heavy-haul railroad. These units were photographed on the plant’s test track. Stephan M. Koenig

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That’s short for Brake Cylinder Maintaining™. The number of Norfolk Southern SD60E rebuilds keeps rising, with more than 100 units, including No. 7002, completed as of May 2015, and a total of 240 set to be rebuilt through 2019. Adam McHone The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority plans to spend up to $154 million for 18 new regional locomotives, the largest order for SEPTA in over a decade. The authority is buying 13 Cities Sprinter ACS-64 locomotives manufactured by Siemens at the German company’s Sacramento, Calif., factory. The order includes an option for five more units, and is funded by an increase in state transportation funding from 2013. The transit authority is expected to spend an estimated $535 million in the fiscal year starting July 1 to buy new vehicles, replace and repair rail bridges, upgrade stations, and begin overhauling its Center City subway concourse. This is the biggest rail purchase by SEPTA since the agency purchased 120 new Silverliner V cars for $274 million in 2006.

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17

TECHNOLOGY

BY DAVID C. LESTER

WRI, it’s the wheel thing Railroaders, engineers gather in Atlanta for world’s largest, longest-running wheel-rail conference

Derailments are a part of everyday railroading, as seen in this 2006 close-up. Railroaders work hard to make sure rails and wheels play nicely together. Thomas J. Nanos

When a railroad drops a train, the odds are 1-in-4 that there’s a track problem. That’s bad news. The good news is that a record number of railroaders and track engineers attended the 2015 Wheel Rail Interaction Conference in Atlanta in May to learn how to beat the odds. Specifically, the Federal Railroad Administration states in a May report that between 2004 and 2008, 14.1 percent of all accidents and derailments of which it is aware were due to broken rails, 7.6 percent were caused by bad track geometry, and another 5 percent were caused by “wide gauge.” These defects are among the most troubling and misunderstood accident

WRI 2015 by the numbers: 300+ attendees 32 educational sessions over 4 days 108 railroads, companies, universities, and agencies represented

2016 conference set for Henderson, Nev.

18

Trains AUGUST 2015

causes and the reason seven of 16 educational sessions in a “heavy haul” seminar at the conference were dedicated to problems causing or caused by wheel-climb, wide gauge, hot weather, rail cracks, and rail surface fatigue. If that wasn’t enough, other problems addressed included a few from the vehicle side, including in-train dynamics, freightcar cushioning, and wheel-flaw detection. Tom Schnautz, assistant vice presidentmechanical at Norfolk Southern, says that when evaluating wheel and rail interaction, “you cannot optimize one without consideration of the other.” Christopher Ono, a young engineer with ATS Consulting, who is new to the railroad industry, said, “I’m having flashbacks of being in college!” after completing one morning of sessions. Ono participated in “Principles” courses that began with a two-part discussion of the fundamentals of wheel-rail interaction presented by Kevin Oldknow, a university professor and a consultant with L.B. Foster Co. He focused on the side-to-side, or lateral, motion of freight cars grinding sideways into rails. He also talked about factors that affect curved track, such as speed, couplers, and other forces within a moving train that must be managed carefully to re-

duce wear and damage to the top of the rail and the gauge face. (The gauge face is the inside of the rail; the outside is known as the field side.) Gary Wolf, a rail expert and longtime industry consultant, built on Oldknow’s presentation with information on trackgeometry basics, including how to measure rail gage, or the width between rails in tracks; how to minimize damage to switch frogs; and how to measure and manage track curvature. Kevin Conn, a research engineer with Norfolk Southern, discussed rail lubrication, which involves introducing the appropriate amount of friction modifier to the top of the rail and the gauge face in order to minimize wear. Wheel Rail Interaction is an annual conference presented by Wheel-Rail Seminars, sponsored by Trains, and locally hosted this year by Norfolk Southern. More than 300 engineers, suppliers, railroaders, and consultants attended 32 sessions over four days. It included opportunities for networking, and for supporting conference founder and owner Gordon Bachinsky’s goal of improving relationships among railroads, vendors, consultants, government agencies, and all who have a stake in seeing that wheel-rail interface engineering standards are as high as they can be. For younger engineers and new participants in the conference, the Principles course provided an introduction to the basics of wheel-rail interaction. Besides being a primer for those new to the industry, the course served as a good refresher for, and added to the knowledge of, those participants with more experience. For example, Todd Snyder, technical director for Union Pacific, who has attended WRI for several years, says, “I have learned more about wheel-rail interaction at this conference than at any other event in my career.”

Railroaders from passenger and freight roads share knowledge during WRI 2015 in Atlanta in May. TR A I NS : Steve Sweeney

Bolts may give new life to bridges Colorado facility tests simple fix for aging infrastructure

A Transportation Technology Center investigator points out a bridge member crack to be repaired with bolts. T TC

Even the best-maintained bridges may have a broken piece from time to time. And even when the broken piece is something small, such as a bracing member, railroads tend to replace an entire section to avoid repairing the same thing over again a few years later. But researchers at the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colo., are testing to see if there is an alternative way to make repairs without taking up valuable track time and to delay bridge replacement. The center has four riveted steel bridges that it received from Class I railroads, three of which are more than 100 years old. One has decades-old corrosion due to brine water from refrigerator cars, though its main girders are sound. It’s being tested in the center’s high-tonnage loop, where trains hauling freight cars loaded to 315,000 pounds — each — beat up on track, rolling stock, and bridges in the name of research. So, when repeated forces from heavy trains and corrosion snap a secondary bracing member on that bridge, workers splice it back together with steel plates, a drill, and a handful of seven-eighths-to 1-inch-diameter galvanized bolts. So far, with thousands of train passes, totaling hundreds of millions of gross tons, the fixes are holding. Researchers say more testing needs to be done before recommending this low-intensity repair. They hope it and other innovations will extend the life of aging steel spans, potentially saving railroads billions of dollars. — Steve Sweeney

>> TECHNOLOGY BRIEFS

RailComm names VP of products RailComm has appointed Michael L.J. Hackney as its vice president of products. Hackney has more than 30 years of experience in technology and business leadership, and will oversee the company’s efforts in new product initiatives, including data analytics and condition-monitoring initiatives. For more information, go to www.railcomm.com. Duos Technologies was awarded a contract for the first phase of a Rail Undercarriage Screening System research grant funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate. The grant will fund a multiphase plan to advance railcar screening technology to include transit systems. For more information, go to www.duostechnologies.com. MagneGas Corp., a technology company that converts liquid waste into gaseous fuels, will be partnering with an unidentified Class I railroad as part of a comprehensive rollout strategy to other locations in the nation over the next several months. The railroad’s California Division will use MagneGas for repairs and construction. For more information, go to www.magnegas.com. Protran Technology will supply its Roadway Worker Protection System to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. The system alerts track workers of approaching trains and train operators of nearby work crews. For more information, go to www.protrantechnology.com. MEN Micro Inc. has introduced its DC15 display, featuring a 10.4-inch LCD display with either 32 illuminated front keys or a projective touchscreen. The company is also offering the NM10 aluminum-enclosed, eight-port Ethernet switch. Both products are ruggedized for the transportation industry. For more information, go to www.menmicro.com. Mitsubishi Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. will supply a railway signaling system for Myanmar Railways in Southeast Asia. The 86-mile project is to be completed by June 2017.

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19

PASSENGER

BY BOB JOHNSTON

The westbound Empire Builder runs at 40 mph because of a slow order near Leeds, N.D., on May 16, 2015.

Three photos, Bob Johnston

‘Empire Builder’ tries to get well Reliability is improving, but Amtrak’s cost-cutting obsession limits train’s potential for growth “You’ve got a 25 at 82.8,” crackles the conductor’s voice over the scanner. A few minutes later: “A 25 at 78.5 and a 30 at 76.6.” Then he reminds engineers on the eastbound Empire Builder out of Minot, N.D., on the evening of May 17, 2015, of a 30mph restriction at milepost 71.6. The maximum speed along BNSF Railway’s Devils Lake and Hillsboro subdivisions between Minot and Fargo, N.D., is 79 mph. On this night, 27 slow orders, ranging from 60 to 25 mph over 278 miles, contribute more than an hour’s delay — and this is not uncommon. A Trains analysis shows that in the 74 days since eastbound No. 8 last departed St. Paul Union Depot on time on March 16, 2015, the train has left the Twin Cities more than 90 minutes late 51 times; it departed less than an hour behind schedule on only eight occasions. That’s bad news. Reversing declines of more than 20 percent in ridership and ticket revenue, after two years of wildly unreliable performance, is key to regaining schedule credibility and train connections at Chicago. The good news: Builder timekeeping is

The Grand Forks, N.D., station, popular with Canadian riders, lost full services May 31 when a veteran agent retired.

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Trains AUGUST 2015

poised to turn around. The North Dakota slow orders are caused by frozen ground thawing beneath rehabilitated roadbed as temperatures rise, making tracks unstable. BNSF crews can’t completely restore maximum speeds until these frost heaves subside. Two summers of upgrades — approach signaling, dispatcher-operated switches, new bridges, ballast, and continuous welded rail — have allowed the former passenger-only route to become busier than ever. And when BNSF implements full centralized traffic control on the two subdivisions, trains won’t have to wait to move solely on track warrants. Timekeeping trends have been positive enough that in early May, Amtrak decided to guarantee Chicago connections to trains departing 2 hours after the Builder’s scheduled 3:55 p.m. arrival. The company will substitute buses from the Twin Cities for intermediate-stop passengers if the eastbound train will be at least 4 hours late. With second BNSF mains now ready west of Minot, and westbound Builders able to make up more than an hour of delay to arrive in Seattle and Portland on time, trainsets can again make same-day West Coast turns. This allows a temporarily assigned sixth equipment set to be redeployed elsewhere. If unusual events make trains extremely late, westbounds are shortturned at Spokane and buses substitute to and from Seattle and Portland. Accoutrements such as dining-car china and glassware, cooked-to-order eggs at breakfast, and wine and cheese tasting have been jettisoned. Yet riding on three different Builders in four days shows operating and on-board employees continue to act as if they are hosting a special travel experience.

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari tells Trains that recent electronic Customer Satisfaction Index scores have shown a 22-percent improvement over the same period last year. April 2015 passenger counts are only 803 below the same month last year, and monthly ticket revenue comparisons are essentially flat for the first time in years. So it’s too bad the Empire Builder continues to be handicapped by a philosophy that rewards cost-cutting initiatives simply because those results are easily measured. Thus, checked baggage service and ticketing disappeared at Grand Forks, N.D., on June 1 because the longtime station agent retired. Never mind that the parking lot there is filled with Manitoba license plates. Travelers from Canada are expected to figure out arrival times and fare options beforehand. Route-specific advertising in on-line markets is a thing of the past for Amtrak long-distance routes these days — it’s those easily quantified out-of-pocket costs again — but this train has a story worth telling, so why not let prospective travelers know the patient is getting well? If few efforts are made to encourage more people to ride, then management sees no reason to bring back a Chicago-St. Paul cutoff coach that was a mainstay before the train’s deep-diving timekeeping chased away passengers. Except for historical happenstance, Amtrak’s fixed-consist mentality, and Wisconsin’s lingering disinterest, this corridor could easily reprise the Burlington-North Western-Milwaukee Road service of more than 50 years ago, with at least one more daily round trip. (A feasibility study on that is expected shortly.) Conductors and coach attendants meeting in the dining car as the Builder departs

Winona, Minn., on May 18 have already accommodated a long line of voyagers at St. Paul, and are now plotting how to split the 37 folks set to board at La Crosse, Wis., and another 26 at Wisconsin Dells among the few empty spaces that remain in the four Superliner coaches. “We’ll need every seat,” warns a familiar announcement. For families who can’t sit

together, at least some tables are available in the Sightseer Lounge. But by planning to not add an extra coach, those seats can’t accommodate people traveling longer distances, or crucial Chicago-Twin Cities business that can connect elsewhere. Yet, with its chronic timekeeping woes behind it, a mobility workhorse like the Empire Builder has the potential to be much better.

TTX Company needs images of its equipment in action. 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. Send CDs (CDs will not be returned) Courtney Sullivan • TTX Company Passengers disembark from the Agawa Canyon Tour Train on Sept. 8, 2012. Canadian National says it will operate it in 2015 until a qualified third-party operator is found.

Algoma reboot hits snag CN keeps Agawa operation; Railmark runs triweekly service Railmark Holdings Inc. began operating the triweekly passenger train from Sault Ste. Marie to Hearst, Ontario, on Canadian National’s former Algoma Central Railway in May. As of early June, the Michigan-based shortline operator had been unable to reach an agreement with CN to take over the seasonal Agawa Canyon Tour Train. The tour train makes daily round trips out of Sault Ste. Marie to its namesake canyon outpost. “Canadian National is preparing to operate the Tour Train starting in late June or early July and will also market it,” CN spokesman Mark Hallman tells Trains, adding that Railmark had not met CN’s “contractural conditions.” He says, “CN will consider all qualified third-party operators with suitable, committed financing to run and operate the tour train.” Railmark was to replace CN as designated operator of both services on May 1. A handover would have followed an energetic campaign by on-line residents and lodge owners, who argued they would lose their only public access if the Canadian government followed through on a proposal to withdraw an operating grant in place since 1977. Sault Ste. Marie officials be-

came involved because they feared train service cuts would hurt tourism. On March 31, the Canadian government said it would pay $5.3 million ($4.2 million U.S.) to Sault Ste. Marie for three years. The city competitively selected Railmark to operate both the tour train and the triweekly service, which has been rebranded as the Algoma Spirit. Although Railmark president B. Allen Brown declined to comment at press time on the impasse with CN, he told Trains in May that Railmark plans to step up promotion, enhance on-board amenities, and restart the winter Snow Train. Brown didn’t rule out off-season trip reductions on certain days of the week or possibly combining the trains as far as the canyon stop. “When the market drops (in the off-season), we may have to claw back some of the frequencies and simultaneously pump up operations at other times. The Algoma Spirit, that’s where the growth potential is,” Brown said. If Railmark is unable to meet track owner CN’s Tour Train financial requirements, another entity could take over the entire passenger operation.

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21

COVER STORY

LAST MAN

BY JUSTIN FRANZ • LEAD PHOTO BY STEVE SMEDLEY

RAILROADS, LABOR AT ODDS OVER VALUE AND SAFETY OF ONE-PERSON CREWS

I 

magine this: A crew van winds its way through a web of tracks in a dark rail yard. The van pulls up to a trio of powerful, six-axle locomotives and a lone engineer grabs his work bag, gets out of the vehicle, and climbs aboard the lead locomotive. The engineer inspects the locomotive, looks over his paperwork, and sits down in the right-hand seat. After contacting the dispatcher, he takes the brakes off and slowly notches out the throttle, harnessing the power of the three massive locomotives to move a mile-long freight train that weighs thousands of tons. The train slowly rolls past lines of freight cars at 10 mph until it passes a green signal at the edge of the yard. A few minutes later, after its rear-end device passes the yard limits, the engineer notches out the throttle more and soon the train is coasting along at track speed, with miles of railroad ahead of it. Depending on whom you talk to, this scene — a single engineer operating a train by himself — depicts railroading’s bright future or a source of potential disaster. For more than a year, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration has been studying the possibility of establishing a minimum crew size for most mainline freight and passenger rail

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Trains AUGUST 2015

operations in the United States, possibly even banning the use of one-person crews on freight railroads. In the FRA’s April 2014 announcement, former administrator Joseph C. Szabo suggested that a law requiring two people in the locomotive cab at all times was almost certain when he said, “We believe that safety is enhanced with the use of a multiple-person crew.” Railroad officials cried foul almost immediately, berating the federal agency for not going into the rule-making process with an unbiased outlook. One railroad official in Washington, D.C., called the effort to mandate two-person crews “a parting gift from Szabo to his former union brothers.” Prior to being appointed to the helm of the FRA by President Barack Obama in 2009, Szabo was vice president of the AFLCIO in Illinois. He was also that state’s legislative director for the United Transporation Union. The railroads and their largest trade group, the Association of American Railroads, insist that one-person train operation is safe. In 2015, the AAR solicited a report authored by a third party that studied one-person crew operations around the world and concluded that single-person train crews were “no less safe” than multiple-person crews. Officials with the AAR said that with continued implementation of positive train control across the United States, one-person crews could become the new standard on large freight railroads. And officials at one railroad that has used

one-person crews for nearly 20 years have said the practice has never once compromised safety. “We’ve used one-person crews safely and we’ve got the record to back it up,” Indiana Rail Road Senior Vice President of Operations and Business Development Bob Babcock tells Trains. But some of those on the ground and in the field question those statistics. They say that even if a one-person crew is just as safe as a two-person crew, there are issues railroad officials are overlooking. As one retired locomotive engineer in Montana says, “the people who want one-person crews are not the ones doing the job.” When the FRA will hand down its rul-

Until its purchase by Canadian National, Wisconsin Central was a pioneer in oneman crew use. Here, a WC locomotive works on CN in 2009. TR A I NS : Drew Halverson

At left, a BNSF Railway crew member ends his day by walking to a van in Milledgeville, Ill., in March 2014. Craig Williams Right, an Amtrak crewman boards his train at Niagara Falls, Ontario. Steve Hobson

ing is unknown, but officials may feel the urge to expedite their decision. In May, eight people were killed and hundreds more were injured when an Amtrak train derailed on the Northeast Corridor near Philadelphia. Although the cause of the wreck is still under investigation, there was only one person inside the locomotive cab, a fact that is sure to add fuel to the debate.

THE CONCEPT AND HISTORY Although the long-simmering debate over one-person crews only came to a boil in the last few years, the concept of a single person operating a train is hardly new. The idea became a possibility with the introduction of a control called a dead man’s switch, which would help stop a train if the operator became incapacitated. In 1903, the dead man’s switch was introduced on the London Underground. The switch was built into the throttle and had to be pressed at all times when the operator was running the train. If the operator let go of the throttle, thus disengaging the dead man’s switch, the train would stop. Throughout the 20th century, streetcar and subway operators worldwide began to operate with a single person in the cab, and over the years that practice has extended to passenger and commuter railroads. Today, Amtrak and numerous commuter-rail operations across North America have only one person in the operating cab. North American freight railroads, however, have been slower to adopt the concept, in part because just a few decades ago some state laws and union agreements required freight trains to operate with three-, four-, or even five-person crews, a holdover from the steam era. In Europe and elsewhere overseas, freight railroads have been quicker to adopt one-person crews; they are now common in Germany, France, England, New Zealand, and Australia. One company in Australia, mining firm Rio Tinto, even began to use driverless trains in 2014. Railroad entrepreneur Ed Burkhardt first observed one-person crews on freight trains in New Zealand and England, and in the mid-1990s he enthusiastically applied the concept to the Wisconsin Central. The WC was among the first freight railroads to experiment with one-person crews in the United States, initially using them in situations where a train crew ran out of time to work. Instead of sending a full crew, a single engineer would bring the train the final

A northbound Quebec North Shore & Labrador train takes the siding at Dolliver, deep in the woods of Labrador, in 2011.

few miles into the yard. Later, one-man crews were used on a rural branch line in northern Michigan. The WC, however, was not the only freight operator to utilize a single engineer. In 1997, the Indiana Rail Road began to use one-person crews. In 2015, about 40 percent of the railroad’s trains have a single engineer on board. Other short lines have used a divided two-person crew on mainline runs, where one employee is in the cab operating the train and the other drives along the railroad in another vehicle. An informal survey by the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association of its members found that at least 70 shortline railroads in North American use or have used such a system. But no freight railroad in North America has embraced the concept of one-person crews with the same zeal as Canada’s Que-

U.S. SHORT LINES THAT 70 USE OR HAVE USED ONE-PERSON CREWS PERCENT OF 40 INDIANA RAIL ROAD TRAINS WITH ONE-PERSON CREWS PERCENT OF 5.7 INDIANA RAIL ROAD HUMANFACTOR INCIDENTS INVOLVING ONE-MAN CREWS 26

Trains AUGUST 2015

bec North Shore & Labrador. The 263-mile ore carrier has been called a “laboratory of North American railroading” [see “North America’s Heaviest Train,” February 2012]. Since its completion in 1954, the railroad has been at the forefront of technology. It was one of the first to eliminate cabooses, utilize welded rail, and experiment with distributed power. It is the largest freight railroad in North America to use one-person crews on mainline runs, which began in 1996, when a boom in traffic and a lack of manpower demanded original thinking. That July, the railroad and the United Transportation Union signed a contract to allow one-person crews. But the roll-out was not flawless. Just two days after the one-person crews were deployed, a southbound freight train crashed into the rear end of an ore train near Mai, Que. The engineer suffered minor injuries. According to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada’s investigation, the ore train had gone into emergency and the engineer informed the dispatcher that he was going to inspect the train. The dispatcher relayed the message to the freight that was following. The southbound freight soon passed two signals, and according to the rulebook, the engineer should have slowed the train to 15 mph. Instead, he was going 30 mph when he rounded the curve north of Mai and hit the parked train. Soon after the accident, Transport Canada forbade QNS&L from using one-person crews. A year later, the railroad resumed using one-person crews after it made 13 safety improvements suggested by Transport Canada. The government agency and the QNS&L also formed a working group that suggested

Andy Cummings

more than 65 other improvements that could increase safety. One was the creation of a Proximity Detection Device — installed on all locomotives, maintenance-of-way equipment and hi-rail trucks — that uses global positioning satellite technology to communicate with similar devices on other equipment. Whenever a locomotive or hirail is within 10 miles of another moving piece of equipment, the device alerts its operator, who must push a button to acknowledge the warning. The alarm repeats when equipment is within 8, 5, and 3 miles, and if not acknowledged, the train will go into emergency. The device, located on the engineer’s control stand, also displays the other equipment’s location, speed, and direction. However, the proximity devices are not foolproof. More than a decade after the accident that spurred the device’s creation, another QNS&L freight train collided with the rear end of an ore train near Mai on the night of Jan. 10, 2013. This time there were two people in the cab — a newly hired engineer trainee and an instructor with more than 20 years of experience. The northbound empty ore train had stopped and the crew was cleaning out a snow-covered switch. Although the dispatcher had warned the freight crew that the train ahead was stopped, and their train had a restricted signal, the engineer did not reduce speed. And although the proximity warning system worked, the engineer reportedly acknowledged the warning without actually looking at the data on the screen that would have shown him a collision was imminent. The Transportation Safety Board later determined that the engineer trainee’s lack of experience led to the accident. Thankfully, both he and the in-

QNS&L IS THE LARGEST FREIGHT RAILROAD IN NORTH AMERICA TO USE ONE-PERSON CREWS ON MAINLINE RUNS structor only received minor injuries. The proximity devices are not the only safeguard the QNS&L has installed with the advent of one-person crews. After 10 hours on duty, a locomotive engineer is able to park his train on the main and take a 20-minute nap with the permission of the dispatcher. And if for some reason an engineer needs to leave the cab — say to inspect a car that triggered a hotbox detector — he is required to use a mechanical emergencystop device. A small clamp is secured atop the rail and connected to a stub-ended air hose that is then connected with the hose on the lead unit. If the train were to move, the locomotive’s air hose would break away from the stub-ended hose, sending the train into emergency and stopping it immediately. Also, whenever an engineer leaves the locomotive cab, he must be able to contact the dispatcher at all times. If the dispatcher and the engineer on the ground lose contact after 15 minutes, another employee is sent to the train. If an issue arises that cannot be solved by a single person, additional help can arrive via helicopter. The railroad has more than 150 landing sites along the route and in extreme cases, helicopters can even land on the rails. In the nearly 20 years that QNS&L has used one-person crews, it has become the standard by which Transport Canada compares railroads that wish to replicate it. When another operation, the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, approached the government agency about using single-person crews, Transport Canada identified the QNS&L as a model. The MM&A began using single-person crews in Canada in 2012.

LAC-MÉGANTIC AND POLITICS Just before 11 p.m. on July 5, 2013, MM&A train No. 2, an eastbound oil train, pulled to a stop at the east end of Nantes siding, 7 miles west of the small town of Lac-

Lac-Mégantic is often cited in the debate over one-person crews, although crew size was not found to be a major factor.

The disaster at Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, in July 2013 killed 47 people and destroyed much of the city’s downtown. Two photos, Transpor tation Safet y Board of Canada

Mégantic, Que. Engineer Thomas Harding, a 33-year railroad veteran, emerged from the cab of the lead locomotive and stepped into the muggy summer night. The 73-car train with five locomotives stretched into the darkness along Highway 161. With the exception of the idling locomotives, all was quiet. Harding began to walk the train and apply hand brakes on the locomotives, a buffer car, and a remotecontrol caboose placed between the first and second locomotives. He then shut down the four trailing locomotives and did a brake test. At 11:05 p.m., Harding called the dispatcher in Farnham, Que., the division point to the west where he had started his workday 10 hours earlier, and asked for a taxi to take him to his hotel. Two hours later, Harding would walk out of his hotel and look down the street to see the train he had tied down at Nantes engulfed in flames in the heart of downtown Lac-Mégantic. The derailment and explosion of MM&A train No. 2 resulted in the deaths of 47 people and the destruction of a vast

swath of Lac-Mégantic. It also put railroad safety on the front of nearly every newspaper and newscast in North America. Politicians and the public began to ask whether one-person crews were safe — even though investigators later found that the practice had little to do with the Quebec tragedy. In August 2014, the TSB issued a report that identified 18 factors that led to the derailment, including a shoddy repair of the lead locomotive months earlier. That led to the locomotive, a former Burlington Northern C30-7, catching fire not long after it was parked the night of July 5. When the local fire department responded to the blaze, it turned off the engine in order to put out the fire, and because of that, the air brakes slowly began to release. The report also stated that when Harding had done the brake test to make sure the train was stationary on the nearly 1-percent grade, the air brakes were still on, giving the false impression that seven hand brakes would keep the train from moving. MM&A’s own rulebook required at least nine hand brakes be applied and the TSB’s www.TrainsMag.com

27

In 2015, the industry and its observers continue to await the proposed rule, but starkly contrasting opinions already exist.

RAILROADS: IT’S SAFE

A BNSF conductor walks back to his train after lining the west switch at Adair, Ill., following a meet with an empty crude oil-train on Jan. 7, 2013. Steve Smedley

investigation found that 17 to 26 hand brakes would have been needed to keep the train in place. “This was about more than hand brakes and what the engineer did and did not do,” said TSB chair Wendy Tadros. “In all, there were 18 factors that caused this accident, and you take any one of them away and this might not have happened.” The TSB report stated that a one-person crew was not a contributing factor in the wreck. But a month after the incident, U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, who then represented the congressional district the MM&A ran through, introduced the Safe Freight Act, a bill requiring at least two people in the

cab of every freight train. “To me it’s common sense that having another person on that train is going to be better than just one,” said Michaud, who was launching a gubernatorial campaign at the time. Two months after the wreck, the FRA’s Railroad Safety Advisory Committee met to discuss the dangers of moving oil by rail and was also tasked with researching concerns about one-person crews. While the group produced a series of safety recommendations that were later adopted by the regulator, it could not come to a consensus on crew size. In April 2014, the FRA took action and announced it would propose minimum train-crew sizes.

When the FRA announced that it would consider requiring at least two people in the cab of any freight train, railroad officials were quick to balk, despite few railroads actually using single-person crews in 2015. Currently, no federal rules or regulations require more than one person in the cab of a locomotive. The railroads that have moved forward with one-person crews, both in the U.S. and Canada, have made agreements with various unions to do so. The biggest reason for the opposition, according to railroad brass, is the lack of evidence and statistics that show oneperson crews are unsafe. “The major reason offered by proponents of a two-person crew mandate is that it would enhance rail safety,” Lance Fritz, president and chief operating officer of Union Pacific, said before a U.S. Senate committee hearing on Jan. 29, 2015. (Fritz is now the railroad’s president and CEO.) “Yet no one — not the FRA, not sponsors of the legislation in Congress, not rail labor — can point to hard data that support this contention,” he concluded. Fritz noted that the rate of rail-related accidents and injuries continue to drop and that 2014 was the safest year ever in the industry. He also said that the FRA itself stated in 2009 that it found no “factual evidence to support the prohibition against one-person operations.”

PTC “WILL PROVIDE THE SAME REDUNDANCY AS A SECOND PERSON IN THE ENGINEER’S CAB.” - OLIVER WYMAN REPORT In 2015, the AAR released a report it solicited from international consulting firm Oliver Wyman that concluded one-person crews were “no less safe” than multiple-person crews. The study pulled data from commuter and passenger rail operations, Indiana Rail Road, and railroads in Europe, where one-person crews have been implemented. Its data showed that since 1990, fatal railroad accidents in Europe have declined sharply, and that nations where one-man crews are widely used, including Germany, England, and France, have some of the best safety records on the continent. AAR spokesman Ed Greenburg says that widespread implementation of one-person crews can happen in the United States as more railroads install positive train control, a system designed to prevent accidents from trains passing restrictive signals. Once fully installed, more than 60,000 miles of the 140,000-mile U.S. railroad network will have PTC. The Oliver Wyman report stated that PTC “will provide the same redundancy as a second person in the engineer’s cab.” Greenburg says, “Train crew size can be reduced on routes with positive train control without impacting safety. This study proves that single-person crews are neither novel or untested in the United States. It’s used every single day in this country.” The Indiana Rail Road has used singleperson crews since 1997, and today about 40 percent of its trains have just one person in the cab. Babcock, the railroad’s vice president, said the company began using singleperson crews to move unit trains of coal to power plants in southwest Indiana. Many of the runs are short, and one person can make multiple runs in a shift. “There are some spots where you can stand at the coal mine and see the power plant, and we needed to find ways to save costs,” Babcock says. The railroad uses one-person crews on most trains that require no en-route switching, particularly unit trains, which account for 66 percent of the railroad’s traffic. Most move coal. When a train crew is called, the dispatcher looks at the work it will do and determines the appropriate crew size. “There are certain jobs on our railroad where it’s best to have two people on the crew, like in the yard switching,” Babcock says. “But there are other jobs, like a unit train moving from point A to point B, where one person is safe.” Canadian National crewmen talk while waiting for an air test at Waterloo, Iowa, in April 2014. Craig Williams

Union Pacific crewmen climb aboard their train during a crew change at the Bellwood, Ill., Metra station, adjacent to UP’s Proviso Yard, on March 14, 2015. TR A I NS : David Lassen

The railroad worked extensively with the FRA office in Chicago to develop rules for one-person crews, and in 18 years there has only been one reportable accident involving a single person running a train. That one derailment was the result of the improper use of air brakes, and officials say that a second crew member would not have prevented it. According to data provided by the Indiana Rail Road, one-person crews worked about a quarter of its man-hours between 2006 and 2013. During that time, 5.7 percent of the railroad’s non-FRA reportable human-factor incidents happened on a train with a one-person crew. Twoperson crews, on the other hand, accounted for 94.3 percent of such incidents. Babcock says that if the FRA did mandate two people in the cab of every freight train, it would have a major impact on the railroad’s bottom line and could result in traffic being lost to trucks. The railroad estimates that if it were forced to again use twoperson crews on its entire system, it would have to increase its workforce by 14 percent. Increases like that could be tough for smaller short line railroads, say officials from the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, which quickly came out against the minimum crew size legislation introduced in 2013. Officials also said that in some cases, safety can be increased when a two-person crew is split up, with one person in the cab of the locomotive and the other following in a motor vehicle. “One-size-fits-all situations should not be our default mode of regulation,” says

ASLRRA President Linda Bauer Darr in an interview with Trains. “This is especially the case where short lines have demonstrated that single-person, single-person with remote control technology, and singleperson in the cab with a crew member following in a vehicle are safe and efficient modes of operation.” While short lines and regionals have implemented and experimented with one-person crews, Class I railroads have been slower to try it out. In 2014, BNSF Railway tried to forge an agreement with members of the

One-person crews have been a major part of operations on the Indiana Rail Road, which supports their safety. Eric Powell www.TrainsMag.com

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After tying down their train near St. Albans, W.Va., CSX crewmen wave to the crew on a passing coal train in October 2006.

General Committee 001 of the Transportation Division of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation union, better known as SMART-TD, to allow the railroad to use one-person crews on mainline trains with the help of a “master conductor” position. Under the system, the master conductor would have worked on multiple trains from a motor vehicle, driving to a train when its engineer needed help. The railroad argued that it would be safer because train crews would have more predictable hours. But in September 2014, union members overwhelmingly voted down the proposal. “No one would permit an airliner to fly with just one pilot, even though they can fly themselves,” SMART’s Transportation Division National President John Previsich said just before the vote. “Trains, which cannot operate themselves, should be no different.”

UNIONS: IT’S A BAD IDEA On and off the record, railroad officials say the only reason unions oppose oneperson crews is that they are trying to preserve jobs. But Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen President Dennis R. Pierce says that is not the case. “The industry will no doubt argue that our position is driven by our desire to preserve ‘unneeded’ jobs,” Pierce tells Trains, 30

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“but the reality is that — no matter how many members the BLET has — I have not succeeded at my job if I cannot get every BLET member home safely and ensure the public safety at the same time.” Pierce says the railroad industry is wrong in assuming that implementation of PTC can replace two-person crews, and that the new technology is an upgrade, not a “silver bullet,” for safety. Among the biggest complaints about a single-person crew is that one less person is in the cab keeping an eye on the rails and spotting obstacles that could pop up. Pierce also says that a two-person crew can help in the case of an accident, like the February 2015 oil train derailment on CSX Transportation in West Virginia, where the conductor was able to uncouple the locomotives from the train and then meet with first responders near the wreck site. Another concern union representatives have raised about one-person crews is fatigue, noting that if an engineer is tired there is no one else to help keep him alert. Officials said the issue of fatigue is made even worse by unpredictable schedules. On Dec. 1, 2013, four people were killed when a Metro-North commuter train derailed near New York City. Evidence suggested that the engineer had fallen asleep inside the cab before going into a tight curve above the speed

Brian Sellers

limit. As on most commuter railroads, the engineer was working in the cab alone. While railroad officials have said that government agencies and politicians are bending to the needs and desires of unions, Pierce sees it in a different light. “In reality, the issue of freight train crew size is just one symptom of a much bigger problem: the inability or the unwillingness of government to regulate business in the interest of worker and public safety,” he says. “When it comes to safety, this nation’s railroads are still bound by many federal regulations, but certain railroads rarely go beyond those regulations when they would conflict with the bottom line.”

Near Hercules, Calif., a conductor lines a switch for a BNSF train bound for Richmond Yard in March 2012. John Near y

“ONLY THE RAILROADS THINK ONE PERSON CAN RUN A TRAIN SAFELY.” — HERB KROHN, STATE LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR, SMART That sentiment is echoed by many railroaders across the country, including Alan Burns, a retired locomotive engineer who worked for the Milwaukee Road, Burlington Northern, and Montana Rail Link. Burns says that in his opinion, the savings railroads hope to gain by using one-person crews are overstated, and the concept would result in more problems than solutions. He says the idea of a “master conductor” is especially problematic in remote areas where the employee may not be able to get to a train, such as the mountains of Montana, where Burns worked for nearly four decades. “If something goes wrong, what will happen?” Burns asks. “What will happen when you have two feet of snow on the ground and a mile of train to walk just to fix an air hose on the last car? That train will be stuck there blocking the railroad for hours ... The guys on the ground get it but the guys in the corner office don’t.” The retired engineer also says that with the introduction of one-person crews, it would be harder for newer employees to get institutional knowledge handed down from veteran engineers. Burns said while training is useful, it doesn’t replace the lessons learned while working with other people. Meanwhile, some union officials are not waiting for the FRA to make a decision about crew size. Herb Krohn, Washington State Legislative Director for SMART, has spent the spring in Olympia, Wash., pushing for laws at the state level to prohibit one-person crews on freight trains. Krohn said in early 2015 that the legislation was rapidly gaining support from both Democrats and Republicans. “This is common-sense legislation everyone understands,” says Krohn, who is also a conductor for Union Pacific. “Everyone understands that when you have a 15,000-ton train running through the middle of a community, it needs to be properly staffed. Only the railroads think one person can run a train safely.” In 2014, similar legislation failed because it was mired in an unrelated political matter, Krohn says. This year he is confident the legislation will pass, but if it doesn’t, he says the union will try again next year. He is hopeful that Washington’s efforts will become a model for other states. In 2015, more than a dozen other state legislatures considered bills that would mandate two-person crews. In April, the Safe Freight Act, the bill supported by Maine’s Rep. Michaud after the Lac-Mégantic wreck, was reintroduced in

A lone crewman operates a locomotive on the Indiana Rail Road.

Congress by Don Young, R-Alaska. After it was introduced, the bill was referred to the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials (part of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure), where it remained in late May. However, May’s fatal derailment on the Northeast Corridor just 140 miles north of Washington, D.C., may once again put oneperson crews on the minds of policymakers. On May 12, northbound Amtrak train No. 188 from Washington, D.C., to New York City derailed at Philadelphia’s Frankford Junction, leaving eight people dead and more than 200 injured. Although the investigation was ongoing as this issue went to print (see page 6), National Transportation Safety Board members said the train derailed when it went into a 50-mph curve at more than 100 mph, in a situation similar to the 2013 wreck on Metro-North. Only one person was in the locomotive cab at the time of the wreck. One-person crews were first authorized on the corridor by Congress in 1981 as part of the Northeast Rail Service Act. Just a month after the incident, on June 9, the FRA said it would require a second qualified crew person in the cab of all passenger trains, on territory that does not have positive train control, so that the individual can help the engineer identify and confirm speed restrictions. Fritz, the Union Pacific CEO who previously testified to a Senate committee that

Eric Powell

one-person crews are safe, told Bloomberg News in late May that the Amtrak derailment could change the entire debate. “It makes the conversation more difficult today,” Fritz told Bloomberg. “That’s because it becomes a more emotional conversation as opposed to a conversation grounded in fact and the capacity of technology.”

WHAT’S NEXT? A year after FRA announced that it would propose minimum train crew sizes, the industry waits anxiously. Regardless of what decisions are handed down from Washington, D.C., one side of the debate will not be happy with the results and will fight until there’s only one man standing. However, even if FRA regulations allow railroads to use one-person crews, those companies would still have to forge agreements with employees and unions, meaning that regardless of what happens in the coming months, the crew size debate could rage for years to come. Perhaps no place better exemplifies that point than the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway, where management and labor have struggled to agree on crew size for more than a decade. Regardless of who you talk to — be it the president of a Class I railroad or the switchmen in a big rail yard — one thing is clear: The debate over one-person crews is a complicated and contentious one that won’t be fading away anytime soon. 2 www.TrainsMag.com

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Streetcar etcar ar named highh techh Alstom ratchets up on tech and styling in Dubai’s new tram Story and photos by Steve Sweeney

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id-morning sunbeams slice through shadows draping a new streetcar line on Dubai’s Al Sufouh Road. Their shared curves swirl beneath sandy cement skyscrapers inlaid with obsidian windows. Calm air rises as it warms over the city — a breezy reminder that this photograph will be from a hotel balcony 19 stories in the sky. Dubai’s Alstom-built Citadis streetcars pass this stretch on the quarter hour. When it rounds a corner in the distance, the Citadis will be visible for 15 seconds. Only sunlit shots count. Patient observance is preparation for capturing a photo that’s supposed to suggest a story. A story about how Dubai’s burgeoning growth and “only the best”-style urbanity led it to install the world’s most extensive application of ground-level power — a third rail you can step on. And here comes the Citadis. SNAP. SNAP. SNAP. And one good shot. It turns out that picture-taking is the easy part and the most fun when writing about Dubai. Putting this Middle Eastern city into context is the hard part. Alstom workers in France built the Dubai Tram, seen here 200 feet above ground from a nearby hotel balcony.

Dubai Tram features the most extensive ground-level power supply in the world: more than 6.6 route-miles of track. Electricity comes live only underneath a streetcar.

CITADIS PUZZLE PIECE Dubai is a growing desert metropolis of more than 2.2 million people in the United Arab Emirates, located on the eastern shores of the Persian Gulf. It is home to gold and textile merchants, the world’s tallest building, a beyond-extravagant shopping mall, golf courses, horse-race tracks, and sophisticated dreams created from crude-oil wealth. It is a blend of Middle East mystique, Las Vegas, and New York, with people and automobiles — Lexuses, BMWs, and Bentleys — everywhere.

On arriving in Dubai, I spoke with the taxi driver ferrying journalists from the Dubai airport to a hotel. We chatted briefly about small things, where I was from (Milwaukee, yes, near Chicago) and where he was from (India: Maharashtra, I think). We traveled over highway flyovers copied from Atlanta or Dallas and ended up on a 16-lane thoroughfare without equal (or potholes), but bearing tons of traffic for 9:30 p.m. on a weekday. It took about 45 minutes to navigate 22 miles. Not bad. The driver stopped for a Dubai Tram www.TrainsMag.com

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Palm Jumeirah (archipelago) P E R S I A N ( A R A B I A N ) G U L F Stations connected by walkways 2

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4 3 Jumeirah Lakes Towers Dubai Tram stations: 1. Jumeirah Beach Residence 1 2. Jumeirah Beach Residence 2 3. Jumeirah Lakes Towers 4. Dubai Marina Mall 5. Dubai Marina

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8 9 Dubai Media City

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DAMAC Properties Marina Towers Mina Seyahi Media City Palm Jumeirah Knowledge Village 11. Al Sufouh

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10 11 Dubai Internet City Sheikh Zayed

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Al Sufouh Depot (maintenance shops and operations center)

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Dubai Tram Dubai Metro - Red Line 10 Dubai Tram stations Dubai Metro stations

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grade crossing near our destination and I told him I was visiting to write about it. “Nobody uses it,” he said. Curious. That contrasts with a Gulf News report that says the tram averaged about 10,500 riders a day in January through March this year, or a total of 943,982 trips. That number is short of the Dubai government’s first-year projections of 27,000 riders a day. When it opened for revenue service on Nov. 12, the Dubai Tram, or Al Sufouh Tram, was the latest addition to Dubai’s public transportation system that already included billions of dollars spent on buses, public taxis, water taxis, and a monorail. Dubai is also home to the world’s longest automated metro rail system whose red and green lines carried more than 44 million people in the first three months of 2015. Metro stations connect the city’s districts and downtown with Dubai International Airport — among the busiest in the world — and with new subdivisions, man-made 34

Al Sufouh Road

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archipelagoes, and manicured residential and commercial districts. The tram circulates through the manicured areas along the gulf coast, enabling residents and visitors to commute in air-conditioned comfort. “The tram project will encourage people in these upmarket areas to use an alternative mode of transport instead of private cars,” Mattar Al Tayer, Dubai Roads and Transport Authority executive director, told Gulf News in April 2008. “Demographic surveys, population density estimates, and manpower distribution along the tram path revealed that those areas are inhabited by about 180,000 residents, 210,000 workers, and 20,000 visitors per day. The tram project will help us control traffic congestion in such a high concentration area.” That’s roughly equivalent to the population of Buffalo, N.Y., daily commuting As a planned piece of public transit, the Dubai Tram has priority on local roads.

The Dubai Tram is on a separated right-ofway on Al Sufouh Road in New Dubai to keep streetcars moving: about 15 to 20 mph on a typical 40-minute run.

into a strip of land a few miles long. Dubai delayed completion from 2011 to 2014 because of slow land development and because of difficulty in acquiring land for the operations center and maintenance shops. Dubai’s government plans to expand the system from 6.6 miles and 11 stations to 9 miles and 17 stations in a yet-tobe finalized Phase II. Senior Alstom officials said in March they believe the extension will begin in 2016. Designing and building the line cost about $1 billion and involved France’s Alstom and three other companies. Alstom has a separate 30-year maintenance contract. In short, it cost about $152 million per mile to raise a streetcar line from sand.

A ‘COOL’ THIRD RAIL What made the Dubai trip special is that I would have the chance to step on a thirdrail power supply in service without dying.

Slicing to the core

of the Dubai Tram Length: 140 feet Top speed: 50 mph

Go ahead, step on the third rail. Alstom’s power strip down the track center goes “live” only when a streetcar is present. The rest of the time it is relatively harmless.

Let me explain: In electric railroad parlance, third rails are typically “hot” or carry constant, live electric current to power a train or streetcar — usually enough to kill a person instantly. The Dubai Tram’s third rail carries 750 volts D.C. on a power strip of a conductive material bookended by ceramic insulating sections. It only comes “live” with a radio signal from the cast iron pickup shoe of a streetcar, and it turns off when the streetcar passes. Wires connect these 36-foot strips set in fiberglass to feeder substations, which are themselves sunk in manholes along the right-of-way. Combined, the elements and technology constitute Alstom’s APS-branded groundlevel power supply system. According to Alstom, its electrical technology is in place on systems in France, but only in short sections, such as historic districts and bridges. The ground-level power cedes to catenary everywhere else. In Dubai, the entire 6.6-mile public system is run from ground-level power. Only the maintenance shops use catenary power, enabling crews to work safely underneath and around electrified vehicles. So, when I stepped on the power strip, during journalists’ transfer from the Dubai Tram to a waiting bus, nothing happened, as expected. Electrical and design experts responding to questions from Trains declined to offer per-unit cost comparisons for installing ground-level and traditional catenary systems. They did say that Alstom’s ground-level power systems installed in other light rail networks represented about 3 percent of total capital construction costs. They also say there are no power-loss differences with ground-level power, compared to catenary. One noticeable difference is the wire used: Instead of a bare, approximately half-inch-diameter overhead contact wire, Alstom’s system embeds three insulated feeder lines in the

Pantograph: used only in shops and yards for safety Multiple double sliding doors on bridge modules

Two-motor trucks with ground-level power, contact shoes, and antenna

Can carry 408 passengers

Operator’s console, bidirectional

Running rail is negative 0 volts D.C. Power strip is positive 750 volts D.C. Operating voltage: 750 volts D.C. Permanent voltage: 500-900 volts D.C. Conductive or insulating segment Receiving antenna Voltagemeasuring cable Feeding cable Fiberglass housing

Conductive segment, powered only when under train Operating range: minus-45 degrees Fahrenheit to 122 degrees Fahrenheit

Each buried power unit powers two conductive segments

Conductive segment, not powered when exposed. Fiberglass housing, 36 feet long, surrounding 26-foot conducting element and two 5-foot ceramic sections

Track gauge 4 feet 81⁄2 inches; rails embedded in high-strength concrete finished as desired

5-foot ceramic sections

Photo by Steve Sweeney; illustration by Rick Johnson

Beneath a suave surface, Alstom designed Dubai’s Citadis for durability with the latest technology: “tropicalized” electronics, air-conditioning, and a contained third rail.

power strip, each about three-eighths-inch in diameter. Alstom engineers also say by designing a system around ground-level power, they avoid interfering with firefighting equipment and prevent service outages due to falling tree limbs, accidental damage from large trucks, or storm damage: all problems inherent to catenary-based systems and wired utilities such as electricity and cable TV. And, in the event of an outage in one powered section, the Citadis continues operating with on-board battery backups. For maintenance, inspectors walk the

standard gauge system monthly, test the transformers, and measure switches and turnouts every six months. Once a year, workers will check the track gauge of the entire network and test the power system’s operating software for faults. The vehicles also come in for scheduled maintenance on 15-day and three-month cycles. One point Alstom and Dubai officials emphasized often is the streetcars’ compatibility with the region’s extreme climate. The elements include grueling summer heat in enclosed spaces in excess of 160 degrees Fahrenheit; sudden downpours; www.TrainsMag.com

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A Dubai Tram streetcar cuts through an average sand storm. Truck-mounted brushes keep the electrical pickups clear. Alstom

With certain climate-based changes, the Dubai Citadis is the same as the ones that run in France, in the snow. Alstom

Workers with the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority hoisted a Citadis in the Al Sufouh shops. The streetcars have no steps and load passengers entirely at street level.

corrosive, salty sea air from the gulf; and sand, with desert dust often replacing clouds as a weather condition. Alstom designed stations that are sealed and air-conditioned, upgraded the controls and air on the streetcars themselves, and placed brushes on traction motors to sweep sand away from the electrical contact shoe underneath. The track is slightly elevated above surrounding roads and is embedded in highstrength concrete, immobilizing the track in the face of temperature swings and violent storms. Alstom’s thoughtful design will aid its maintenance and passenger comfort.

DESIGNING A RIDE

In the Jumeirah Beach Residence 2 station, journalists and visitors wait for the streetcar that will take them to the Al Sufouh shops. Stainless steel and glass fill each station.

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Rice bowls and wine glasses still litter the dinner table long after sunset at a Thai cuisine restaurant in downtown Dubai. Xavier Allard has pushed away his plate to make a classic back-of-the-napkin sketch. Allard is Alstom Transport’s vice president of design and styling, the man responsible for the diamond-shaped fronts on the Dubai Tram and its wavy paint scheme, suggesting sand dunes. Two American transportation editors with Allard marvel at his every pencil stroke. In a minute or two, he’s highlighted a curve, then a wheel, a door, and a front grille, until a semitruck appears — a design the

Gulf states flush with cash seek modern rail networks Imagine yourself — if only for a moment — as the leader and chief decision-maker of one of the world’s richest nations. How do you invest your riches to improve quality of life for your citizens and grow your economy? Infrastructure instantly comes to mind, but what type? If you are like the leaders of six Middle Eastern countries, you’re going to bet big on railways. Six countries have banded together, forming the Gulf Cooperation Council to connect five nations — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates — with Saudi Arabia forming a cooperative rail network. Each country’s national system is born with a distinct advantage: none of the council’s countries, except Saudi Arabia, had any railways prior to this project. This enables the design and construction of a 21st century railway built to common standards and totaling about 1,315 miles, without the usual impediment of melding a new railway into an existing — and often antiquated — system. The first 165-mile segment in the Emirates is in service. A second, 389-mile phase will connect the Emirati city of Dubai with Oman and Saudi Arabia. Oman’s geography will create steep grades on its portion of the

Frenchman is proud of. “You have seen this on the road, no?” Allard asks. No, we have not seen it, not in the U.S. anyway. Before joining Alstom, Allard was design director for Renault, the French automobile and truck manufacturer. Allard believes that trains and trucks need to incorporate design to be the most useful. That is, he believes in designing vehicles that people look forward to using and that others can distinguish from competitors. As part of Alstom’s agreement with Dubai, Allard’s design team was on site before contractors turned a shovel. As a result, Alstom designers worked on each station and platform and the look of the streetcars. They even designed the landscaping and sidewalks that weave together bike paths, taxi drop-offs, and crosswalks. Engineers made sure the artistic designs were compatible with standard hardware. He says each Citadis streetcar from Brazil to Dubai is uniquely styled with common Alstom threads. This epiphany of sorts came near the end of a 60-hour whirlwind trip. Four hours earlier, a group of 30 or so journalists were on the official press tour, grabbing photos and video where possible and angling for quotes from Alstom officials who responded mostly in English but were translated into French, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and Portuguese. We learned, for instance, that Dubai Tram vehicles, or streetcars, operate in either direction and take about 40 minutes to make a full trip on the point-to-loop system. During peak times, streetcars run every 10 minutes. They are about 140 feet long and have been “tropicalized” to operate in temperatures as hot as 122 degrees Fahrenheit or as low as minus-45 degrees.

line. Otherwise, the Arabian Peninsula is about as flat as an Iowa cornfield. Design work on Qatar’s multi-phase portion is complete. Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Railways Organization is well into crafting a 21st century railway for both passenger and freight traffic connected to neighboring countries. Eventually, the system will comprise 19 lines totaling more than 6,100 miles. Construction of this extensive system is so important to the Saudi government that the time to complete it has been reduced by 10 years. High-speed passenger service, employing push-pull diesel trains built by Talgo in Spain, will eventually link the gulf port of Dammam and Jeddah to the capital city of Riyadh and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Freight traffic is getting love too: Saudi Railways employs a growing fleet of EMD SD70ACe locomotives (equipped with special air filtration systems to catch blowing sand). Eventually, Saudi Railways lines will tap largely undeveloped mineral resources in remote parts of the Kingdom. It’s an exciting era for railways worldwide and especially in the Middle East. — Forrest Van Schwartz, an international railway consultant based in Madison, Wis.

A view from behind the motorman of a Dubai Tram Citadis streetcar. The motorman is in constant contact with the operations center. Positive train control guides every move.

The cars are divided into Gold, Silver, and Women & Children classes. Gold fares are 6 dirhams, or about $1.60, while Silver and Women & Children fares are 3 dirhams, or $0.82. Travelers pay fares with electronic transit passes that are also good for Metro, bus, and water-taxi rides. The Dubai Tram uses seven-section Citadis low-floor cars made in LaRochelle, France. The Silver interiors are air-conditioned, come with stainless steel handholds, and plush-looking seats. “Gold” service offers lounge-style seats with more elbow and leg room, armrests, and headrests. The Women & Children section is similar to Silver, but men are not allowed in. The tram doors open in sync with station doors and keep cool air inside. Dubai operators achieve this precision using Alstom’s Urbalis-brand positive train control system. Three controllers at the operations center monitor Urbalis and the entire

Dubai Tram, its electrical systems, and closed-circuit cameras. During the day, they are in constant contact with the one motorman who operates each streetcar. As far as problems go, local media say that residents dislike not being able to make left-hand turns on streets the tram crosses, and that signs for station stops and schedules are unclear. Automobile drivers who cut off the tram at an intersection face stiff fines for interfering with public transit, but drivers still cut off the tram. These might be the signs of bigger problems to come, but are likely only small challenges common to start-ups. Either way, in spending as it has to build infrastructure, Dubai officials are making their city into a rail transit leader. What is in place is efficient enough that visitors are left with only one quandary in this mega-modern city — finding a camel to get a picture with. 2 www.TrainsMag.com

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The Queen of Steam returns home to begin a third career by Jim Wrinn

A giant in a place made for much smaller locomotives, No. 611 and tender crowd into the Spencer Shops roundhouse.

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Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote that there are no second acts in American lives. He never met the likes of Cheri George, Scott Lindsay, or Preston Claytor. Not only did this trio conceive plans to restore Norfolk & Western Class J No. 611 for a second time, but they carried the plans out, culminating in the famous 4-8-4’s triumphant May 30 homecoming trip to Roanoke, Va., 65 years and one day after the locomotive was homemade in the capital of the N&W Railway. How these three people, a museum without a mainline steam presence before now, a major Class I railroad, and volunteers and donors came together to make this major miracle happen is the stuff of 21st century American railway preservation legend and lore. But it is all true. I know because I was part of the Fire Up 611! committee, a group tasked with finding the money to do the work and preparing the engine to run after 20 years of inactivity. My role was insignificant compared to the others, but it nevertheless put in me in a position to be in close touch with the people and the locomotive that Smithsonian’s curator emeritus William Withuhn declared to be the best and most powerful passenger 4-8-4 ever built.

On the last lap into Roanoke, No. 611 crosses Big Otter River near Lowry, Va., on May 30, 2015. Pages 38 -39, Kevin Burkholder

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Today, No. 611 is the latest addition to the Norfolk Southern 21st Century Steam excursion roster and the largest operating steam locomotive east of the Mississippi. It is a uniquely massive and strong engine, tied together with a one-of-a-kind style — the Tuscan Red stripe, the bullet nose, the streamlining, and a Southern accent. No. 611’s history is well known, but worth briefly repeating. Designed and built in-house as one of 14 4-8-4 locomotives to pull Norfolk & Western passenger trains, it was in regular service only nine years, 1950 to 1959, before diesels replaced it. No. 611 and her sisters were among the best in steam. They could sprint up to 100 mph on the coastal plain near Norfolk, Va., or use 70-inch drivers to dig into mountain grades in Virginia and West Virginia, all the time expending 5,200 hp to pull famous named trains like the Powhatan Arrow, the Pocahontas, and the Tennessean. After all the other Class J locomotives went to scrap in 1959, No. 611 spent most of the next two decades on display at the Roanoke Transportation Museum, forerunner to today’s Virginia Museum of Transportation. With the 1982 merger of Southern Railway and N&W to create Norfolk Southern under Chief Executive Robert Claytor, No. 611 got a restoration and began an extensive excursion career. That lasted until 1994, when NS decided to end its 28-year tradition of running steam-powered trains system-wide. No. 611 pulled its last excursion in Alabama and deadheaded back to Roanoke, where the crew dropped the fire

Five photos, Ben Earp

for the last time on Dec. 7, 1994. The engine went on display at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in downtown Roanoke at the N&W freight house. And there it sat. In 2010, with new thinking and support from Chief Executive Wick Moorman, NS decided to resume steam excursions on a limited basis, with emphasis on employee specials and a moderate schedule. Under the new model, contractors (museums and nonprofit preservation groups) provide the locomotives, the first-class cars and some coaches, and the railroad provides restored coaches, operating crews, and financial backing. Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga, Tenn., started running trips in 2011 with Southern Railway 2-8-0 No. 630 (and adding Southern 2-8-2 No.

Early in the restoration, the boiler was devoid of tubes. We’re looking into the empty chamber through a flue opening.

4501 this year). The Fort Wayne (Ind.) Railroad Historical Society’s Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 joined in 2012. But from the beginning of the new steam excursions, knowledgeable riders and dedicated preservationists had asked about No. 611 and whether the Class J could join the fleet. It was too good of a locomotive just to sit out this NS steam renewal, they explained. Moorman said NS would welcome No. 611 if another group restored it to operating condition. Fortunately, among the people asking questions about No. 611 were George, Lindsay, and Claytor, all veterans of the NS steam program, whose fingerprints were all over No. 611 from the last time it ran — all of whom had the will, savvy, and desire to see the engine back under steam once more. George had been a volunteer fireman in the last five years of the excursions. Lindsay had handled the mechanical side of the locomotive for years and went on to become one of the top steam locomotive contractors in the country. Claytor had been there when his father, Robert, ran No. 611 back to Roanoke in 1982. Preston Claytor went on to become an operating department official with CSX, worked in the shortline and regional railroad industry, and had gone into consulting. The three approached Virginia Museum of Transportation Executive Director Bev Fitzpatrick separately, and he suggested they combine forces. Together they created a business plan that drew on the best ideas from the three proposals. Within a matter of weeks in 2013, the basics for the Fire Up 611! campaign had been created. They approached and got the blessing of NS’s Moorman, and began making plans to raise money and rebuild the engine. No. 611 had been sitting under the roof of the W. Graham and Robert B. Claytor Pavilion at the Virginia Museum of Transportation, but to do the work, the locomotive needed a shop. To keep the project in front of the public, it needed a shop where visitors could watch the work but not get in the way. And, the engine needed an endowment from which its future mechanical needs could be funded. The museum mailed appeals to Trains readers, who responded with gifts large and small totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. Cheri George and Preston Claytor went on tour, soliciting donors and working NS excursion trains to let passengers know that another great locomotive might live again. Money rolled in, and NS capped it with a $1.5 million donation through the sale of an abstract painting from its art collection. In all, financial donations from all 50 U.S. states and 19 countries totaled more than $3 million. NS continuously supported the restoration in so many ways, most notably the repainting of the canteen and tool car.

When No. 611 was on display at the Virginia Museum of Transportation, the side rods were painted, but in service, they are polished so that defects are visible. Duane Leonard removes paint from the rods attached to the No. 3 axle on the engineer’s side.

Volunteer Dominick Tardogno removes Fiberglas insulation in preparation for thickness-testing of the boiler shell.

Duane Leonard, left, and Michael Ridenhour, right, clean No. 611’s side rods in January 2015 before installing them.

Restoring the locomotive in Roanoke was not an option. East End Shops, where No. 611 was made, is today a busy freightcar manufacturing plant, and NS’s Shaffers Crossing locomotive shop is equipped to handle only diesels. So the museum and Fire Up 611! chose the next-closest location, the North Carolina Transportation Museum at Spencer, N.C., where a roundhouse with compressed air, electricity for welding, a pit, and overhead cranes was available. It is 204 rail miles via the N&W and Southern Railway routes through Lynchburg, Va., between the two cities, and about 120 miles by road, so No. 611 would be easily accessible to its admirers. Additionally, the stalls in which No. 611 was to be rebuilt included a spectator gallery, where visitors could observe the work safely behind a glass partition.

mony to mark the start of the work, Moorman loosened a bolt on the engine’s pilot. The day after the event, workers wasted no time getting started on the task ahead of them. They removed the headlight and began the process of disassembling the locomotive’s jacketing and removing the lagging. The disassembly and tasks later in the project were sped by frequent and regular visits by a team of steam restoration veterans from Ohio’s privately run Age of Steam Roundhouse, most notably Tim Sposato, another NS steam program alum. Other NS steam program veterans who had worked on No. 611 in the 1990s pitched in. Steam restoration consultant Bob Yuill repaired superheater units; NS engineer Sandy Alexander and Will Sadler, a sales manager, did whatever needed to be done. “It was like we’d never stopped 20 years ago,” Alexander said. Scores of volunteers came from near and far to work on No. 611. In total, they put in more than 10,000 hours of work to restore the engine. When No. 611 was retired in December

Streamliner celebrity to patient No. 611 arrived at Spencer in May 2014, in tow behind NS’s N&W heritage unit, to become the sole steam locomotive at the Streamliners at Spencer festival. In a cere-

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Acting like a late-running Powhatan Arrow, No. 611 accelerates from an inspection stop at control point Lee in Linwood, N.C., on its May 21, 2015, test run with eight coaches behind the canteen and tool car. The 88-mile test trip showed that the locomotive was ready. TR A I NS : Jim Wrinn

1994, the Federal Railroad Administration’s 1,472-day (15-year) inspection rule didn’t exist. This was the first time for the engine to undergo this exhaustive examination and documentation of the boiler, and to make repairs under the new rules. Lindsay, who became the chief mechanical officer for the project, said he was confident the restoration would go well because No. 611 had benefited from extensive work throughout its earlier NS excursion career, receiving firebox sidesheets, a crown sheet, and a door sheet. The engine had been due for new tubes in 1995 had it run another season, so that was a given. The running gear was in good shape. “It wasn’t a ‘park’ engine that was a complete unknown,” he said. “It was a good engine that wanted to run again.” As the team moved about the engine, checking the condition of the boiler and the thickness of the metal, Lindsay noted that the rear tube sheet could be used again but might not last an entire 15-year cycle. 42

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“We could have run with it,” he said. “But the responsible thing to do was to replace it now so that we don’t have to tear the engine down in the middle of the cycle.” So they replaced it. Working to meet the new engineering standards resulted in the creation of more than 300 pages of engineering documents that set the specifications for the boiler and the calculated working pressure of 300 psi. The crew went through all 2,200 flexible staybolts, checking each one for cracks and for the proper thickness. They renewed parts and appliances, ultimately culminating in a successful hydrostatic test and eventually a stationary test-fire on March 31. Then it was time to button up the engine, put new insulation and jacketing on, and wrap it all in black, gold, and Tuscan Red. The name “Spirit of Roanoke,” added in 2011, was placed under the cab window in honor of the men and women who made and ran the locomotives that were created there.

A living J among us All of the fund-raising, all of the heavy lifting, all of the thousands of hours of work come down to one day: May 21, 2015. On this day, with a bit more than a week before the locomotive’s homecoming trip to Roanoke, No. 611 needs to get out on the main line and test the work that has gone into it over the last year. NS Road Foreman of Engines David Carter tells me that No. 611 will take it easy on its first few miles out of the museum, entering the former Southern Railway main line at Milepost 331. At Duke, just two miles to the north, a group of us are surprised when No. 611 comes bursting across the Yadkin River bridge, putting on a show as if she’d never left the main line. She slows for an inspection stop adjacent to the railroad’s new Spencer Yard at Linwood, N.C. If trouble develops, Lindsay says, No. 611 can scoot off the main line easily and get attention. No. 611 rolls to a

On a rainy, misty May 21, No. 611 crosses the Yadkin River under its own power on the NS main line for the first time in almost 21 years. With a matching Tuscan Red consist, the train conjured images of Norfolk & Western passenger trains in the 1950s. Michael Ridenhour

not been surfaced, and a kink in the track puts the locomotive cab and tender in close contact, ending the move. Until the wye is surfaced, it is not 611-friendly. The J backs its train to Spencer, where it will use the turntable instead.

Changing times: Not just excursions

stop, the inspection is made, and the locomotive comes roaring down the main, picking up speed like a late-running Powhatan Arrow working hard to make up time east of Lynchburg. No. 611 and its nine-car test train disappear into a misty Carolina morning, raining cinders down on all who watch. The vortex that follows says No. 611 is back and in fine form, having lost nothing in the last 20 years she sat. The test run ends without incident 44 miles out at Greensboro, N.C., with a turn on the wye at Pomona Yard. The crew notices a few minor problems, but nothing that would prevent the finest steam passenger locomotive ever built from fulfilling its duties for an anxious public. Firemen Tom Mayer and Cheri George grow accustomed to their charge once more, enduring a learning curve that a load of coal with more than its share of fine particles presents. The only snag on the test run comes when the engine returns to the Spencer area and backs into the wye at Salisbury, N.C., to be facing north. A new section of welded rail installed earlier this year has

Two events take place before No. 611 leaves North Carolina, proving that the locomotive has other uses besides pulling mainline excursions. Times are changing for big locomotives, and while they are still a huge draw at speed with a long train behind, they can make an impression in other ways. No. 611 presides at its own going-away party at Spencer on May 23, sitting and boiling water and going on and off the 100foot turntable periodically to entertain the crowd. In the morning and afternoon, however, the engine becomes a bucket-list item for 30 lucky folks who plunked down $611 to try their hands on the throttle of the engine for 30 minutes. In that brief span of time, under supervision of the engine’s caretakers, they get to move the engine back and forth across a section of museum trackage at no more than 10 mph. Still, the whistle is just as sweet at that speed and the bragging rights are just as big. The museum turns away hundreds more who wish they could have taken No. 611’s throttle. “Just to have the chance to do this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” says Virginia emergency physician John Schruefer, one of the lucky ones. A few days later, on May 28, No. 611 performs for 152 photographers who paid $250 each to record the engine moving about museum trackage. The engine leads a short 1950s freight train, replicating the service Class J locomotives performed at the end of their careers, when they were

cast down from passenger duty and placed in the freight pool. The engine also leads an all-Tuscan Red passenger consist with the museum’s N&W heavyweight combine, No. 1506, behind the tender. The consist looks much like the final passenger excursion in October 1959 that was No. 611’s last regular-service move. Only the twin sealed beam headlight is the giveaway that it is 2015 and not 1959. The restoration crew even gets into the act, posing to reenact the famous 1950 photo of workers wiping down the brand-new No. 611 in front of the Hotel Roanoke. After the photo event, it is time to get ready to go home. The engine gets a bath and fresh lubrication, and it ties onto its train the evening of May 29. The trip home will be a repeat of the last day of No. 611’s 1982 inaugural, leaving North Carolina in the morning and returning to Roanoke, Va., in the afternoon. In the ensuing 33 years, it is a different railroad with new people and equipment. But the end goal is the same: to get No. 611 back home again in steam.

No. 611 veteran Cheri George takes a turn in the fireman’s seat on the return portion of the May 21 test run. TR A I NS : Jim Wrinn www.TrainsMag.com

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Having run up the former Southern main line and transferred to native N&W rails, No. 611 cuts the classic color position light signals at Blue Ridge, Va., as she eases into Roanoke, home, and a waiting crowd. Kevin Sadowski

For a May 28 photo event at the North Carolina Transportation Museum, No. 611 pulled a heavyweight combine and matching coaches, simulating the consist on its last run, an excursion in October 1959 between Roanoke, Va., and Bluefield, W.Va. TR A I NS : Jim Wrinn

Spectators line the fence at Chatham, Va., to watch No. 611 pass. Organizers estimate that more than 70,000 people lined the tracks to see the locomotive go home. Most were in Virginia, and U.S. 460 turned into a traffic jam in the engine’s wake. Steven J. Brown

Going home, again On the morning of May 30, about 8:12 a.m. engineer Bob Saxtan drops No. 611’s reverse lever into the forward position, opens the cylinder cocks, blows the whistle twice, and cracks open the throttle. Fireman Tom Mayer responds with the stoker, adding more coal to the fire. A minor volcano erupts in the sky as No. 611 responds, tugging on the 17 cars behind her canteen with authority, and walking herself to the mainline switch. No. 611 returns to a busy railroad, and a constant parade of stack

Additional coverage Want more on No. 611? Our 76page special magazine “611 in Steam” will be available soon. Order at www.TrainsMag.com

44 Trains AUGUST 2015

Your guide to Norfolk & Western’s best power

IN STEAM

Return of the finest steam passenger locomotive — ever

Restoration details

1950-2015 action photos

Class J history David P. Morgan on N&W steam power

trains outside the museum delays the special’s departure by almost a half-hour. Once released, in a matter of minutes, No. 611 and her train are cruising down the NS main line toward home. On board are 200 contributors, volunteers, and supporters, including Moorman on the NS theater car Buena Vista. The train rolls along in the upper 30s out of deference to NS’s 40-mph speed limit on steam. But you can almost sense that the engine wants more tonnage and more speed. The locomotive paddles along: impressive, yes, but it is never taxed anywhere near its limits. Town after town rolls by in the furniture, textiles, and tobacco country of the North Carolina and Virginia Piedmont, and each crossing is packed with spectators, some railfans, some locals. All are waving, cheering, and sometimes bursting

into spontaneous applause. For the Class J, home N&W rails begin at Kinney Yard in Lynchburg, Va., where more water and 200 more guests join the train for the last leg into Roanoke. From here on, the last 60 miles, the crowds are thick and have waited for hours to see this sight — the roads are jammed with traffic. No. 611 crests legendary Blue Ridge grade with ease and comes into Roanoke to a hero’s welcome. A crowd of 2,000 listens intently as local officials praise the restoration, No. 611 providing the exclamation points on cue with the sounding of its deep, baritone Hancock three-chime whistle. At the end of the ceremony, Moorman steps to a place near No. 611’s pilot to replace the bolt he took out a year earlier. His act marks the ceremonial completion of the locomotive. Across town, museum officials break ground on No. 611’s permanent home on the Virginia Museum of Transportation campus. No. 611’s new home is in the works. Another $1.2 million is needed for this. The end has come to No. 611’s second restoration, its second homecoming trip is now history, and the locomotive is at the start of its second excursion-train career. In a matter of days in early June, No. 611 will roam the state, visiting Manassas and Lynchburg to pull excursions, and doubling back to Spencer to get a boiler wash and to provide more throttle-time opportunities. She is set to return home to Roanoke for Lynchburg and Radford trips July 3-5, in a celebration of American ingenuity. No. 611 has roared back in steam to become the goodwill ambassador for a major railroad company with a heart as well as the shrewd insight that railroad history is a genuine and useful tool to win the admiration of the public. She assumes a new role as the inspiration to the Facebook generation of railroaders and to thousands of fans who will come to know and appreciate this fascinating business because of her. She will be the roving icon of the Virginia Museum of Transportation and a rolling billboard for the city of her birth. Sustaining No. 611 will be more hard work for all involved, and its continued repair will go on in a never-ending cycle. When it comes to steam locomotives, the task is never done, no matter how great or beautiful they are. A big, fast steam locomotive requires constant maintenance, a home, and a relentless source of funding. For certain, steam locomotives need us just as much as we need them. And that, without a doubt, is a good thing. 2

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Weathering the storm The dark clouds billowing above the Cascade foothills portend spring rain for Oregon’s Willamette Valley. They also form a fitting backdrop for the Albany & Eastern Railroad’s triweekly Mill City local. Mill City is an apt name for dozens, if not hundreds, of towns throughout the West — frontier settlements that grew around the business of cutting firs and pines into studs and joists. The local freights trundling out to reach these towns became icons of railroading’s more personable side. The train crews knew their shippers by name, and if you lived in one of these towns, they probably knew you by name, too. Of course, we know what happened next. Recessions in the early 1980s and late 2000s decimated the housing market, environmental concerns curtailed logging on federal lands, and the railroad industry looked increasingly to intermodal and unit-train operations. In its glory days when this branch was part of the Southern Pacific, the Mill City local swelled to 80 cars; on this May morning in 2009, it carries but three empty boxes for the Freres Lumber Co. plywood mill, one of only two active shippers at the end of the line. Freres has weathered many storms since it opened in 1922, and Chinese orders helped it through the most recent crisis, which brought down many larger operations located much closer to main lines. And thanks to grants from the state of Oregon, the Albany & Eastern is in its best shape in years. But make no mistake: These are still trying times for the Mill City local and its remaining counterparts in the Northwest. — Scott Lothes

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Technology comes full circle at Ohio’s premier train-watching spot Story and photos by Brian Schmidt “I don’t have control anymore,” operator Jim Parsons told Norfolk Southern intermodal train No. 218. “It’s been given to the IP (dispatcher).” With that simple statement, Parsons, a 42-year railroad veteran, summed up the closure of the famed F Tower in Fostoria, Ohio, which occurred about an hour before the train’s passage on the morning of March 30, 2015. Control of the crossing of CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern tracks had been passed to a dispatcher in Indianapolis, further reducing the ranks of manned interlocking towers in the U.S. Fostoria is home to three mainline crossings that together see upward of 100 trains some days. The busiest line, CSX’s own Willard Subdivision, handles traffic between Chicago and the Northeast, while 48 Trains AUGUST 2015

the railroad’s Columbus and Pemberville subdivisions handle traffic between Toledo, Columbus, and the Southeast. Norfolk Southern’s eponymous Fostoria District, connecting Chicago and Fort Wayne, Ind., with the Northeast, crosses both lines on two sets of double-track diamonds. In all, there are 13 diamonds in Fostoria, making traffic control a daunting task. That complexity could create another level of entertainment for the visiting railfan. Such was traffic that a tower operator would often enthusiastically have a train “hold ’em at Jones (Road)” to stay clear of grade crossings. A few moments later, he would call the train to “bring ’em on” once the diamonds cleared up. CSX believes the transfer to Indianapolis will only make that task easier.

“Transitioning the responsibilities of F Tower to the Indianapolis center provided a broader view of train operations and enhanced ability to plan meets and passes,” CSX spokeswoman Gail Lobin says. “The more expansive view of train volumes, including preview screens from the Norfolk Southern, led to significantly improved operations efficiencies at an interlocking that had previously been challenged.” The challenges faced by CSX and NS leading up to the March closing paled in comparison to those seen in Fostoria 65 years earlier. Before F Tower opened in 1950, most trains through Fostoria were required to make two stops in each direction and to obey commands of signalmen on duty 24 hours at each crossing. An account pub-

lished in a trade journal at the time of the tower’s opening in 1950 estimated that the new facilities would save trains between 12,000 and 24,000 hours of transit time annually. The tower, constructed at a cost of about $950,000, originally controlled five main lines: the Toledo-Charleston, W.Va., route of the New York Central; the Toledo-Columbus route of the Chesapeake & Ohio; the Akron-Chicago route of the Baltimore & Ohio; and the Cleveland-Chicago and the Sandusky, Ohio-Peoria, Ill., routes of the Nickel Plate Road. The project, led by the NYC, was financed by all four railroads and included upgraded crossing protection at 14 grade crossings in the city. The city is no stranger to railroad innovations. In 1927, the first CTC installation opened on the NYC’s former Toledo & Ohio Central route through Fostoria; the dispatcher, located in a tower on Jackson Street on the north side of town, controlled about 40 miles of main line between Stanley, southeast of Toledo, and Berwick. That tower still stands along the former NYC right-ofway, within view of the CSX line to Toledo. While its installation would mark a revolution

in railroad operations, the remoting of F Tower to Indianapolis is more evolutionary. Parsons, one of five operators at F Tower at the end, was eligible for regular railroad retirement in July, but made a deal to walk away with the closure of F Tower. His mark on railroading in northwest Ohio, however, spread farther than the levers and mouse clicks at F Tower. Ask Dale A. DeVene Jr., a former operator at F Tower who trained on the C&O with Parsons back in 1979. DeVene was hired as an operatorclerk, after the railroad combined the two trades. “Being able to move trains efficiently took a lot of concentration, a lot of planning ahead, plus crossing of your fingers that nothing would go wrong,” he recalls. “Stubborn crews, switch and signal problems, motive power problems — even a 3 a.m. derailment that rerailed itself — all made the operator’s life interesting.” Before an upgrade in 1999, operators in F Tower used a machine that was based on General Railway Signal Co.’s NX platform. The machine controlled 68 home signals, 32 switch machines, and 11 electric locks on handthrow switches in the interlocking. After its re-

Top left, a CSX eastbound passes F Tower on the former B&O route in 2005; top right, this mailbox marks the tower’s official location; upper middle, the front of the tower on its last day, March 30, 2015; lower middle, tower operators collected news stories about the pending closure on the refrigerator upstairs; bottom, operator Jim Parsons answers the phone on the last day.

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A CSX auto rack train uses the northwest wye (at left) as another crosses on the former C&O.

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tirement, it was donated to the Marion Union Station museum, located about 40 miles south in Marion, Ohio, where it is preserved by a cadre of local signal enthusiasts. DeVene says he would normally handle 15-20 trains per shift; exceptionally busy shifts saw more than 25 trains. Aside from coordinating train movements, the tower operators would keep the bathrooms clean and perform other housekeeping tasks. One night he recalls mopping the floor to stay awake during a particularly slow shift. “I’m sad to see it go,” he says of the tower. “It’s sad to lose the history.” The B&O and C&O each provided two operators for F Tower, one for each shift and a swing, until summer 1980, when C&O employees took over all the positions. DeVene left the railroad in November 1983. “The economy in the early 1980s was sluggish and the railroads figured out they could eliminate operator-clerks by consolidating the clerks” to Baltimore, he says. He spent his final shift in F Tower with friend and fellow operator John Lyon. It was “a fitting end to a short, yet great, career on the C&O,” DeVene adds. Lyon, the last operator hired on the Columbus Division in 1971 before the crafts were combined, offers another view of working in Fostoria. “I was just lucky that I was able to work the waning days of the towers on the C&O, and it worked out beautifully,” he says. “When I started working at F Tower, it was a privilege, I thought.” Before graduating high school, he stopped in the C&O’s division offices at Parsons Yard in Columbus. He was hired on the spot based on his reputation of hanging out with tower operators as a teenager. He characterizes working in Fostoria in the 1970s as “challenging as heck.”

While train counts were lower then, Lyon notes that more trains worked in town, on both the C&O and B&O sides, generating more moves for the tower operator to handle. With local moves, Lyon says, the train counts by the tower during his tenure were comparable to the 120 trains a day that the city sees today, making for some busy shifts. Add in five yard crews working in town, two each on the C&O and Norfolk & Western, and one on the B&O, and an operator’s job could soon devolve into chaos. Lyon notes that, until 1976, Penn Central, and earlier the NYC, operated through Fostoria, creating more congestion. Three time a week, he recalls, PC locals from the south and north would meet in Fostoria and swap cars at a small yard on the north side of town and interchange with the B&O near F Tower. Lyon left the railroad in 1985 to pursue other career opportunities. During his time on the railroad, he also worked C&O-staffed towers at Upper Sandusky, Marion, and Toledo. For all of their experience and intricate knowledge of local operations, operators are not invincible. In early 2015, a medical emergency left F Tower without an operator, and control was transferred to Indianapolis for the remainder of the shift. It wasn’t the first time, either. Lobin says such a transfer was handled “several times” in the past few years as necessary, and it was handled each time without undue disruption to rail traffic. The tower operator, in fact, worked “under the direction of the IP Dispatcher,” according to a CSX employee timetable. In addition to lining trains, the tower operator would also serve as a front-line employee between CSX and local officials. One of those

Top, a southbound Penn Central freight approaches F Tower in August 1968; in the foreground is the B&O main line. Middle, a westbound B&O train approaches the C&O diamond in front of F Tower in the Chessie System era. Bottom, the original CTC board as it appeared in 1980. Top, Brian Schmidt collection; middle and bot tom, Dale A. DeVene Jr.

>> Fostoria forever To view more photos of Fostoria’s nonstop rail action and to find a train-watching guide, go to www.TrainsMag.com

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CSX train R348, at left, was the last train to pass under the control of F Tower at 9:09 a.m. on March 30. It departed once eastbound train S264, right, cleared the interlocking.

tasks, unofficially, was coordinating train moves with local emergency first responders. With the closure of F Tower, those arrangements will have to made through another system. One option is CSX Rail Respond initiative, Lobin says. The program, the first of its kind among Class I railroads, provides first responders with mobile access to information during emergency situations involving the railroad. The transfer process was performed for the final time on March 30 as Indianapolis took the reins from Fostoria. The cutover was bulletined for 9 a.m., and all of the back-work was done ahead, so it only took about five minutes to transfer control to Indianapolis the last time, Lobin says. Just two days after the cutover, the operator’s equipment was removed from the upper floor, leaving the tower to serve as a glorified office and storage locker for local maintenance personnel. Prior to the cutover, all regular dispatchers and most extra-board dispatchers who are qualified on the IP desk went to Ohio for a week to observe the territory and operations. The few extra-board operators that did not make the trip before the changeover were trained by the dispatchers who did go, Lobin says. Indianapolis, formally the Great Lakes Division Operations Center, has eight dispatchers’ desks, plus an assistant chief dispatcher from the union ranks and a director of train operations. The facility is staffed for three shifts, seven days a week, and it’s overseen by a management chief dispatcher and a superintendent of train operations. So far, the change seems to be working. “Since F Tower shut down, things are running somewhat better than what we thought it would,” said a CSX conductor 52

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working in the area who requested to be unnamed. “The (former) B&O is running mostly nonstop, and, from what I see, they have been letting NS across reasonably, too. “The locals that serve the industries around town are doing all right, but there are days when they have to wait longer to get signals they need. But the dispatcher seems to be willing to work with them as much as possible.” Those industries, while largely changed from the era in which F Tower opened, are still vital to the railroads. At the turn of the 20th century, Fostoria was a glassmaking city. The brand of glassware that bore its name even appeared frequently in railroad dining cars. The natural gas boom that led to glassmaking created a varied industrial base that remains. The city was — and still is — a major

player in the grain-milling business. ADM and Fostoria-based Mennel Milling Co. have large rail-served operations. Nearby, Seneca Wire & Manufacturing Co. receives industrial-sized shipments of wire by rail. East of town, NS serves a large Ford “mixing center,” an automobile distribution and logistics center that sees a number of inbound and outbound train movements each day. South of town, a CSX-served landfill receives dozens of cars of garbage a day, transferred from trains arriving on the former B&O line. “When F Tower was open and trains needed head room on the B&O, the operator would give it to them right away unless he had something close by or lined up already,” the conductor says. “Nowadays, crews are waiting for up to five trains to go through before getting head room (to perform switching moves).” A local track inspector working on the former B&O route through town echoes his comments. “Surprisingly, things have been working better than everyone thought,” CSX track inspector Ron Schwiebert says. There are still some hiccups, however. “Yard jobs are still having problems getting a hold of a dispatcher to work around town,” he says. “And the NS may not agree with things going smoothly.” He says it was much easier in the past to call F Tower with issues on the CSX-NS diamond under his supervision. The communications and operations improvements in the past 65 years have made railroading safer and more efficient, but, as Schwiebert notes, sometimes there’s no real substitute for another set of eyes in the field. 2

CSX now controls Fostoria’s web of trackage from its Indianapolis dispatching office, a former Conrail installation located in the heart of the city. Eric Powell

Canadian National train No. 341 crosses Union Pacific’s Chicago-Omaha main line at West Chicago, Ill., under the supervision of “JB” tower. The former Elgin, Joliet & Eastern structure is one of 13 active towers in the Chicago metro area. Two photos, Mark Llanuza

TOWERS IN 2015: THE SURVIVORS Even before the first “Tower Tribute” was published in TRAINS 20 years ago, the end was near for the tower era in the U.S. The spread of communications technology reduced the need for the many tower and station operators who once served as the train dispatchers’ eyes and ears along the right-of-way. Likewise, Centralized Traffic Control systems have, for the most part, eliminated the need for an employee to operate switches and signals on site. Along with strides in high-speed communication networks, CTC has made it possible for a single train dispatcher to control hundreds of miles of track, when in days past, dozens of tower operators shepherded trains from station to station under the direction of a dispatcher. Rather than directing a legion of tower operators to route train traffic to conform to his wishes, today’s train dispatcher simply controls the train movements directly on a computer screen. In what was likely the high-water mark for the noble interlocking tower, the Illinois Railroad Commission in 1913 documented 392 active towers (incorporating nearly 15,000 levers) in the Prairie State. Sixty-seven of those towers were in operation within the Chicago city limits alone. The development of CTC in 1927 was the opening act in a wave of change that would eventually doom the interlocking tower. CTC eliminated most of the need for train-order operators, and provided the capability for a single dispatcher or tower operator to control many miles of railroad in a fail-safe system from afar. The changes in the amount of passenger and freight traffic by rail after the end of World War II further hastened the pace of remote control of interlocking plants and the demise of the interlocking tower. Some 238 active interlocking towers in the U.S. and Canada were tabulated at the time of TRAINS’ “Tower Tribute” issue in April 1995. That list included dozens of obscure small-town towers that were simply redundant, but also included 10 towers serving New York City’s Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station. The message should have been clear: If New York’s busy interlocking towers, each controlling hundreds of switches and signals, could fall to technology, no tower anywhere should be considered invulnerable. The situation in 2015 is even more dire. The number of active interlocking towers has plummeted to a mere 91. Active interlocking towers remain in only 17 states and the District of Columbia, and several of these states only having a single tower. Six states — Florida, Maine,

Maryland, Oregon, Tennessee, and West Virginia — have lost their last active interlocking towers since 1995. Not surprisingly, Illinois remains the home to the most survivors among an endangered species: 13 towers remain active in the Chicago metropolitan area, with another five remaining downstate. Twelve towers remain active in Ohio, but the active towers remaining in the other states are all in the single digits, with New York and Pennsylvania leading the pack at nine each. The active towers remaining in 2015 can be broadly characterized as being located in urban areas, at movable bridges over waterways, or both. Plans are underway to replace several of the remaining towers scattered across the nation. Though the closing of every tower eliminates local expertise by veteran railroaders and an extra set of eyes, ears, and hands to contribute to the dispatching of the railroad, the changes brought by technology make the closing of these often outmoded towers too compelling for the railroads to ignore. With the ability to operate the railroad with fewer employees, the manned interlocking tower will become increasingly rare in the coming years. — Jon R. Roma, a software engineer at the University of Illinois and interlocking tower historian

Norfolk Southern’s “Hick” tower, a former Conrail operation, controls lift bridges crossing the Chicago River in northwest Indiana. It also handles Amtrak and CN trains. www.TrainsMag.com

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Three weeks gone in three minutes

One fall 2008 weekend found me railfanning near Geneva, Ohio. While driving back home at day’s end, I investigated area sites for future trips. Perry, Ohio, hosts two crossings. The westernmost of the two was more appealing to me, and as I stood trackside looking west I realized that within a few weeks the sun would be close to setting right down the bore of that stretch of track and would result in interesting photography options. Once home, I located my notes about CSX Transportation activity and found that the railroad runs several westbound trains through Perry every weekday between 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. I decided to go back to that grade crossing in a few weeks during good weather. Three weeks later, on a weekday morning, I put all my gear in the car so I could head to Perry right after work. At quitting time, I headed straight for trackside. I had just arrived near the crossing, taken my camera out of the trunk, and put in my ear protection when the grade-crossing warning lights started to flash, the bells began to ring, and the crossing gates began to drop. I looked to the east just as a westbound CSX train with Union Pacific run-through power AC44 No. 6666 with a solid string of empty aluminum-sided coal hoppers blasted through the crossing with engines roaring and horns blaring. The distant signal bridge said the road was his if he wanted it, and it was obvious from his speed that he had accepted the offer. I tracked him from east to west with my camera (you just have to love autofocus), simultaneously racking the shutter speed to the proper setting and ripping off shots as fast as I could. In an instant, he was gone and silence returned to claim the grade-crossing high ground. There was a pause and then, with the quiet whir of electric motors, the crossing gates returned to vertical, the bells and lights turned off, and the few cars and trucks waiting for the train quietly bumped and thumped their way over the gradecrossing tracks and disappeared. I stood there with a vague sense of unease, as if there was something more I needed to do. It took a couple of minutes for me to realize that three weeks of planning had come and gone in three minutes. All that was left to do was get back in the car, go home, and look at the images I had captured. So, after one last look east and west, that’s what I did. — Robert S. Butler

www.TrainsMag.com

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IN MY OWN WORDS

A Lake Superior & Ishpeming train serves another customer in Marquette, Mich., Empire Gas, on Feb. 23, 1989.

Mike Polsgrove

UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCES Despite working in the office, an employee no longer feels insulated from the dark side of railroading by Brian Buchanan

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A bad day on the railroad can be dangerous, or even fatal. Just one slip-up can have serious consequences. But this heavy responsibility falls on the guys in the field. I felt immune to causing any calamities, safely sequestered at my desk in the office, miles from the tracks. When having my version of a bad day, I would often put things in perspective by saying to my coworkers, “At least on this job you can’t kill anyone.” Unfortunately, an office job did not totally guarantee immunity to mishaps. While with the Chicago & North Western in the early 1980s, I heard about a trainprocessing clerk at Proviso Yard who proved this point. She had worked up an inbound train from one of our Chicago connections and identified an empty intermodal flatcar that had come to us in error.

(Empty cars move in accordance with carservice rules, which govern how they are handled between railroads. It is not unusual to have a car or two received in error in a large delivery from another road.) She marked it up to return back to the offending carrier. While moving back to Wood Street, it derailed. Although she handled the car correctly, she was still teased by coworkers for causing the derailment. After all, it was in that train only due to her actions. Similarly, a car-management colleague on another railroad once inadvertently furnished a customer a covered hopper that had last contained rat poison ingredients. Unfortunately, the customer was loading feed. The end result was about a half-dozen dead cows, along with a large freight claim. And then there was “my”

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dirty-dirt train when I was in Wisconsin Central’s car-management department handling gondolas and open-top hoppers. In our aptly named department, we managed the railcar fleet, overseeing where the empties went and, in general, controlling the equipment. Nothing could happen with a move until we got the cars to the customer for loading. Even though our responsibility technically ceased then, we still felt ownership of the moves. (It was partly out of self-defense, as “today’s loads are tomorrow’s empties.”) There was competition for this ownership viewpoint, however. The sales reps, who were responsible for looking after the customers and developing new business, felt the moves were “theirs.” And the marketing guy who had formulated the rate to make the move possible in the first place, also called it “his” move. Only operations would disavow ownership of any moves. When issues arose, they would refer to it as “your” move. Anyway, back to the dirty-dirt train. Starting in 1993, a lakefront site in Marquette, Mich., that had formerly been a charcoal plant was being cleared of contaminated soil so it could be redeveloped. At the start of the project, when transportation options were being formulated, it was estimated that 40,000 tons of dirt would have to be disposed of. As this translated to at least 400 railcars and the disposal site was in Utah, rail was selected to move it.  The Lake Superior & Ishpeming would switch the loading site, with the loads moving out over the C&NW to Hermansville, Mich., then down the WC to Chicago, back to the C&NW, and eventually to the Southern Pacific. The cars had to be lined with plastic before being loaded, so the contractor originally planned on using gondolas. The C&NW and SP promised cars. Unfortunately, when the time came for the move to start up in November 1993, surging scrap prices had created a nationwide gon-

A Wisconsin Central train traverses the same stretch of track as the “dirty-dirt” train, at Lomira, Wis., south of White Lake, Wis., on Oct. 27, 1994. Two photos, Brian Buchanan

CSX bathtub gondolas and other cars of contaminated dirt arrive at Schiller Park, Ill., northwest of Chicago, on a Wisconsin Central train in November 1993.

dola shortage. C&NW initially reneged on furnishing cars, and the SP cut its participation way back. The contractor, faced with an idle work site if cars could not be found, called on Wisconsin Central’s president in desperation. Coincidentally, only a few hours prior to his call, CSX people had been visiting the WC and had mentioned they had a large surplus of open-top hoppers. This was not the ideal car for the contractor, since it required more extensive lining before loading (which was more labor-intensive), but beggars can’t be choosers. A call to CSX confirmed the car availability, and we requested a train of 100 bathtub gondolas, which are basically open-top hoppers with solid bottoms. Thus was created the convergence of the above-mentioned elements. Bernie, our boxcar fleet manager, was always at work first. A few days after the CSX trainset had been ordered, I walked into our office area to start my morning. Bernie, intent on his work and trying to wade through a night’s worth of printouts and faxes, didn’t look up. “You know how you

always said you could never kill anyone on this job?” he asked nonchalantly as I passed him. “Yeah,” I said inquisitively. “Well, you finally did last night. Someone drove into the side of your dirt train and killed themself.” He handed over to me the chief dispatcher’s morning report that summarized the prior night’s operations. Sure enough, as the train had been approaching White Lake, Wis., in the dark, a teenager had driven into the rear of the train, derailing the last four cars and killing himself. It was at a county road south of town, protected only with crossbucks — no gates or flashing lights. I felt deflated. And I didn’t want it to be “my” train any longer. 2 BRIAN BUCHANAN is a career railroader from the Chicago area, starting in 1981. This is his seventh Trains byline. www.TrainsMag.com

57

PRESERVATION

BY JIM WRINN

‘Y’ wouldn’t you go home? Norfolk & Western Y6a No. 2156 goes back to visit Virginia

Together again after 56 years, No. 2156, No. 611, and No. 1218 compare notes at Roanoke, Va., on June 1, 2015. TR A I NS :

Jim Wrinn

NS Senior General Foreman Bob Saxtan lubricates the running gear of the Y6a during the move from St. Louis to Roanoke.

Giant 2-8-8-2 No. 2156, tied down for photos without its diesel escort, sits on the former N&W main line at Welch, W.Va., on May 11, 2015. Two photos, NS: Casey Thomason

Famous author Thomas Wolfe wrote that you can’t go home again. But that is not the case for Norfolk & Western Y6a No. 2156, long displayed at the Museum of Transportation in suburban St. Louis. In May, the giant 2-8-8-2, built in the N&W shops in Roanoke in 1942 and retired in 1959, made the trip home to Virginia in tow behind a Norfolk Southern Geep with cars for N&W No. 611’s excursion train. 58

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The locomotive is on loan to the Virginia Museum of Transportation for five years in a deal that has the Virginia Museum’s FTB on loan in St. Louis, where it is on display with FT demonstrator No. 103. Additionally, NS repainted the St. Louis museum’s Union Pacific Centennial diesel No. 6944 at NS’s shop in Altoona, Pa. En route, NS paused to photograph the locomotive in places made famous by

N&W’s giant homemade steam power. The trip went via Decatur, Ill.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; and Bellevue, Ohio, before heading south to travel home on N&W rails through the heart of West Virginia coal country made famous by O. Winston Link’s night action photos of N&W steam. Link’s scenes recorded memorable images of the Y6 class on the point of and pushing coal trains. The return of the Y reunites the magnificent three locomotives of the N&W, the heavy coal-lugging Y, the fast time-freight locomotive in Class A 2-6-6-4 No. 1218, and the fast and powerful passenger locomotive in No. 611. The three were in one place, in their hometown, on May 31 for the first time in more than 56 years, a feat that would surely please the N&W designers, shop crews, and train crews.

Southern 4501 hits the main Beloved Mikado is back on Norfolk Southern rails in 2015

Southern Railway 2-8-2 No. 4501 pulls after an inspection stop near Ooltewah, Tenn., on a test run May 1. E.M. Bell

Norfolk & Western No. 611 isn’t the only locomotive polishing Norfolk Southern main lines this summer. Two other well-known iron horses are galloping on the rails of the Thoroughbred. Beloved Southern Railway No. 4501, restored last September and operated on shortline and museum trips since, made its first NS mainline appearance May 1 with a test trip from Chattanooga, Tenn., to Cleveland, Tenn., pulling nine cars. The 1911 Baldwin product, famous for its 19661994 excursions on Southern and NS, was set to run Bristol, Tenn.-Radford, Va., and Bristol, Tenn.-Bulls Gap, Tenn., excursions in late June for owner Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. It will also tour Georgia with more excursions out of Macon and Atlanta in late September and early October. For details, see www.tvrail.com. Meanwhile in the Midwest and Northeast, Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 is set to embark on a tour that starts in July and goes through early September. Excursions begin out of its hometown in Fort Wayne, Ind., then move to Youngstown, Ohio; Buffalo, N.Y.; and Allentown, Pa. Additional 765 excursions are being planned to originate out of Steamtown in Scranton, Pa., and for the 1944 Lima-built Berkshire to appear at Steamtown National Historic Site’s annual Railfest, Sept. 5-7. Details about 765’s journeys and excursions can be found at www.fortwaynerailroad.org.

>> A Centennial is reborn — in Pennsylvania

As part of the loan of N&W Y6a No. 2156 to the Virginia Museum of Transportation (opposite page), NS repainted former Union Pacific DDA40X No. 6944 at Juniata Shops in Altoona, Pa., for the Museum of Transportation, which owns both locomotives. UP ran 47 of the twin-engine, 6,600-hp Electro-Motive Division units between 1969 and 1984, saved 13 for preservation, and kept one, No. 6936. NS: Casey Thomason

>> PRESERVATION BRIEFS

Steam returns to Ohio tourist line

Ohio’s Hocking Valley Scenic Railway fired up former Ohio Power Co. 0-6-0 No. 3, a 1920 Baldwin, for the first time on May 9, following a multiyear restoration at Nelsonville, Ohio. The railroad runs on a former Chesapeake & Ohio branch to Logan. Details: www.hvsry.org. HVSR

Famed early 1960s steam holdout Buffalo Creek & Gauley 2-8-0 No. 4 leaves its longtime home at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, N.C., on May 19. The 1926 Baldwin had been at the North Carolina museum since 1978. It was sold to Durbin & Greenbrier Valley for use on the to-be-restored Chesapeake & Ohio line between Cass, W.Va., and Durbin, W.Va. Five tractor-trailer loads were required for the engine and tender. The engine ran on West Virginia’s BC&G until 1964, then moved to tourist lines in Pennsylvania and Virginia. It last ran in 2001, disguised as Southern Railway No. 604, and was under rebuild, which stopped in 2008. Plans call for it to be returned to steam as BC&G No. 4 in time for its 90th birthday in September 2016. Work will take place at Cass Scenic Railroad’s shop in Cass, W.Va. TR A I NS : Jim Wrinn

www.TrainsMag.com

59

HOT SPOTS

BY BOB MILLER

Coast Line hideaway Southern California delivers train-watching intrigue

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A northbound UP local passes the Chatsworth station in May 2015.

RADIO FREQUENCIES: Metrolink road, 160.545.

FOR YOUR FAMILY:

Several parks provide family accommodations trackside, and Chatsworth is full of shopping and dining options. Be sure to check out the former SP Santa Susana depot museum, located along the Metrolink main line to the west. For more information about the museum, go to www.santasusanadepot.org. — Bob Miller

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TRAIN-WATCHING: This part of the Coast Line is now the property of Metrolink, operated as its Ventura County Line between Oxnard and Los Angeles Union Station. The commuter railroad operates more than 20 trains through Chatsworth on weekdays, but does not offer weekend service. Several trains call Chatsworth their northern terminus, laying over 10-15 minutes before heading back south. Amtrak serves up 10 Pacific Surfliners daily, as well as its long-distance Coast Starlight. Union Pacific contributes several freight trains during the day, mostly locals between Los Angeles, Guadalupe, and Simi Valley. Northbound road freights usually operate in the daytime, but southbound trains are usually night owls. The line is not a major route for through freight, although unit crude-oil trains, detours from other main lines, and auto rack repositioning trains do show up. The best time to catch them is on the weekend, when commuter trains are not operating.

The northbound Guadalupe local typically operates Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays and is usually seen in Chatsworth between 3 and 5 p.m. The southbound leg is in the evening. The Simi Valley local operates as needed, and can come through at any time, usually in the morning. The locals regularly operate with modern genset locomotives. The downtown Metrolink and Amtrak station is a great location to take in all the action in an urban setting. Just to the north, check out Stoney Point, a popular trackside location for film shooting going back 80 years. The area is north of the station along Topanga Canyon Boulevard. To the west, a number of parks offer more relaxed locations to watch.

Topanga Canyon Boulevard

LOCATION: Chatsworth is a neighborhood of 41,000 people, located in the San Fernando Valley northwest of downtown Los Angeles. It has traditionally been a favorite trainwatching spot in the region, situated on the former Southern Pacific “Coast Line” between Los Angeles and San Francisco. A now-abandoned SP branch from Burbank once ran nearby. The city is, perhaps, best known for a fatal 2008 collision between a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight that started the modern mandate for positive train control. However, that incident should not color potential visitors’ perceptions of train-watching in the area.

Kuehner Drive

THIS MONTH: CHATSWORTH, CALIF.

A northbound Amtrak Pacific Surfliner snakes through Corriganville Park and the Simi Valley west of Chatsworth, Calif. Two photos, Bob Miller

Plummer Street

27 Nordhoff Street

>> Want to enter our online photo contest? www.TrainsMag.com/Trackside

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61

HOT SPOTS

BY ERIC HENDRICKSON

Wonder Pole takes photos to new heights Cheaper than a drone, this product will put a fresh angle on your railroad photography A new trend is emerging in

The author added support to the top and base of the Wonder Pole to accommodate a larger camera.

camera into a Wi-Fi-capable device. A bonus feature is the ability to have the photos transferred to the controlling device for immediate editing or sharing. So the next time you’re trackside, maybe getting a little height on your subject will help your shots! — Eric Hendrickson, a railfan from northern Florida

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This shot of a northbound Florida East Coast intermodal at St. Augustine, Fla., shows the elevation gained using the Wonder Pole for railroad photography. Three photos, Eric Hendrickson

railroad photography: elevating the camera to get a better view of the overall scene. Let’s face it, trains are big and need to be shown in context when you create a photo. The photographer can also get over obstructions such as fences or guardrails that may affect the photo. A hot topic in photography and the rail industry, aerial drones are expensive, often $1,500 or more. However, a simpler, cheaper solution is now available: the Wonder Pole. It’s a lightweight fiberglass extension pole, and it includes a camera mount. The pole costs less than $200 and is built for use with lighter, modern cameras. The Wonder Pole extends to 21 feet when fully opened and sits at less than 5 feet when compacted for transportation. With a few simple modifications, a larger digital SLR-type camera can be used on it. I added a half-inch-by-4-foot aluminum rod to the top section and a contractor’s surveying tripod to the base. I modified the tripod with a 2-foot section of 2½inch PVC pipe with a flange on it. This makes the pole steadier. The photographer needs to be able to trigger the shutter to take the photos. Many newer cameras have Wi-Fi communications built in, enabling a smartphone or tablet to trigger the shutter remotely. I enhanced my camera outfit with CamRanger, an add-on device that turns a digital SLR

This second photo at St. Augustine shows the new panoramic photography options that the Wonder Pole opens up.

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ASK TRAINS

>> This Month:

Q

Why is it that a D.C. traction locomotive can stay below its continuous full-power minimum speed limit for only 30 minutes while an A.C. traction unit can grind away in notch 8, or top power, for hours at 5 mph without burning up its traction motors? — Michael Paslawskyj, Cumming, Ga. Minimum continuous speed is the speed at which the heat generated A by the traction motors can be managed effectively by the locomotive. When a D.C. locomotive falls below its minimum continuous speed, an engineer must refer to the ‘short-time rating’ found on the ammeter in the locomotive cab. This chart, located on or near the ammeter, ensures that the design limits of the equipment are not exceeded, which would result in damage or failure of the traction motors. The higher the flow of amps to the traction motors, the less time the locomotive can continue to operate below its minimum continuous speed. Newer computercontrolled locomotives self-govern this process, eliminating the need to post these ratings in the cab. The reason is that D.C. traction motors have brushes that supply electricity when they make contact with commutators on the shaft of a traction motor. Electricity conducted through the brushes turns the commutators and shaft that enable forward (or reverse) movement. If a D.C. motor sits still under a load for any length of time, an engineer risks damaging the brushes and other nearby parts from the heat generated. An A.C. traction motor is a much simpler design than D.C., and has no brushes or commutator. Instead, an electromagnetic field constantly — and invisibly — pushes on a rotor connected to a shaft in a constant wave. Since the magnetic field is constantly rotating around a stator when the locomotive is

Q

There were numerous named passenger trains that spanned distances beyond the reach of a single railroad, such as the California Zephyr between Chicago and Oakland, Calif., jointly operated by the Burlington, the Denver & Rio Grande, and the Western Pacific. It appears that the maximum distance any of these jointly operated trains ran was between Chicago and the West Coast. Was there ever a passenger train that operated all the way from the East Coast

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under load, the traction motor’s shaft can rotate slowly or not move at all without damage to the traction motor. This arrangement also allows an A.C. traction motor to withstand higher temperatures under load than its D.C. counterpart. Sensors on an A.C. locomotive will detect traction motors at risk of overheating and reduce the power flow to the traction motor(s) as necessary to keep them within normal operating temperatures. — Chris Guss

An ammeter in a GP40-2 with the shorttime rating plate below. Note the duplicate time chart listed on the gauge as well. Chris Guss

to the West Coast, and if not, why? — Scott Palmer, Colorado Springs, Colo.

The Sunset Limited became the country’s first transcontinental train when Amtrak expanded the former Southern Pacific Los Angeles-New Orleans triweekly train to Miami in April 1993. The Sunset was cut back to the Orlando, Fla., area in 1996, however, because freight delays on Union Pacific and CSX Transportation hammered the train’s schedule. It then

A

• Locomotives’ minimum speed • Coast-to-coast passenger train • ‘Dead freight’

Amtrak’s westbound Sunset Limited pauses for a station stop in Atmore, Ala., at sunrise in January 1995. It was the nation’s first and only transcontinental passenger train. Bob Johnston

stopped running east of New Orleans following extensive damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29, 2005. Although CSX immediately rebuilt its tracks and towns restored most stations along the route within several years, Amtrak continues to show service between New Orleans and Jacksonville, Fla., as “suspended.” Prior to Amtrak’s debut in 1971, competing railroads terminating at Chicago, St. Louis, and New Orleans provided so many options that there was no need for a train across the continent. However, the lines did jointly establish transcontinental Pullman sleeping car routes through these cities. (The last such car was a New YorkLos Angeles sleeper on the Crescent and Sunset through New Orleans, operated by Amtrak until 1985.) At Chicago, where trains to and from both coasts often arrived and departed from different stations, cross-country travelers were permitted to leave everything in their rooms while the cars were switched; the passengers transferred on a shuttle bus. — Bob Johnston [Editor’s Note: Look for Bob Johnston’s complete rundown on the latest possibilities for reviving Amtrak service along the Gulf Coast in the September 2015 issue.]

Q

In U.S. railroading, what does “dead freight” mean? — Colin Mundell,

Christchurch, New Zealand In the rail industry, “dead freight” can mean any nonperishable shipment A that has to be manually loaded and unloaded. It can also denote heavy or unwieldy shipments. — Matt Walker, CSX Transportation locomotive engineer

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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

1275 McKinstry Street

FLORIDA

Fort Myers SEMINOLE GULF RAILWAY 1-75 exit 136 at Colonial Blvd.

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.

Murder Mystery Dinner Train

www.hoosiervalley.org

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) GEORGIA

Folkston THE INN AT FOLKSTON B&B

3576 Main Street (Formerly 509 West Main Street)

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!

ILLINOIS

Union ILLINOIS RAILWAY MUSEUM 7000 Olson Road

888-978-5562

www.coloradotrain.com

326 East 7th

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

Trains AUGUST 2015

800-272-0152

KENTUCKY Versailles BLUEGRASS SCENIC RAILROAD AND MUSEUM

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

90-minute train rides through Thoroughbred horse country.

INDIANA Connersville WHITEWATER VALLEY RAILROAD

MARYLAND Baltimore BALTIMORE STREETCAR MUSEUM

5th and Grand

175 Beasley Road

Central

Kentucky

Weekends May through October. www.BluegrassRailroad.com

800-755-2478

1901 Falls Road

877-726-RAIL

COLORADO Leadville LEADVILLE COLORADO & SOUTHERN

66

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! www.kyrail.org

COLORADO Alamosa RIO GRANDE SCENIC RAILROAD

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.

401 Kentucky Street

136 S. Main St.

912-496-2220

www.MRYM.org / 877-762-9011

610 State Street

KENTUCKY Bowling Green HISTORIC RAILPARK & TRAIN MUSEUM

991 Iron Horse Place — Monticello Illinois 61856

[email protected]

www.santacruzrailway.com

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

ILLINOIS Monticello MONTICELLO RAILWAY MUSEUM

252 Bowery Lane

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
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KANSAS Abilene ABILENE & SMOKY VALLEY RAILROAD

Step back in time as you tour our 2 story train museum and take a guided tour of our historically restored railcars.  Climb aboard five restored railcars and hear about their colorful past. The 1921 Railroad Post Office Car, The Duncan Hines Diner, The Towering Pine Sleeper, The Presidential Office Car and The Little Red Caboose. Also currently under renovation is our E-8 Engine and our newly obtained “Jim Crow” Passenger Car. http://historicrailpark.com/1882-jim-crow-passenger-car/ Check us out on Facebook and Twitter! www.historicrailpark.com 270-745-7317 KENTUCKY New Haven KENTUCKY RAILWAY MUSEUM

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 Homeland OKEFENOKEE RV PARK 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.

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

INDIANA North Judson HOOSIER VALLEY RAILROAD MUSEUM

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.whitewatervalleyrr.org

765-825-2054

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

MASSACHUSETTS Hyannis CAPE COD CENTRAL RAILROAD

NEW YORK Saratoga Springs SARATOGA & NORTH CREEK RAILWAY

252 Main Street

26 Station Lane

110 Railroad Avenue

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
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The Adirondacks offer four seasons of beauty best seen along breathtaking waterway vistas in heritage cars with exceptional service and classic rail dining. r
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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. r
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MONTANA

OHIO Bellevue MAD RIVER & NKP RAILROAD SOCIETY

Essex (Glacier Nat. Pk) IZAAK WALTON INN

www.SNCRR.com

290 Izaak Walton Inn Rd.

877-726-7245

OREGON

MOUNT HOOD RAILROAD

www.mthoodrr.com

810 S. Main St.

Open daily 12 – 4pm Memorial Day through Labor Day – weekends only May, Sept. and Oct. Visit our web site. 419-483-2222

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City OKLAHOMA RAILWAY MUSEUM 3400 NE Grand Blvd

All Aboard ! ~ Celebrating 75 Years ~

Come for a ride on our historic railroad 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.izaakwaltoninn.com

www.oklahomarailwaymuseum.org

NEBRASKA North Platte GOLDEN SPIKE TOWER & VISITOR CENTER

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 PENNSYLVANIA

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. 406-888-5700

800-872-4661

PENNSYLVANIA Marysville Bridgeview Bed & Breakfast

233 York Street

www.madrivermuseum.org

405-424-8222

OREGON EAGLE CAP EXCURSION TRAIN

Elgin

300 Depot Street

1249 N Homestead Rd

Hood River

Robertsdale

FRIENDS OF THE EAST BROAD TOP 550 Main Street

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!

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. www.eaglecaptrainrides.com 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

800-323-7330

OREGON Garibaldi OREGON COAST SCENIC RAILROAD 402 S. American Way

discoversc.net

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.

www.oregoncoastscenic.org YOUR STATE

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

1-800-849-9633

TEXAS Cedar Park AUSTIN STEAM TRAIN ASSOCIATION

NEW YORK Catskill Mountains Delaware & Ulster Railroad 43510 State Hwy 28, Arkville, NY 12406

• 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

503-842-7972 Your City

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

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. Take a trip back in time and experience the travel of yesteryear. Visit www.AustinSteamTrain. org for details. Hop online, then hop aboard! www.AustinSteamTrain.org

(512) 477-8468 www.TrainsMag.com

67

TEXAS

FLATONIA RAIL PARK

Flatonia

WEST VIRGINIA Landgraff ELKHORN INN & THEATER Route 52 (Between Eckman & Kimball)

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

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] TEXAS Grapevine GRAPEVINE VINTAGE RAILROAD

WISCONSIN Green Bay NATIONAL RAILROAD MUSEUM

705 S. Main St.

2285 S. Broadway

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.

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

www.gvrr.com TEXAS

www.elkhorninnwv.com

800-708-2040

PO Box 166

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
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E8948 Museum Road

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 WISCONSIN Spooner RAILROAD MEMORIES MUSEUM Front and Walnut Streets, downtown Spooner

877-726-7245

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

360-748-9593

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TrainsMag.com 68

Trains AUGUST 2015

WEST INDIES

ST. KITTS SCENIC RAILWAY

St. Kitts

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

WASHINGTON Chehalis CHEHALIS CENTRALIA RAILROAD & MUSEUM 1101 SW Sylvenus Street

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

WISCONSIN North Freedom MID-CONTINENT RAILWAY MUSEUM

817-410-3185

Rusk & Palestine TEXAS STATE RAILROAD

ONTARIO Waterloo WATERLOO CENTRAL RAILWAY 330 Farmers Market Road

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: 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. Send your ads to: magazine – Classified Advertising 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 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 WISCONSIN Trempealeau INN ON THE RIVER 11321 Main Street

If trains are your passion, our Inn offers a spectacular view of the BNSF, CP, Amtrak, & ICE railroad lines that run on both sides of the Mississippi River. Sit back and enjoy the show from your balcony. Two Amtrak stations within 20miles. [email protected] www.InnontheRiverWisconsin.com

608-534-7784

WYOMING Cheyenne CHEYENNE DEPOT MUSEUM 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

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 190 TIMETABLES AMTRAK TO WESTERN PACIFIC, 39 employee timetables B&ORR to Southern. Selling as a group, $350/lot OBO. Call 803-981-4379 for list.

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.

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.

7Idea Productions ...................................... 12

PHOTOS, PRINTS AND SLIDES

A & R Productions ........................................8

TOP DOLLAR PAID for slide collections and locomotive builder plates. [email protected] or 216-321-8446

Big E Productions .........................................5

RAILROAD ART ORIGINAL GIL REID PAINTING. Large watercolor from 1976 depicts “Crescent Limited” behind green-and-gold Southern Ps4 Pacific. Email: [email protected] or call 414-429-0306.

Alstom Transportation ..................................2

Big South Fork Scenic Railway .................... 61 Bowie Railway Station Museum ...................63 C R Scholes .................................................8 Douglas Area Chamber of Commerce.......... 61

MISCELLANEOUS

Duffields Station, Inc. ...................................8

RAILROAD PATCHES, 1,000 designs. Catalog $5.00. Patch King, Box 145, York Harbor, ME 03911.

Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad .............63

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 ORIGINAL SLIDE COLLECTIONS PURCHASED. Any railroad or railroad subjects. Call 908-755-5454.

Fillmore & Western Railroad Company ......... 61 Four Ways West .......................................... 21 Gold Hill Historical Society .......................... 14 Golden Spike Tower .................................... 62 Greg Scholl Video Productions ......................8 Henry Repeating Arms ..................................9 Herron Rail Video ........................................ 12 Historic Railpark & Train Museum ................ 61 Knoxville Locomotive Works........................ 76 Locomotive 2015 ....................................... 15

RAIL SHOWS AND EVENTS 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. AUGUST 8, 2015: Atlanta, Georgia, 49th Atlanta Railroadiana & Model Train Show. North Atlanta Trade Center, 1700 Jeurgens Court. 9:00am-4:00pm. Admission: $8.00, under 12 free. Over 300 tables. Miller, 3106 N. Rochester St., Arlington, VA 22213. Phone: 703-536-2954. E-mail: [email protected] or www.gserr.com SEPTEMBER 5, 2015: RAILFANS’ DAY at Conway Scenic Railroad, North Conway, NH, tel: (800) 232-5251. Join us for a day of special runs! Ride our “EXTRA” freight and passenger trains. Seats available in the caboose, and the free night photo shoot is open to all! ConwayScenic.com, [email protected]

Monte Vista Publishing ................................ 12 Morning Sun Books, Inc. ...............................5 MTU ........................................................... 76 New River Train Excursions ......................... 61 New York Air Brake ..................................... 17

Penn State Altoona ..................................... 13 Radio Hospital ..............................................8 Rail Fest .....................................................63 Railcom ........................................................5

AUCTIONS

RailWorks Corporation ................................ 12

railroadbooks.biz ..........................................8 Railway Supply Institute .............................. 11

Ron’s Books ............................................... 19 Semaphore Records .....................................8 Signature Press .......................................... 12 Society of International Railway Travelers .... 19 Sonrisa Publications ................................... 12

Your classified ad can:

Tell ‘em what you’ve got Tell ‘em what it will do for them Tell ‘em how to get it

Don’t wait any longer! Place your classified ad today! 888-558-1544 ext. 815

SPECIAL REPORT Railroading’s biggest blunders: There’s much more than Penn Central (Nos. 3, 7, and 11 will surprise you)

Chicago Union Station: John Gruber takes a look at this sacred place in 1968 and now Glenbrook: A narrow gauge steam legend returns in Nevada

Ohio Locomotive Works .............................. 14

2015: Hub City Railroad Museum, Oelwein, IA 319-2831939. Open Sundays 1:00pm-5:00pm, May 3rd through September 27th or by appointment. Heritage Days August 15-16, 9:00am-5:00pm. CGW tower, pump handcar, F7-116A, cabooses, rolling stock and new displays.

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.

SEPTEMBER ’15

Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum .............63

Is it dusk or dawn for Amtrak’s ‘Sunset Limited?’ Map: Where new locomotives are built in North America Adapting locomotives for worldwide use Visit an Iowa hot spot Rocky Mountaineer service to Seattle

Tom E. Dailey Foundation, Inc. ......................8 Trains Books .............................................. 10 Trains magazine .........................................65 Trains magazine - Digital Edition ..................65 TTX Company............................................. 21 Whitewater Valley Railroad .......................... 61

Plus: Fred W. Frailey, Don Phillips, Gallery, and much more!

On sale Aug. 11, 2015 www.TrainsMag.com

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Gallery

Finishing touches A signal maintainer provides the final touches to newly installed signals on Union Pacific’s Coast Line, near Salinas, Calif., in September 2010. The signals had been placed in service just hours earlier, replacing Southern Pacific-era searchlights. — Photo by Elrond Lawrence

Light up that halo With postgame fireworks in progress and the illuminated “halo” atop the scoreboard (visible behind the knot of passengers at the end of the platform) indicating a win over the New York Yankees, southbound Metrolink train No. 644 awaits passengers after a Los Angeles Angels baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., on June 14, 2013. — Photo by David Styffe

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RDCs under wire Three BC Rail RDCs make a rare appearance on the road’s electrified Tumbler Ridge line near Whitford, B.C., during a fantrip on Sept. 18, 1987. — Photo by J.W. Swanberg

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Trains AUGUST 2015

Lonely territory Western Pacific Zephyrette No. 376, a Budd RDC-2, hits 70 mph as it passes through desolate Cholona, Nev., on the morning of Oct. 13, 1951. — Photo by Norman Holmes

Home on the Range The last passenger operation on iron ore carrier Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range — an RDC run from Duluth to Winton, Minn. — pauses at Two Harbors, Minn., on March 9, 1958. — Photo by William D. Middleton

>> Want more photos? Check out the “Photo of the Day.” Go to www.TrainsMag.com

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Saskatchewan scene Ex-Canadian National SD40s pass an abandoned grain elevator at Dankin, Sask., on the aptly named Big Sky Rail, a short line owned by Mobil Grain Ltd., on July 4, 2012. — Photo by A. Ross Harrison

Service with a spark

Full-scale model Wearing a design honoring modelrailroading manufacturer Auscision Models, Chicago Freight Car Leasing Australia unit B65 — a double-ended Clyde Engineering model ML2 — idles with Melbourne’s skyline in the distance on Sept. 11, 2011. The photographer is organizing an Australian version of “Streamliners at Spencer” in 2016. — Photo by Bernie Baker

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Trains AUGUST 2015

Viewed from the vestibule of the business-class car, an Amtrak HHP-8 creates a small arc between the pantograph and catenary as it leads a Northeast Regional train south to Washington, D.C., in May 2013. — Photo by Matt Donnelly