CARLOAD SERVICE: WHY IS IT SO ERRATIC? p.

12

www.Trains.com • January 2023

THE magazine of railroading

How Amfleet
saved Amtrak
The right cars at the
right time solved an
equipment crises p. 18

Transcon:
Delayed trains,
no crews. What’s
going wrong? p. 28

PLUS
A boxcar load of 1960s memories p. 14
Why one train a day isn’t enough p. 8
News crew stopped at nothing to ‘get the shot’ p. 38
ALL !
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In this issue January 2023
Vol. 83, No. 1

Features In every issue From the Editor

COMMENTARY News p. 4
Why is carload service The fate of the proposed
so erratic? p. 12 Canadian Pacific-Kansas City
An old problem threatens to Southern merger now rests
make a comeback Victor Hand with the regulators

Bill Stephens p. 8
Trouble on the Transcon When once-daily train service Carl Swanson
p. 28 isn’t enough [email protected]
Crew shortages create bottle- @TrainsMagazine
necks, delay freight on BNSF, Brian Solomon p. 10 @trains_magazine
CSX, NS, and UP Bill Stephens Anniversary for commuter

T
rail in the Northeast he numbers tell the
Anything for the shot story. Crew shortag-
p. 38 Preservation p. 42 es on Class I rail-
That’s the names of the game The last Alaska Railroad roads crippled on-time perfor-
when the stakes are high steam engine celebrates a mance for much of 2022. But
Geoffrey H. Doughty restoration milestone what do those numbers mean
in the real world? To find out,
Remembering the 1960s Train-Watching p. 46 Bill Stephens traveled across
p. 14 Hot spot: Neenah, Wis., where country, rented a car, and
From a string of wood-sided box- access and variety add up to drove along the BNSF from
cars and a drawer of memories great train-watching Barstow, Calif., to Belen, N.M.
spring a ‘soleful’ discovery Normally this line is a model
John Roskoski Ask TRAINS p. 48 of efficiency but what Bill
What is a transfer caboose found on BNSF’s Transcon
Gallery p. 52 and how is it used? was a tale of two railroads. On
A collection of favorite winter one railroad hotshot Z trains
images from Trains’ readers and guaranteed service Q-
celebrate a dramatic and Trains.com symbol stack trains roared
challenging time of year along at track speed and en-
joyed lightning-fast crew
facebook.com/TrainsMagazine changes. But other trains
COVER STORY ON THE COVER: weren’t moving very well and
The cars that saved In the mid-1970s, Amtrak made a sometimes weren’t moving at
Amtrak p. 18 bet-the-company decision by twitter.com/TrainsMagazine all. Turn to page 28 for Bill’s
How Amfleet became Amtrak’s ordering 492 Amfleet cars. first-hand look at a persistent
go anywhere, do anything pas- Nearly 50 years later, nearly all — and nationwide — problem.
senger cars John Friedmann remain in service. David Lassen @trains_magazine

Editor Carl Swanson TRAINS.COM SELLING TRAINS MAGAZINE OR PRODUCTS Subscription rate: single copy: $7.99 (U.S.). Print +
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Trains.com 3
News

CP-KCS decision now

rests with regulators
STB wraps up hearing, accepts final filings; decision expected in January

A northbound Kansas City REGULATORY REVIEW of the STB to put teeth behind promis- said CPKC’s plans to run
Southern manifest freight passes Canadian Pacific-Kansas City es that Canadian Pacific Kansas 12,000-foot trains would tie up
a stopped TEUX empty coal train Southern merger reached the City would keep gateways open multiple key junctions simulta-
at Page, Okla., on KCS’s Heavener home stretch in October after on reasonable terms, including neously, which would hurt lo-
Subdivision on April 15, 2022. seven days of public hearings on at the busy U.S.-Mexico border cal service to the 900 customers
Doug Koontz the first combination of Class I crossing at Laredo, Texas. in the Houston terminal.
railroads in two decades. Now In its final brief, Canadian CN and Metra raised simi-
it’s a waiting game. National said it would be willing lar concerns about the merger’s
The Surface Transportation to accept trackage rights over impact on freight and commut-
Board received final briefs on the KCS line linking Springfield, er operations in Chicago.
the merger on Oct. 24 and Ill., with Kansas City and St. CP and KCS made their
must issue a CP-KCS decision Louis. Previously CN had called closing arguments on the hear-
by late January. The merger — only for divestiture of the line, ing’s final day, telling regulators
which analysts and industry which would allow it to create the combination was in the pub-
observers expect will be ap- a new single-line route from lic interest and that critics either
proved — would become effec- Kansas City to Chicago, Detroit, didn’t do their homework or
tive 30 days later, allowing CP and Eastern Canada. were seeking conditions that
to take full control of KCS. Union Pacific sparred with would stifle competition. They
CP and KCS argue that the CP and KCS over capacity in also said the merger would not
$31 billion merger should be the complex Houston terminal, create operational problems in
approved without conditions where KCS’s cross-border traf- Chicago or Houston.
beyond promises the railways fic relies on trackage rights over The hearings were initially
have made regarding service, UP. CP and KCS say there’s set for three days, but STB
interchange protections, plenty of capacity for the eight Chairman Martin J. Oberman
Amtrak and commuter trains, additional trains the merged said he didn’t want to rush the
and deals reached with lineside railroads expect to run, partic- railroads or board members.
communities that would be af- ularly if UP stopped parking “There’s just too much at stake
fected by increased train traffic. long trains on the main line here,” he says of what’s likely to
But the other Class I rail- while they arrive or depart be the last Class I railroad
roads disagreed. They asked the Englewood Yard. UP, in turn, merger. — Bill Stephens

4 JANUARY 2023
A buffer coach follows the Park observation car on the westbound Canadian near Kamloops, British Columbia, on Oct. 19, 2022. Russ Grycan

Structural concerns lead to buffer cars

for VIA Rail Canada heritage trainsets
Government order requires extensive tests, but cars are called safe for normal use

CITING CONCERNS RAISED by an indepen- ber; a tear-down inspection of four cars

dent consultant, VIA Rail Canada began with structural defects, and a compression
operating trains with unoccupied buffer test of two unrepaired cars, with reports on
cars at the ends of consists with stainless findings due Jan. 31, 2023. After that, VIA
steel, head-end-power-equipped heritage must perform a compression test of a fully
rolling stock in mid-October. repaired car “to validate the repair method-
VIA’s move was followed by a safety ology and provide ... an assessment of how
order from Transport Canada, which test outcomes will inform future repairs and
formalized the buffer-car requirement and mitigating measures” by Dec. 31, 2023.
will likely require it through 2023. That VIA said it had set up a joint technical
order also set out an extensive program of task force to analyze the results of inspec- An unoccupied car, now required under a
inspection and testing to cover the HEP-1 tions by engineering firm Hatch and Transport Canada order, carries the markers
cars, manufactured for Canadian Pacific in develop a repair program. That task force for the Canadian at Otterdale, Ontario, on
1955, and the HEP-2 equipment, mostly includes current and former VIA employ- Oct. 17, 2022. Chris Wilson
built by the Budd Co. in the 1950s, ac- ees and Hatch representatives.
quired from Amtrak, and modernized by To comply with the order, VIA’s flagship European-built Renaissance equipment.
VIA in the 1990s. Canadian began operating with empty cars Those trains already carried buffers be-
The order indicates the existence of behind its Park-class dome-lounge-obser- tween the Renaissance and heritage cars
widespread concerns regarding the integri- vation, which is part of its premium-priced because of the differences between the two
ty of the cars, but does not reveal the Prestige class service. Other trains, such as types of equipment.
nature of the defects. the train to Churchill, Manitoba, which op- Because the order requires buffer cars
VIA said in a statement — and the safe- erates with a Park car during fall polar-bear at both ends of the consist, VIA also halted
ty order emphasized — that the cars “are watching season, ran with that car closed carriage of pets in its baggage cars and
safe to run under normal operating condi- to passengers. closed those cars to passengers. The compa-
tions” but that buffer cars have been added Along with those trains, the order af- ny had previously allowed passengers to
“to reduce the consequences in the unlikely fects remote-service trains in Quebec; six enter the cars to tend to their pets. This rep-
event of a train-to-train collision.” consists operating in the Quebec-Windsor resented a significant inconvenience for pas-
Among the measures the order requires corridor that use heritage trainsets; and the sengers on the remote-service routes using
are a simulation of car performance in a Montreal-Halifax, Nova Scotia, Ocean, the heritage equipment; pet transport on
collision, which was due at the end of Octo- which operates with a mix of HEP and those routes is widespread. — Bob Johnston

READ THE LATEST RAIL NEWS. VISIT TRAINS.COM Trains.com 5

 NEWS

Metra receives
first rebuilt
SD70MACH
Remanufactured freight
diesel marks return of
six-axle power, first with
AC traction motors
METRA’S FIRST SD70MACH locomotive has
been delivered, marking the return of six-
axle commuter diesels to Chicago after
more than a decade, as well as the intro-
duction of AC power.
The locomotive is the first in a 15-unit
order rebuilt from former Kansas City
Southern/Transportación Ferroviaria Mex-
icana SD70MACs sourced from Progress
Rail’s locomotive fleet. While the balance of Wearing the paint scheme of the predecessor Regional Transportation Authority, Metra’s first
the order will arrive in Metra’s current SD70MACH is unwrapped on delivery at BNSF’s 14th Street Shops on Oct. 11, 2022. Mark Llanuza
paint scheme, No. 500 was painted to com-
memorate the upcoming 50th anniversary When the SD70MACH is operating nor- Chicago & North Western E8s and Burling-
of the creation of the Regional Transporta- mally, the fifth and sixth inverters will ton Northern E9s, with the A1A configura-
tion Authority in 1974. alternate HEP duties to keep usage uniform tion, as well as C-C-trucked F40Cs pur-
In announcing arrival of the first unit, across the equipment. chased new by Metra’s predecessor, the
Metra highlighted the greater durability of Under current federal emission stan- Regional Transportation Authority, in 1974.
AC power, noting that it currently replaces dards, SD70MACs such as these would fall They were essentially a SDP40F with head-
about 160 DC traction motors annually, under the Tier 0 emission requirement, the end power instead of steam generators.
while it has never had to change an AC lowest emission standard. Metra chose to Metra expects to receive approximately
traction motor in 14 years of operating upgrade the SD70MACHs to Tier 3 emis- one new SD70MACH per month starting in
AC-powered cars on the Metra Electric line. sions, requiring the addition of flared radi- November. It has options for up to 27 more.
The locomotives will also be Metra’s first ators on the long hood to accommodate Revenue service is still some time off,
with the B1-1B truck arrangement, in the additional engine cooling needed. with crew and mechanical training just
which the two axles closest to the fuel tank While six-axle commuter power has tra- begun along with resolving any bugs that
are unpowered. This allows four of the lo- ditionally been rare, Metra has the most six- inevitably arise during the delivery of a
comotive’s six AC inverters to be assigned axle experience of any agency in North new locomotive order. That testing is
to the traction motors, with a fifth used for America. The newest locomotive will be its not just going on at Metra; there’s also an
HEP, and the sixth as a spare for either fourth six-axle model, with its third truck SD70MACH at the Transportation Tech-
traction or HEP in case of inverter failure. configuration. Previously, it operated former nology Center in Colorado. — Chris Guss

NEWS PHOTOS
SWITZERLAND’S RHÄTISCH BAHN marked the 100th
anniversary of its electrification and 175 years of Swiss
railroading by setting a record for the longest passenger
train, with 100 cars, on Oct. 29, 2022. The meter-gauge
train was 1.9 kilometers long (2,078 yards, or 1.18 miles),
and was made up of 25 four-car electric multiple-unit
trainsets built by Switzerland’s Stadler. It made a 15.6-mile
trip from Preda (at 1,788 meters, or 5,866 feet) to Alvaneu
(at 1,000 meters, or 3,281 feet). It traveled mostly around 20
mph and, using electrical regenerative braking, generated
4,000 kilowatt-hours of power. The train had seven engi-
neers, 21 other technical personnel, and hundreds of pas-
sengers. It broke a record set by a 70-car train that ran
from Ghent to Ostend, Belgium, in 1991, which remains the
record for a locomotive-hauled train. — Keith Fender
Rhätisch Bahn/Philipp Schmidli

6 JANUARY 2023
 NEWS BRIEFS

Hurricane hammers
Florida short line
The 105-mile SEMINOLE GULF RAILWAY in
southwest Florida sustained an estimat-
ed $28 million in damage as a result of
Hurricane Ian, including washouts to six
major bridges. The railroad, based in
Digging in to mark the groundbreaking for CREATE’s Forest Hill Flyover are, from left, AAR Fort Myers and the only freight operator
CEO Ian Jefferies, Metra CEO Jim Derwinski, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Illinois Gov. J.B. on the state’s southern Gulf Coast, host-
Pritzker, CSX Chief Legal Officer Nathan Goldman, Cook County Board President Toni ed a group of government officials in
Preckwinkle, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin. David Lassen mid-October in an effort to gain support
for emergency federal aid. The railroad

Officials congregate for launch says with that help, it could reopen with-
in 90 days to help transport supplies for
rebuilding the Fort Myers area, which
of latest CREATE project was devastated by the hurricane.

Denver-based OMNITRAX agreed to

Forest Hill Flyover, 71st Street grade separation will purchase the assets of the 155-mile
SAN LUIS & RIO GRANDE RAILROAD, a for-
begin untangling 75th Street Corridor bottleneck mer IOWA PACIFIC HOLDINGS property
that has been in bankruptcy for three
TO WEIGH THE SIGNIFICANCE of ground- 2018 and has lined up $260 million in state, years. The SL&RG, a former Denver &
breaking for Chicago’s Forest Hill Flyover local, and railroad funding. Rio Grande Western line connecting Ala-
and a related grade-crossing project, Several speakers highlighted that coop- mosa and Antonito, Colo., to the Union
consider the adage that “success has erative effort between levels of government Pacific at Walsenburg, Colo., will become
many fathers, but defeat is an orphan.” and private entities as the key to starting the 26th OmniTRAX railroad. The com-
Then consider the 13 speakers and this project, and to the success of CREATE pany reportedly offered $5.75 million; al-
many other representatives from federal, in general, which so far has completed 33 most $4 million will address back taxes.
state, county, and local government that projects. And some suggested that while its
were part of the ceremony for that achievements were local, its importance as STEVE POFTAK announced he would
groundbreaking. a model for infrastructure work could, or step down as general manager of the
This project is a big deal — both in im- should, extend well beyond Chicago. MASSACHUSETTS BAY TRANSPORTATION
pact and by price tag, part of the biggest in “This is a really critical model we need AUTHORITY on Jan. 3, 2023, after four
the 70-project menu for the Chicago Re- to use nationally,” said U.S. Rep. Marie years at the helm and a year before the
gion Environment and Transportation Effi- Newman (D-Ill.), a member of the House end of his contract. Poftak was credited
ciency program, or CREATE. So everyone Committee on Transportation and Infra- by many for leading the agency through
wants to be seen as part of the solution to structure. Seconding that notion was the COVID-19 pandemic and a series
Chicago’s biggest railroading bottleneck. Surface Transportation Board Chairman of operational issues that led to FEDERAL
The work will build a bridge to carry a Martin J. Oberman. TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION safety direc-
north-south CSX Transportation main line “I have held CREATE out as an example tives, but also was heavily criticized by
over east-west tracks used by Norfolk in recent years, particularly for the gate- the state’s U.S. senators during an Octo-
Southern, Metra, and the Belt Railway of ways in Houston and New Orleans, which ber hearing on MBTA shortcomings.
Chicago, eliminating two sets of at-grade very much, although on a smaller scale,
diamonds. It will also build an underpass at have the same congestion we have here,” Two construction workers on the Ben
71st Street, replacing a much-blocked Oberman said. “And I have recommended Franklin Bridge, linking Philadelphia and
grade crossing. to them, and will continue to do a little bit Camden, N.J., were struck and killed by
There actually had been an a prior more than recommend … that they imple- a PATCO SPEEDLINE commuter train on
groundbreaking in 2018. But this time, it ment a CREATE-like project.” Oct. 14. A NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION
came on the verge of actual work: all fund- Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot pointed SAFETY BOARD preliminary report says
ing and permitting is set, and portable con- out the operational impacts that will come the men were on a track scheduled to
struction-company offices are in place next from separating the right-of-ways at a spot be closed to accommodate concrete
to the groundbreaking site. where “30 Metra and 90 freight trains cross work, but that they entered before the
This is part of the far-larger 75th Street each other’s paths each day,” while Metra track was shut down. The train was trav-
Corridor Improvement Project, a massive CEO Jim Derwinski said the impact would eling at 33 mph when the engineer saw
untangling of lines that also involves Union extend far beyond the project site. the men but was unable to stop in time.
Pacific and Amtrak. The overall project was “What we’ve realized through CREATE The NTSB and DELAWARE RIVER PORT
eventually broken into pieces as its overall is when you fix one part of this network, AUTHORITY, which operates the bridge
cost reached more than $1.5 billion. The es- you actually start seeing benefits anywhere and owns the Port Authority Transit
timated cost of this portion is about $380 from five to 100 miles out,” Derwinski said. Corp., are among those investigating.
million; it received a $132 million grant in “It’s really impressive.” — David Lassen

Trains.com 7
COMMENTARY

When daily service

just isn’t enough
Bill Stephens
Amtrak, freight railroads should [email protected]
@bybillstephens
step up service frequency Analysis: Trains.com

R
ailroads have what you could call a one-train problem. So as I type this I am sorry to say that I am aboard Southwest
That is to say they offer but one daily departure from flight No. 237 to Pittsburgh. I’d much rather be rounding Horse-
Point A to Point B. A case in point is Amtrak’s Pennsyl- shoe Curve on train No. 43.
vanian, which links New York City and Pittsburgh. The one-train problem proved to be an insurmountable barrier.
I wanted to ride Amtrak to a rail shippers confer- And you have to wonder how many other people living near God
ence in the Steel City. I’m blessed to live in Western Massachusetts, knows how many Amtrak stations remain would-be passengers —
where we are well connected to the Northeast Corridor. From instead of paying customers — simply because there’s just one
Springfield Union Station you can catch Amtrak’s Valley Flyer or daily train from here to there. And there are a lot of them. Think
CTrail commuter service to New Haven and a cross-platform con- of any train with a name, from Adirondack to Vermonter, and it
nection to Acela, Northeast Regional, or Metro-North to the Big Ap- departs once a day in each direction at a time that may or may not
ple and beyond. Or for a one-seat trip you can take the Vermonter or be convenient.
our lone inland route Northeast Regional train. Worse still are the triweekly Sunset Limited and Cardinal.
But good luck trying to get to Pittsburgh. Memo to Amtrak: Make these trains daily or put them out of
If you’re willing to get up at o-dark-thirty you can catch 5:10 a.m. their misery.
or 5:45 a.m. trains from Springfield to New York Penn Station. I am Class I railroads typically offer a single daily departure between
not willing to lose shuteye. And I suspect other potential passengers intermodal terminals. The impact is a bigger deal in the East than
are put off by having to get up before sunrise only to have to linger at the West because of length of haul. In the East, a container may
Penn Station for an hour or two to wait for the once-daily Pennsylva- spend as much time sitting in terminals as it does riding the train
nian’s 10:52 a.m. departure. between terminals. The total dwell of 24 hours can be the primary
If you want to travel at a civilized hour, technically it’s possible to consideration that ultimately pushes loads to the roads.
take the 7:05 a.m. Valley Flyer No. 471 from Springfield to New Hav- The solution to the one-train problem is obvious: Add a
en and Northeast Regional No. 171 from New Haven for a 10:22 a.m. second departure. That way, if you don’t make the connection or
arrival at New York Penn. Possible, yes. Advisable? Well, no. If the your container misses the train, the delay is measured in hours,
Springfield-New York trains are on time you’d have a scant 30 min- not days. It also gives passengers or shippers more options and
utes to make the connection. Is that enough time? I asked our Am- flexibility, which only increases the likelihood that they’ll decide
trak man, Bob Johnston, if he’d try this trip. It took a millisecond for to use the train.
him to say no way, noting that Amtrak’s online ticketing system Fortunately, Amtrak and Norfolk Southern this year inked a
won’t even let you book a trip with such a tight connection. deal to launch a second Pennsylvanian once $200 million in state-
funded capital improvements put more iron in the ground be-
tween Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. Amtrak’s Connects US expan-
sion plan proposes more frequent service in several corridors, too.
On the freight side, give NS credit for adding a second daily
departure in its key Chicago-Atlanta intermodal lane over the
summer. This can cut terminal dwell in half, effectively shaving as
much as 12 hours off ingate-to-outgate transit time. It’s a simple
service improvement that will enable NS to gain more intermodal
volume while helping customers improve their box turn times.
But there needs to be a lot more of this. When people say
they’re taking the train it shouldn’t literally mean the one and
only train. 2

Correction: My October column overstated the extent to which

BNSF Railway outgrew the other three big U.S. Class I railroads.
Norfolk Southern also showed volume growth on a carload and in-
Amtrak’s westbound Pennsylvanian rolls through Huntingdon, Pa., termodal unit basis, despite a slight decrease in gross ton-miles. For
en route to Pittsburgh in April 2022. Passenger routes like this one an updated version, go to Trains.com and type “Stephens BNSF
create a “one-train problem” in terms of scheduling. Bill Stephens corral” into the search bar.

8 JANUARY 2023
 ORDERS:
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Trains.com 9
COMMENTARY

Commuter rail
anniversary
Brian Solomon
[email protected]
Looking back 40 and 70 years @briansolomon.author
Blog: briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/
Podcast: Trains.com

J
anuary 1983 was a watershed moment for Northeast- of the legacy rolling stock assigned to commuter service, including
ern commuter rail: on Jan. 1, 40 years ago, commuter former PRR/PC GG1s Nos. 4872 through 4884. All were built in
operators Metro-North, NJ Transit, and SEPTA as- 1939, and all retained their original PRR numbers. In 1981, NJ-
sumed commuter rail operations from Conrail. It was DOT repainted GG1 No. 4877 into the PRR’s 1950s livery varia-
the culmination of a gradual shift from private railroad tion, featuring Tuscan Red (in place of classic Brunswick Green)
operations to publicly funded and operated commuter rail. with five gold pinstripes. By contrast, my favorite, No. 4876, la-
As a teenager, I observed this transformation without compre- bored in relative obscurity, wearing a patched version of the Penn
hending the gravity of what was happening. When I recall the Central black with NJDOT lettering. The New Jersey Transit Corp.
early 1980s, I recall my fascination with the operations, the rolling was formed in 1979 — better known as NJ Transit — which grad-
stock, and the history of the legacy companies that set the stage for ually assumed the public face of commuter operations.
the play performed before my eyes. Over the previous quarter On the eve of the 30th anniversary of the Washington Terminal
century, my father photographed commuter trains on the Central crash, I wrote NJ Transit, explaining my interest in photographing
Railroad of New Jersey, Erie, Lackawanna, New Haven, New York the No. 4876 at work, wondering if they could supply its scheduled
Central, Pennsylvania, and Reading, among others. Although the assignment for Jan. 15, 1983. I was delighted to receive a letter
historic names had been swept away by the maelstrom of the Penn back with the information I requested. My father and I planned a
Central and the emergence of Conrail, I thought of the railroads in trip to South Amboy, N.J. to make photos of No. 4876 on the anni-
terms of the old order. Indeed, many railroaders I knew still identi- versary of its famous wreck. Although predictions of a Nor’easter
fied with the former companies. discouraged us from traveling that day, months later we caught up
The locomotives and trains offered tangible links to the past. with No. 4876 working a Bayhead-Penn Station run.
Among my favorites were EMD FL9s, the dual-mode, diesel-elec- NJ Transit GG1s made their final runs in October 1983, an
tric/third-rail electrics specifically designed for operation into New event I documented on film. Although several of my favorites were
York City’s terminals. While I thought of them as “old” in the early saved from scrapping, among them Nos. 4876 and 4877, the
1980s, my father protested, “I remember when they were new!” sounds of their big motors and classic airhorns have been silent for
And if the FL9s were old, the former Pennsylvania RR GG1 elec- 40 years. NJ Transit remains as the state’s primary suburban rail.
trics were positively ancient. Their design dated to 1934, and fol- Today, Bombardier dual-mode ALP45A diesel-electric/over-
lowing production of a GG1 prototype (known as ‘rivets’), PRR head electric locomotives work through trains on the North Jersey
ordered 138 production GG1s which served as the backbone of the Coast Line to Bayhead among its other runs. 2
electrified Northeast Corridor fleet.
My family had a special rapport for the GG1, stemming in part
from my father’s Lionel model, given to him by my grandfather
about 1947, and our travels along the Northeast Corridor when
these leviathans of speed still dominated long-distance passenger
haulage. I was particularly fascinated by Pennsylvania RR GG1
No. 4876, famous for its Washington Terminal runaway crash of
Jan. 15, 1953. Not only had it survived its spectacular crash into
the concourse and basement of Washington Union Station — an
incident which resulted in its photo making the front page of
newspapers across the continent — but by January 1983, it was
among the handful of GG1 still running, rostered by New Jersey
Department of Transportation/NJ Transit.
This is where the history gets confusing. In 1959, New Jersey
had established a rail division of its state highway department to
help subsidize railroad commuter services, which in 1966 came
under the domain of the newly created NJDOT. By 1970, NJDOT
began buying new commuter railroad equipment for operations in On June 27, 1983, former Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 No. 4876 leads an
the state. Conrail assumed operations of commuter rail operations NJ Transit train bound for Penn Station, New York. The famous elec-
on April 1, 1976, and during this transition NJDOT acquired some tric was in its final months of operation. Brian Solomon

10 JANUARY 2023
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Trains.com 11
COMMENTARY

Why carload
service
is erratic
An old problem threatens to make a comeback
By Victor Hand

THE NOVEMBER 2019 Trains contained an ar- connections because a field manager had
ticle by Bill Stephens titled “Who Shot the annulled a scheduled train, or a yard, inter-
Boxcar?” One of the points Mr. Stephens change, or industrial switching crew in
made involved the erosion of carload traffic order to meet budget constraints. In some
in recent years, driven in part by erratic instances, the field managers failed to call
service, what he calls “the service gap.” extra crews when volume was heavy and
Many years ago I attended a meeting yards became congested. This problem
between the president of a major railroad became worse towards the end of the
and his top operating officers. The presi- monthly budget cycle.
dent was from outside the railroad indus- You cannot blame these managers.
try, but he was a quick study. He asked his Their job performance was measured by
vice president of transportation why a how well they met the requirements of
particular car movement could take seven their budget.
days on one trip and 14 days on the next. The typical carload movement depends
He got the usual answers. on many different crews to get
“Weather.” “Equipment failure.” You cannot from its origin to its destina-
“Labor problems.” “Derail- blame these tion. A local freight or industri-
ments.” “Floods.” “Plagues of managers. al switching crew will pull the
locusts and other acts of God.” car from the shipper’s siding,
Dissatisfied with these an- Their job per- and it may be switched in a
swers, the president commis- formance was number of yards and move on a
sioned a study to seek the cause measured by number of different road trains
of the erratic service. before reaching its ultimate
A team of 20 analysts from how well they destination and being placed on
various headquarters depart- met the re- the receiver’s siding. Each step
ments was assembled to do the quirements of in the process requires a loco-
study. The computer systems of their budget. motive and a crew to perform
the day were rather primitive, the work. If a yard crew is an-
and no origin-destination traffic database nulled, the car will usually incur a day’s
of the railroad’s carload traffic was avail- delay. If a scheduled road train is annulled
able. Programmers to create such a data- because there is not enough tonnage for a
base for a one-shot study were also not heavy train, the car will wait for the next
available, so the study was done manually. train to its destination, usually a day later.
Using car movement records, the details of Some crews do not work on weekends, and
the movement of a sample of more than a car arriving at a yard on a weekend might
30,000 carloads were analyzed, and reasons wait until Monday or Tuesday for handling. I am long retired and no longer involved
for delays noted. Even on railroads that carefully plan the in the management of railroads, but I sus-
The results of the study came as no sur- movement of each carload (as most do pect that this problem persists today, and is
prise to anyone who had worked as a low- today), an annulled crew will disrupt the the major cause of erratic service.
or mid-level manager in the transportation cycle and lead to delays, and once the pro- The advent of Precision Scheduled Rail-
department of a large railroad. The majori- grammed movement is interrupted, the roading will not solve the problem. Long,
ty of the delays were caused by cars missing delays to shipments compound. heavy, underpowered trains dragging

12 JANUARY 2023
 An eastbound Penn Central freight rolls
across the railroad carrying everything but succeeds. Much of my retirement savings through Parkhill, Pa., on Oct. 19, 1974,
the kitchen sink will not produce depend- are invested in railroad stocks, which have carrying a mix of traffic to Enola Yard to be
able service, and field managers are under done very well in recent years. But sooner sorted for forwarding to many destinations.
intense pressure to squeeze every drop of or later the railroad industry will have a A two-unit pusher is on the rear to assist in
efficiency out of the operation. reckoning with Precision Scheduled Rail- climbing the west slope of the Allegheny
Readers should not get me wrong. I roading, although I probably will not be Mountains. Victor Hand, Center for Railroad
hope Precision Scheduled Railroading around to see it. 2 Photography & Art collection

Trains.com 13
The author’s leather “hippie”
jacket and white bass guitar
posed on a Wellsville, Addison &
Galeton Railroad boxcar with the
slogan “The Sole Leather Line.” It
was located at the Bay State
Milling Company in Clifton, N.J.
Re m e m b e r
t h e

From a string of wooden boxcars to an old drawer

of cherished memories sprung a ‘soleful’ discovery
Story and photos by John Roskoski
LEGEND HAS IT that the paraprosdokian
statement “If you remember the ‘60s you
really weren’t there” was first uttered by
late comedian and actor, Robin Williams.
The ‘60s were an exciting time in the
music and train world. We still had most
of the pre-merger railroads running,
and while out chasing trains one could
listen on AM and FM radio stations to
groups such as the Lovin’ Spoonful, the
Supremes, Herman’s Hermits, the Four
Tops, the Rolling Stones, the Tempta-
tions, and of course the Beatles. Not
to forget the Turtles, the band my
high school booked for our prom. If
you were in a band during that time,
that was just about as good as being
invited into the Erie Lackawanna
Croxton, N.J., yard office and being
handed a letter granting you per-
mission to be on their property
taking photographs.

It was all a blur...

Driving home from the local
music store, a string of wooden
boxcars caught my eye as I
passed through the U.S. Route This letter granted the author
46 underpass of the former Erie permission to photograph on
main line between Paterson property. The boxcars were on
and Passaic, N.J. For me this Erie Lackawanna trackage.

Trains.com 15
 green-hide hauling. The steel laugh and reply, “Hey John,
on the cars corroded from the maybe you left your guitar on
green hides, while the hideous the train and it rolled away.”
odor emitted prevented the cars That provided a few chuckles
from being loaded with other but no recollection to the mys-
commodities. terious disappearance of my
Outbound finished leather bass guitar.
products did not cause an odor Years rolled by until the in-
problem, however. Some of ternet made searching for things
these steel boxcars were leased more possible. Typing in “Hag-
to Penn Central and carried strom Bass” on the Reverb.com
Toledo & Ohio Central report- site, my guitar popped up. It was
ing marks. These were out- March 25, 2020. Black Rider
bound loads via Buffalo, N.Y., Vintage Guitar in Lexington,
and used in grain service. Ky., had my bass for sale. The
All this ended in 1972, owner Mitch Rambo accepted
when retirement age caught up my bid. His letter prior to ship-
with these wood-sided, fric- ping it was full of encourage-
tion-bearing cars. Galeton, Pa., ment. It read, “No problem! It’s a
was the scrapping destination really nice one too, and nice to
for many of them. have something positive in these
The WA&G’s main source of crazy times! Enjoy! I’ll pack it
revenue, the Elk Leather Co. in well, it’ll be on the road Friday,
Elkland, burned down in 1973. on its way back to you.”
A hurricane and subsequent Knowing it was shipped and
flooding would add insult to rolling across the country, it was
injury along the Galeton-to- time to track down the routes.
Elkland line in 1975. Starting in Lexington, Ky., it was
If fire and weather didn’t put trucked to Louisville, resorted,
a nail in the railroad’s coffin, in then sent to St. Louis, Mo.
Wayne Scarpaci, the author’s 1976 the Eberle Tanning Co. BNSF Railway took the UPS
would be the first sighting of friend, made this painting in a suffered a massive explosion. In shipment from there to Tulsa,
wooden cars, and not just one realistic style using acrylic that incident, a third of the tan- Okla., on to Amarillo, Texas.
car, but a siding full of them: paints. He produced this rendi- nery was destroyed. New Mexico towns Clovis and
Cars with the catchy slogan tion of the Sole Leather Line A petition to abandon the Belen were next followed by
“The Sole Leather Line” adorn- wooden boxcar from a photo WA&G was filed in April 1976, Winslow, Ariz., home of the
ing their flanks. taken by John back in the ‘60s. and the ICC gave its approval famous and restored La Posada
What could that mean? March 1978. The Sole Leather hotel and restaurant. The build-
Quickly doubling back and small Sinclair refinery and a Line’s last revenue run was on ing at one time was the Santa Fe
parking adjacent to the right- scrap company. As the crow March 13, 1979. Railway headquarters. After a
of-way of the Bay State Milling flies, it was 246.5 miles from quick crew change at Winslow,
Co. — a rail-served company where these cars were set out. A ‘soleful’ discovery the shipment would be on its
that handled flour and grain There was no need for hides at During the COVID-19 pan- way again rolling through Flag-
products since 1899 — it was Bay State Milling Co. The Sole demic there was plenty of time staff and Kingman, Ariz. Nee-
time to explore. Not wanting to Leather Line, as it was nick- to clean out old desk drawers dles, Barstow, and Los Angeles,
leave my first guitar in the car, I named, brought in so-called and become reacquainted with Calif., would get the guitar into
carried it over to these foreign- green hides to be used in the photos buried inside. The Sole my state of California.
line freight cars. making of soles for shoes and Leather Line photos surfaced, Opening the case and having
Caught up in a moment of work gloves. allowing a long-lost look at the that guitar back in my hands —
anything is possible, I propped Two customers, the Elk WA&G cars and that first gui- the one my dad bought me 53
up the guitar on the side of the Leather Co. and the Eberle tar. Living through the ‘60s, I years earlier — was truly a once-
boxcar. My mind was racing Tanning Co., provided most of do remember not becoming a in-a-lifetime experience.
with thoughts of music deals, the business for WA&G. The famous musician, as hard as we I am so glad it rolled west, by
and the staged scene reminded railroad deemed the best cars tried. Instead, our band, The rail, and I cleaned out that one
me of an album cover. I even for hide hauling were these old 9th Edition, played lots of messy desk drawer that day. 2

e r
took off my leather-hide, fringed wood-sided boxcars. Various Sweet 16 parties and jam ses-
“hippie” jacket and added it to
the shot.
examples of these cars were
purchased from the Boston &
sions. More modern times
would find me playing bass in
Re m e m b
the
Maine Railroad in 1958. The various church worship groups.
Back on track

s
initial purchase was 78 cars To this day I cannot remem-
Later, I learned that the which eventually accumulated ber (it was the ‘60s) what hap-
short line Wellsville, Addison, to 761 cars. pened to that white bass guitar.
& Galeton Railroad served a Steel boxcars that were pur- Did I trade it, sell it, or lose it
remote area of north-central chased from the Rock Island, along the way? When I would
Pennsylvania. It was a hauler of Missouri Pacific and the U.S. share the story of the wooden
green hides that also serviced a Navy proved unsatisfactory in cars and guitar, friends would

16 JANUARY 2023
 Trailers on flatcars bring up the
rear of a BNSF Railway freight
train westbound stopped at
Winslow, Ariz., for a crew
change. This location is of the
famous La Posada Hotel — for-
mer division offices of the Santa
Fe Railway in the early 1960s.

s
The cars that saved

How Amfleet became The Abraham Lincoln and the State House, suspended. The
Black Hawk, the Illini, the Blue Water Limited, all suspended.
Amtrak’s “go anywhere, The Mountaineer and the Shenandoah, suspended. The Inter-
do anything” passenger American, truncated. Even the Floridian, Amtrak’s only way
cars to Florida from the Midwest, was suspended.
Tuesday, Jan. 18, 1977, was a dark day daily annulments and “short turning”
by John Friedmann for Amtrak. The prolonged and bitter cold consists shy of their destinations to stretch
wave that sapped Amtrak’s car and loco- its ailing fleet. Turboliners conked out on
motive fleets had finally forced an orderly the road as fuel gelled from the cold. Even
retreat, indefinitely suspending 20 daily the flagship Metroliner service was subject
trains. The train suspensions weren’t the to cancellation, as cold and snow felled the
only casualties, as Amtrak resorted to temperamental multiple-unit cars.

18 JANUARY 2023
 Amtrak’s problems ran deeper than the
weather. New EMD SDP40F diesel and GE
E60 electric locomotives — Amtrak’s first
new motive power — showed a distressing
proclivity to derail at speed and were re-
stricted or banned. In the prior 60 days,
seven mainline derailments involving
Amtrak trains made the national passenger
carrier’s bad equipment situation even
worse. The Ford Administration had been
overtly hostile and proposed funding cuts.
Even the bright spots — Amtrak’s assump- Inset: The Amfleet design concept and the Northeast Corridor have been mated since the time
tion of ownership of most of the Northeast of the Metroliners, seen here running through Colonia, N.J., Jan. 13, 1974. Main photo: Presently,
Corridor and a key part of the Michigan 45-year-old Amfleet cars can be found on Northeast Regional trains behind new locomotives
Line in 1976 — required a better product. like No. 659, a Siemens ACS64, delivered in 2015. Main photo: David Lassen, Inset: John R. Taibi

Trains.com 19
Amtrak’s Northeast schedules dated Feb. 15, 1976, advertised the Amfleet coaches, and included a new Northeast Corridor train No. 168, the
Bi-Centennial. comprised of Amfleet cars and seen here in Stamford, Conn., on its inaugural trip with No. 968, a new GE E60CH electric. Henry E. Frick

But Amtrak had an unlikely hero — cago-New Orleans Panama Limited and out of service almost twice the rate of
the company’s brand new Amfleet cars. the Chicago-Washington, D.C., James Amfleet, and Metroliners were unavailable
The Amfleet was a savior that enabled the Whitcomb Riley. This freed up badly need- almost three times the 10.8% Amfleet
company to survive the winter and come ed older steam-heated equipment to keep unavailability mark.
out the other side with optimism. Amtrak other trains running. Amfleeting meant
made a bet-the-company decision on that the Panama and the Riley lost their NEW EQUIPMENT FOR
Amfleet, ordering 492 cars that were sleepers and full diners, but without Am- THE BUSIEST ROUTE
based on the popular Metroliner design, fleet, the trains wouldn’t have run at all. The Boston-Washington Northeast
but configured as traditional passenger Later in 1977, the Chicago-Laredo, Texas, Corridor has always been the heart of
cars instead of powered electric multiple- Inter-American became the fourth long- Amtrak’s network. During Amtrak’s first
units. Amfleet started arriving in 1975, distance train to be Amfleeted. five years, equipment on the NEC could
and by January 1977, 396 Amfleet cars As expected, Amfleet performed well be forward-looking (Metroliner M.U.s) or
were on the property. mechanically compared to both conven- innovative (United Aircraft TurboTrains).
During the January 1977 weather cri- tional steam-heated cars and Metroliners. But most passengers rode on hand-me-
sis, Amtrak instantly “Amfleeted” the Chi- During 1976-1977, conventional cars were down equipment from Amtrak predeces-

AMFLEET TIMELINE
COUNTING THE ORIGINAL METROLINERS, the Oct. 12, 1973 Initial order of 57 “Metrolin- Dec. 18, 1975 First Amfleet revenue
Amfleet story will span 64 years if the Amfleet I er shell” (Amfleet) cars. service in the Midwest.
cars are retired in 2030. During this nearly
61/2 decades of work, Amfleet cars have kept June 19, 1975 Press viewing of Amfleet
Amtrak running, helped inaugurate new cars at Budd’s Red Lion, Pa., plant.
services and suffered through horrific
derailments. Yet they have stood the test of Aug. 7, 1975 Amfleet cars enter revenue
time, becoming a staple in the Amtrak roster. service in the Northeast Corridor. Power cars
provided electricity before head-end power.
May 6, 1966
First Metroliners ordered.
June 15, 1976 Amfleet enters long-dis-
tance service (New York-Savannah Palmetto).

Jan. 16, 1969 Metroliners enter revenue

service on the Penn Central.
(Left to right, top to bottom): Lawrence S. Williams, Alex Mayes, Phillip E. Tygum, Alex Mayes

20 JANUARY 2023
sor roads, including a few ancient New
Haven “American Flyer” cars (Pullman-
Standard built in the 1930s) and prewar
former Pennsylvania Railroad P70 coach-
es. The NEC’s substandard equipment
reflected the financial straits of Penn Cen-
tral and its predecessors. If Amtrak were
to thrive, it would have to improve its
Northeast Corridor product.
In late 1973, Amtrak took its first big
step to reequip the NEC by ordering 57
“Metroliner shell” Amfleet passenger cars
based on the popular Metroliner design
but modified to be hauled by a locomotive.
The Metroliners, which debuted in 1969,
were hugely popular with passengers and
demonstrated that modern equipment
could draw passengers back to the rails.
But the Metroliners were pioneers among On a bitterly cold Jan. 30, 1977, in Hinton, W.Va., this three-car James Whitcomb Riley represents
U.S.-made high-speed trains, and unreli- Amtrak’s entire through service from Chicago to the East Coast. The cold knocked out the rest
able systems would force their rebuilding of Amtrak’s eastbound trains. If not for the Amfleet cars, this train would be down too. Tim Zukas
only a decade after their debut.
Amfleet was born by Amtrak and
Budd stripping the Metroliner car of its
problematic propulsion systems, yielding
a traditional non-powered passenger car
that retained the Metroliner’s tubular
shape and its modern features. The cars
came in two basic configurations —
an 84-seat coach (Amcoach) and a
food service car (Amcafe, Amdinette,
or Amclub, depending on seating).
But Amfleet almost did not happen.
Budd suffered substantial losses on the
Metroliner contract, so it took Amtrak’s
promise of a large order to get Budd inter-
ested. Additionally, Budd proposed reus-
ing the Metroliner tooling to keep costs Amtrak publicized its new Amfleet coaches saying: “ … new stainless steel coaches capable
down. According to Victor Hand, an ana- of being pulled by either electric or diesel locomotives at speeds up to 120 mph are sched-
lyst at Amtrak when Amfleet was ordered, uled for delivery beginning this spring [1975] for service in the East and Midwest.” Amtrak

June 7, 1977 Amtrak Pioneer is inaugurat- March 13, 1980 Amfleet II order Jan. 18, 2019 Amtrak issues request for
ed with Amfleet equipment. proposals for cars to replace Amfleet I.
Oct. 28, 1981 First Amfleet II delivery
May 2020 First Amfleet cars sold. They go
Jan. 4, 1987 “Ricky Gates” accident at to charter operator Railexco.
Chase, Md., involving the Amfleet-equipped
Colonial. 2030 Target date for full retirement of
Amfleet I cars.

June 9, 1977 Last of 492 Amfleet I cars

delivered to Amtrak.

(Left to right, top to bottom): Wayne Depperman, Trains collection, Gary L. Sullivan

Trains.com 21
 with 57 cars in 1973, two separate orders
totaling 235 cars in 1974, and 200 more
cars ordered in 1975. Amtrak was so confi-
dent (or desperate) that all 492 Amfleet
were ordered before the first cars were
delivered. Amtrak also bought 150 more
Amfleet cars (“Amfleet II,” making the
original cars “Amfleet I”) for long-distance
service in 1980.
Taken as a whole, the Amfleet I order
was 73% larger than the previous record-
holding passenger car order placed with a
single builder — the Chesapeake & Ohio
Railway’s 284-car order from Pullman-
Standard in 1946. Unlike the C&O order,
Amfleet was produced as planned and not
diverted or canceled. By the time the
C&O cars arrived in 1950, business had
declined, whereas Amtrak needed the
Amfleet cars to meet passenger demand.
Budd kept producing Amfleet cars from
initial order until the final Amfleet I car
was delivered in 1977.
Since Amtrak got very little federal
From the same factory that Budd used to produce stainless steel cars for the likes of the capital support in the early part of its life,
California Zephyr, Amtrak’s new Amfleet cars are assembled in the erecting bays. In this Amtrak creatively financed Amfleet’s
August 1975 view, the car structure along with curved walls and ends is clearly visible. Budd Co. $200 million price tag. Amtrak borrowed
money at very attractive rates (under 5%
Amtrak’s marketing group wanted flat- A fourth “A” — airplane-like — is just during the inflationary 1970s) using
sided cars with larger windows (and more as important. Like airplanes, Amtrak opt- federal loan guarantees and a sale-lease-
baggage space), but Budd said this change ed for high-density, high-capacity vehicles, back structure designed to generate favor-
would raise the price and delay delivery. and minimized non-revenue space in the able federal tax treatment for its lenders.
“The lost revenue from the three-month car designs to stretch the company’s tight Without these tricks, Amtrak would
delay in delivery was in the many millions capital budget, even at the price of lower- have waited years more for direct federal
of dollars, and it was decided to go with quality food offerings. appropriations to purchase new cars.
the round cars,” says Hand. Aside from the
Metroliners, Budd hadn’t built a single- “THE AMFLEET” DELIVERY AND CELEBRATION
level intercity coach since 1961. Amfleet’s first miracle was how fast Amtrak declared 1975 the “Year of
Amfleet was the confluence of three it was produced. Just 20 months elapsed the Amfleet.” To introduce the new cars,
strategic fleet decisions: between the initial order in October 1973 Amtrak and Budd hosted a press tour
• Appealing. The Metroliners were and the first deliveries in July 1975. through Budd’s Red Lion, Pa., plant in June
one of the few passenger success stories The Amfleet order was actually four 1975. This event marked the public debut of
of the early 1970s, and Amtrak easily rep- separately financed transactions, starting the term “Amfleet,” an ad agency creation
licated the Metroliner’s popular passenger that finally buried the awkward “Metroliner
amenities in Amfleet. Amtrak President shell” moniker. Cars soon showed up on the
Paul Reistrup cited an approximately 25%
ridership increase from the introduction
HOW FAST property and were displayed at stations
along the Northeast Corridor for public
of new equipment like Amfleet. WAS AMFLEET viewing and familiarization by maintenance
• Anywhere. While Amfleet was forces. Amtrak ran an Amfleet employee
initially targeted for the Northeast Corri- BUILT? special on Aug. 3, and the cars entered reve-
dor, the cars quickly became Amtrak’s nue service from Washington to Boston four
default short-haul workhorse. Amfleet can AMFLEET CARS WERE BUILT quickly days later. By the end of 1975, 115 new Am-
run anywhere on the Amtrak system and compared to most other Amtrak orders. fleet cars were on hand, and Budd was pro-
was even adapted to long-distance travel Here is time from order to first delivery. ducing nearly one car per day.
with the 150-car Amfleet II order of 1980. Amfleet first replaced hand-me-downs
The decision to purchase individual cars Amfleet I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 months on non-Metroliner trains in the Northeast
(versus fixed consist of TurboTrains) Superliner I . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 months Corridor. By Christmas 1975, Amfleet
meant that consists can be easily adjusted Horizon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 months supplemented Turboliners on corridor runs
and cars redeployed where needed. (Produced as an add-on to an out of Chicago. Out west, Los Angeles-San
• Accelerated. Amtrak needed new already in-production order of Diego converted to Amfleet in late spring
cars quickly to replace worn-out and in- similar cars for New Jersey Transit.) 1976. The inauguration of the New York-
consistent hand-me-downs from previous Viewliner I . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 months Savannah, Ga., Palmetto in June 1976 was
operators, and Budd’s use of existing tool- California cars . . . . . . . . 36 months Amfleet’s first long-distance assignment.
ing meant that Amfleet could be produced Next-Gen Bilevel . . . . . Not delivered The Palmetto marked the first use of the cars
more quickly by Budd than by competing Venture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 months south of Virginia and the longest run — 828
vendor Rohr Industries. miles — scheduled to date for the new cars.

22 JANUARY 2023
On April 30, 1976, EMD SDP40F No. 508 leads
three new F40s and 18 Amfleet cars down
Cajon Pass. The equipment is for Los HOW THE AMFLEET WAS BUILT
Angeles-San Diego service. Steve Patterson
Amfleet I Total of 492 cars
$81 $86
Despite the awful winter, full delivery million million
Amcoach—short distance
of Amfleet in 1977 enabled the carrier 200 cars 200 cars 84 seat coach
271 cars
to inaugurate two new trains and one
replacement, all with Amfleet. The Seattle-
Salt Lake City Pioneer used Amfleet equip- Amcoach—long distance
ment despite its lengthy 1,081-mile route,
90 cars 60 seat coach
enabling the train’s inaugural 46 months $150
before receiving Superliners. million
150 cars Amcafe
AMFLEET, PRO AND CON
54 cars 51 seat coach Snack bar
Amtrak desperately needed Amfleet to
be successful. In its first four years, the
passenger carrier established a dismal Amdinette

37 cars 23 seat coach Snack bar 8 four-seat booths

Amclub
23 seat coach Snack bar
40 cars 18 club seats
$24
million
57 cars

$13 Amfleet II Total of 150 cars

million
35 cars Amcoach – long distance

125 cars 59 seat coach

Amlounge
10 four-seat booths Mid-car 17 seats in
25 cars in the longer end snack bar short end
Plying the same rails once used by the City Oct. 1973 Jun. 1974 Oct. 1974* Apr. 1975 Mar. 1980
of Portland streamliner, the all-Amfleet Amfleet I Amfleet II
Pioneer departs Portland, Ore., on May 31,
* Ordered as a substitute for seven 5-car Turboliner sets that were rejected by DOT.
1978. Wayne Depperman

Trains.com 23
 A significant plus for Amfleet equipment is
that it worked with Amtrak’s other cars. On
HOW AMFLEET SET STANDARDS Nov. 9, 1985, the Capital Limited, No. 440,
crosses the Potomac River as it leaves
AMFLEET DIDN’T PIONEER brand-new technology (arguably one reason for its success), Harpers Ferry, W.Va., with a combination of
but the technologies and configurations it adopted became standards in future Heritage and Amfleet equipment. Alex Mayes
Amtrak car orders:
• 480-volt head-end power (in place of • Air push doors (including foot-activated equipment procurement track record.
steam heat and axle-driven generators) “kick pads”) Amtrak’s 150 EMD SDP40Fs were pro-
• Retention toilets • Outside brake condition lights grammed as E- and F-unit successors. They
• Segmented (multi-piece) windows had derailment problems and were soon
banned or speed-limited by most Amtrak
Other innovations were directly traceable to airplanes: hosts. GG1 replacements in the form of 26
• Individual adjustable reading lights • Seat-back pockets boxy GE E60 electrics also showed tracking
• Seat-back, fold-down tray tables • Tracked seating, allowing for easy problems and were almost immediately
• High seat backs and indirect lighting interior reconfiguration limited to 85 mph maximum speed. Am-
trak’s primary new equipment prior to
Not all airplane features were successful. Amfleet cars were delivered with center armrests Amfleet was the French RTG Turboliners
between coach seats. These proved unpopular and were removed early on. used in the Midwest. The Turboliners were

24 JANUARY 2023
Welcome into the cab of AEM7 electric
No. 900. We are leading Amtrak train No. 102
along the Northeast Corridor at 100 mph.
Another Northeast Region train is about to
blow by at nearly the same speed. This is
one purpose for which the Amfleet car were
specifically designed. Fred W. Frailey

a modest initial success, but their inflexible

fixed consists and high fuel costs shortened
their Amtrak careers.
Amfleet avoided the flaws of prior
equipment orders. The cars, based on the
proven Metroliner design, are mechanical-
ly simpler since they are pulled by loco-
motives. Importantly, Amfleet is flexible,
being equally usable on the Northeast
Corridor or through the mountains of
Oregon. The cars fit everywhere on the
system and can run in any length consist
intermixed with Heritage fleet (after HEP
conversion), Horizon cars, and Viewliners.
Railfans can be the biggest Amfleet Although Amfleet cars travel along scenic routes, as here through Rocky Neck State Park in
naysayers. On the outside, the cars’ tubular Connecticut, their limited window size makes viewing difficult. Bob Johnston
look, ubiquity, and uniformity turn away
photographers. Even a 100% Amfleet train the folding vestibule steps and exterior trains began to cover the Metroliner
never seems to match whatever pulls it. door pockets present maintenance issues schedules and AEM7 electric locomotive/
Inside, high seatbacks and small tinted and are problematic with ice and snow. Amfleet consists completely supplanted
windows make it hard to see out, and rail- Passengers and crews miss the Dutch the original M.U. cars by 1982. Amfleet
fans mourn the loss of streamliner ameni- doors of conventional equipment, a fault cars were able to uphold the Metroliner
ties like full diners and generous lounges addressed by a sliding vestibule window in brand (even posting less-than-3-hour
even as they appreciate consistent air con- Amfleet II. schedules when required) until the late
ditioning and functional plumbing. 2000 debut of the high-speed Acela train-
Perceptions aside, Amfleet isn’t without AMFLEET TO THE RESCUE, sets. But when systemic mechanical issues
its failings. Snow accumulates excessively AGAIN AND AGAIN sidelined the Acelas in 2002 (cracked yaw
in vestibules, and the steep steps down to By 1978, Amtrak’s Metroliners were dampers) and again in 2005 (brake disc
low-level platforms are difficult for passen- showing their age and were sent off for cracks), Amfleet equipment filled in to
gers with luggage or mobility issues. Both rebuilding. Locomotive-hauled Amfleet maintain service.

Trains.com 25
SIX UNIQUE AMFLEET CARS

Amtrak No. 10001, Beech Grove, has all the accommodations of a tra- Fabricated from a wrecked Amfleet coach, the Corridor Clipper, seen
ditional business car built into the body of an Amfleet coach. The car here on April 17, 2013, along the Northeast Corridor, is Amtrak’s track
also carries measuring equipment for track inspections. Trains collection geometry and catenary inspection car. Trains collection

10001 Beech Grove 10002 21128 22900-22901 85999

Converted in 1984 from Corridor Clipper This otherwise unremark- Nicknamed “Ampads,” Formerly Amclub 20130,
Amcoach 21222, Beech Recognizable as the only able 84-seat Amcoach two long-distance Am- this Amfleet car served as
Grove is the closest Amfleet car with a panto- was retrofitted to test a coaches each had two the souvenir car on
thing Amtrak has to a graph, the heavily instru- Budd-designed tilt sys- Economy bedrooms Amtrak’s 40th anniversary
traditional business car, mented Corridor Clipper tem in 1982. The system added in 1978 in place of train in 2011.
with open platform, measures track geometry, was engineered to allow 12 coach seats. The cars
lounge, kitchen, dining primarily on the Northeast faster speeds on NEC were used for 18 months
area, and sleeping area. Corridor. It was converted curves. While the test on the lightly patronized
This car is used by Am- from coach 21191 in 1985. results were positive, Shenandoah, a Washing-
trak managers and is of- the tilt system was never ton D.C.-Cincinnati over-
ten found on inaugural or implemented. night train discontinued in
other special-event 1981. By then, the cars had
trains. been returned to their all-
coach configuration.

Ironically, Amfleet was ordered to

replace Metroliners from the outset,
but that plan was delayed by the speed
restrictions on the E60 electrics that made
it impossible to uphold Metroliner sched-
ules. The arrival of AEM7 electrics in 1980
finally allowed for the conversion of
Metroliners to Amfleet.
Amfleet also filled in when deliveries of
new Superliner cars from Pullman-Stan-
dard were delayed. In addition to the
Pioneer, which was Amfleet-equipped at its
debut in 1977, the Desert Wind (Ogden,
Utah-Los Angeles) began life in 1979 as an
Amfleet train despite its 811-mile route.

OPENING DOORS WITH AMFLEET

Amfleet didn’t just save Amtrak when
other equipment malfunctioned — the
cars enabled Amtrak to expand whether
it wanted to or not. Amtrak’s San Diegan
service is the best example of this “Amfleet
The Amfleet gave Amtrak greater economic flexibility when it was backed into adding margin- effect.” The Los Angeles-San Diego corri-
al trains like the Hilltopper, seen here at Crewe, Va. on Oct. 8, 1978. The train was a pet project dor saw only six trains per day pre-Am-
of West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd. The Hilltopper ran from June 1977 to October 1979. Mike Small fleet, but new Amfleet equipment grew

26 JANUARY 2023
Midwest trains, like this Lincoln Service train in Willow Springs, Ill., on July 16, 2022, are Amfleet strongholds. Running on regional trains to Detroit,
Milwaukee, St. Louis, and smaller towns, their days are numbered as Amtrak introduces the new Siemens Venture cars. David Lassen

patronage 75% in one year and drove Amtrak’s latest Service and Asset Line and an airy and accessible car interior. But
Amtrak to double service within two Plans calling for Amfleet I’s full retirement Amtrak’s Venture trainsets explicitly reject
years. Now the corridor, expanded north by 2030. Amtrak has already sidelined some of Amfleet’s flexibility in a bid for
of Los Angeles and rebranded the Pacific some Amfleet cars, which are unlikely to operational efficiency. The trainsets will be
Surfliner, sees 28 train starts per day. see service again. assembled in fixed six- or eight-car config-
An 11-year Amfleet run on the central To give a sense of Amfleet’s longevity, urations, specifically designed to eliminate
California San Joaquin route helped that consider that some Amtrak trains have Washington locomotive-change delays
service survive budget cuts and grow, and been Amfleet-equipped since their inau- and the need for Empire Service trains to
spawned the associated Capitol Corridor. gural more than three decades ago. Am- use third rail to reach New York’s Penn
The impetus provided by the then new- trak’s Palmetto (inaugurated in 1976, albeit Station. This means Venture equipment is
Amfleet is undeniable even long after with gaps), Pennsylvanian (1980), and explicitly tailored for specific routes, and it
Amfleet’s replacement in the California Carolinian (1990) have used Amfleet would be unlikely to see a New York Em-
corridors by state-supported double- equipment since being launched. The pire Service Venture trainset in Washing-
decker equipment. Amcoaches from the 1976 inaugural ton, much less Chicago-based Venture
Amtrak may have been less enthusiastic Palmetto have a chance of being in the cars anywhere on the NEC. Harkening
about other expansions. Sen. Robert Byrd, consist today, 46 years later. back to the Metroliners, Amtrak’s North-
U.S. Senate majority leader from West Vir- The Siemens Venture cars, adapted eastern Venture trainsets will have cab
ginia, championed the short-lived, home- from European designs, will send Amfleet cars, and some will have pantographs and
state Hilltopper. It was fresh stainless-steel to the scrapyard. Midwest states took the supplemental traction motors — adding
Amfleet equipment that allowed Amtrak lead in ordering a total of 107 Siemens efficiency, but also increasing complexity.
to add such “shiny new trains” when de- Venture cars, which will displace Amfleet Amfleet is the Swiss army knife of
manded, even if those trains were only one and other Amtrak equipment on short- passenger equipment. It is able to do
locomotive and two cars. Amfleet was the haul corridors in Illinois, Indiana, Michi- almost any job, but it is not the optimum
equipment that showed the public and gan, Missouri, and Wisconsin. The first alternative for every job. Amfleet should
politicians what modern, reliable passen- Venture cars went into service out of Chi- remain unique in the United States as
ger trains looked like and helped generate cago during early 2022 and the rest will be a massive passenger equipment order,
ridership gains that led to more service. delivered over the next two years. In 2021, delivered quickly and used everywhere in
Amtrak ordered 73 Venture trainsets from the country. 2
THE FUTURE Siemens with options for more than 100
Of the 492 Amfleet I cars, 478, or 97%, additional trainsets. These trainsets will JOHN FRIEDMANN is a retired rail-
remained on the roster as of October finally displace Amfleet from its Northeast road manager living in Atlanta. He grew up
2021, serving as corridor workhorses with Regional stronghold. preferring the then-new Amfleet to the spar-
more than 45 years of service. The cars The Venture cars address many Am- tan commuter equipment in his native
have likely seen their last rebuilding, with fleet flaws by providing larger windows Northeast. This is his first Trains byline.

Trains.com 27
Crew shortages
create bottlenecks,
delay freight on
BNSF, CSX, NS,
and UP
Story and photos
by Bill Stephens

Intermodal trains meet on BNSF’s

Gallup Subdivision at Dalies, N.M.,
on Oct. 20, 2018. BNSF had the
most pronounced service issues
in mid-2022, embargoing some
traffic to California and struggling
to recrew trains. Chip Savoye

Trains.com 29
 They awaited space at clogged intermodal
terminals in Chicago, Memphis, Kansas
City, and Fort Worth.
Simply put, supply chain problems
beyond BNSF’s control meant that volume
was coming into the ports faster than cargo
owners were picking up their freight at in-
land terminals. So those S-symbol trains —
more than two dozen scattered between
California and Chicago — were marooned
until they could leapfrog closer to their
destinations. As the No. 1 international
intermodal carrier by volume, BNSF has
been far more affected by this phenomenon
than the other railroads.
Meanwhile, Mother Nature wasn’t doing
BNSF any favors. The Southwest’s monsoon
season brings near-daily thunderstorms
and heavy downpours accompanied by
gusty winds. The storms can bring the rail-
road to a temporary halt as warnings are
hoisted for high winds and flash floods.
Then, when the warnings come down,
BNSF gets back to business and launches a
torrent of trains.
A crewman climbs down from an eastbound intermodal train at Needles, Calif, on Aug. 9, The congestion — related to crew short-
2022. The train, Q-LCACATG6, would have a fresh crew and roll out of town in just 10 minutes, ages, supply chain problems, and bad
reflecting BNSF’s ability to keep its hottest trains moving while other service struggled. weather — prompted a fourfold spike in
recrews. At its peak in June, more than 20%
In August, Trains drove alongside BNSF old passing sidings from Barstow to Belen of BNSF’s trains in California, Arizona,
Railway’s Southern Transcon from Barstow, sat woebegone merchandise and interna- and New Mexico went dead on the federal
IN JUNE, MORE THAN 20% OF BNSF’S TRAINS IN CALIFORNIA, ARIZONA, AND

Calif., to Belen, N.M., to see how North tional S-symbol stack trains. Some were 12 hours of service law and had to be tied
America’s busiest freight railroad and inter- stripped of their locomotives and parked down en route, chewing up more capacity
modal corridor was faring amid the historic for days, or even a week or more. Lower- and exacerbating crew shortages.
NEW MEXICO WENT DEAD ON THE FEDERAL 12 HOURS OF SERVICE LAW

crew shortages that have affected operations priority international intermodal, mer- This was not BNSF’s finest hour. But it’s
on BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern, and Union chandise, and bulk trains also tended to far from alone in the doghouse with ship-
Pacific. BNSF’s California and Southwest congregate in and around terminals when pers and regulators. CSX Transportation,
divisions — normally models of efficient rested crews were not available to take Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific found
operations — were the country’s hardest hit, them on the next leg of their trips across themselves in the same fix. They’ve been
based on their recrew rates and the railroad’s the former Santa Fe main line. caught short of train crews, too.
embargo on certain types of carload traffic The merchandise trains were tied down The railroads say they’ve had to turn
bound for the Golden State. because scarce crews were being allocated away freight and have lost traffic to trucks
to service-sensitive intermodal trains, a as on-time performance faltered. Had it
mid crew shortages and a supply practice the other railroads have followed, been fluid, UP would have expected 4%
chain with almost as many kinks too. BNSF’s unusual embargo on certain volume growth in the second quarter.
as links, BNSF Railway’s South- types of carload traffic bound for California, Instead, traffic was down 1%, partly due to
ern Transcon across the South- which ran from June 27 through Sept. 4, metering of some carload volume as a way
west became two railroads also played a role as the railroad worked off to reduce congestion.
wrapped up in one. a backlog of traffic in Southern California.
The first railroad you already know: It’s The eastbound international stack
the intermodal artery that carries a fleet of trains, carrying containers imported
priority Z-symbol hotshots and Q-symbol through the ports of Los Angeles and
guaranteed-service stack trains. From Long Beach, were in a holding pattern.
trackside they seemed to be relatively
Colora

immune to the railroad’s operational prob-

lems. While approaching Winslow, Ariz.,
do Rive

on Interstate 40, you look across the sage-

brush and glimpse eastbound and west- Berry
r

Kingman
bound intermodal trains rolling along at
track speed, closing in on each other at a C ALIF ORNIA Ibis
Bullhead
City
Barstow Goffs
combined 140 mph. The Z and Q crew Daggett
changes were snappy, with fresh crews at To Los Angeles Needles
Ash Hill
the ready and highballing the trains out of
town, often within 10 minutes or less.
The second railroad wasn’t moving well Amboy Lake Havasu City
— and sometimes wasn’t moving at all. In

30 JANUARY 2023
 The problem goes back to the onset of
the pandemic in 2020, when Class I rail-
roads furloughed crews as volume sank at
the fastest rate on record. When traffic
rebounded within a few months, crew mem-
bers were not called back to work at the
same rate that volume returned. With rail-
roads moving their tonnage on fewer but
longer trains, they thought they didn’t need
as many engineers and conductors.
Then three things happened that put
railroads in a bind. Furloughed conductors
found work elsewhere and didn’t come
back to the railroads at the same rate as
they had in the past. Train and engine
crews quit or retired at higher rates than
usual in many terminals. And the tightest
job market in decades made it difficult to
hire new conductors.
This produced the worst service crisis
since the megamergers of the late 1990s.
The unprecedented widespread crew short-
ages at key terminals on all four systems Awaiting a crew, CSX Transportation train M424 (Selkirk, N.Y.-West Springfield, Mass.) sits on
made one thing clear: If you don’t have Track 2 at Westfield, Mass., 7 miles short of its destination, on Aug. 22, 2022. The M424 was
all the people you need, a railroad quickly frequently tied down in Westfield for several days at a time from August through mid-October.
coagulates and service goes to the dogs.
gestion at the hump yard prompted CSX to ing short line Pioneer Valley Railroad —
STRANDED TRAINS tie down as many as 20 Selkirk-bound whose interchange track in Westfield
Case in point: BNSF priority merchan- trains as far away as Buffalo and Syracuse, connects to Track 1 adjacent to where the
dise train H-BELPHX1, which originated in N.Y.; North Bergen, N.J.; and Philadelphia, M424s were stuck. The short line’s cars were
Belen on Aug. 6 bound for Phoenix, by according to union officials. CSX disputed in sight, yet out of reach. The stranded trains
Aug. 11 had covered barely 150 miles. It was those figures, but acknowledged crew short- also meant that Genesee & Wyoming short
tied down just east of Gallup, N.M., its lead ages at Selkirk, its hub for traffic to and line Connecticut Southern left West Spring-
locomotives and distributed power unit still from the Northeast and New England. field with short consists or just light engines.
running. The H-BELPHX1 was like a lot of Outbound traffic from Selkirk was Norfolk Southern’s most severe crew
other trains that had horses but no way to affected, too. On the railroad’s former shortages were centered on a dozen termi-
leave the corral. Boston & Albany route, Selkirk-West nals where attrition was 50% higher than
In the East, CSX’s crew shortages began Springfield, Mass., merchandise train M424 normal. Among them: Elkhart and Fort
in the Southeast before migrating to the frequently was tied down on Track 2 in Wayne, Ind.; Cincinnati; Louisville, Ky.;
Midwest and then the Northeast. As CSX’s Westfield, Mass. — 7 miles short of its desti- Birmingham, Ala.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; and
Queensgate Yard in Cincinnati became nation — for days at a time from August Buffalo and Binghamton, N.Y. They weren’t
bogged down in July, the railroad stashed through October. On Aug. 21, for example, the only areas to experience congestion on a
five days’ worth of Chicago-Cincinnati just 3 hours after a crew retrieved a parked railroad that had the biggest crew deficit.
merchandise train M351 in sidings along M424 and brought it to West Springfield, Harrisburg, Pa., is a crucial terminal where
the former Baltimore & Ohio main line another day’s M424 rolled to a stop and took NS main lines radiate east to Baltimore,
between Chicago and Garrett, Ind. The its place on Track 2. There it sat for three Philadelphia, and New Jersey, south toward
congestion also waylaid M360/M361, a train days. Twelve hours after it departed another Atlanta, and west toward Pittsburgh. Crew-
pair linking Queensgate with Avon Yard in M424 tied down at the same spot, where it less trains sometimes tied down for a day or
Indianapolis, for a few days. Said one crew- sat for five days. And then another one took more on the controlled siding that gives NS
man at the time: “It’s snowballing bad.” its place and sat for four days. a 5-mile section of triple track leading to CP
At Selkirk Yard, outside of Albany, N.Y., The train handles traffic bound for Con- Banks at Marysville, Pa. It’s a key junction
a combination of crew shortages and con- necticut and western Massachusetts, includ-

Defiance Gallup
Seligman
Maine
Grants
Flagstaff
Winslow

Holbrook
NE W ME XICO
BNSF BNSF Railway
Not all lines shown Belen
ARIZONA 0 Scale 50 miles Junction
© 2023 Kalmbach Media Co., TRAINS: Roen Kelly To Chicago

Trains.com 31
 An eastbound Union Pacific freight rolls into
Bosler, Wyo., on Sept. 2, 2022. UP engineers
say the railroad has so tightly scheduled
locomotive use that a unit failure causes
delays to subsequent trains. David Lassen

where trains can head for Enola Yard and, down outside the terminal, too.” trains were stripped of some or all power.
via the landmark Rockville Bridge, the UP’s practice of tightly scheduling the One such carcass was BNSF H-RICBAR1,
THE CREW BASE AT NEEDLES IS MORE THAN 470 EMPLOYEES. AS OF

Harrisburg and Rutherford intermodal assignment of power for road trains also which originated at Richmond, Calif., on
terminals, the Royalton Branch, and the caused delays. “If a locomotive fails, the Aug. 5. It ran right past its destination, Bar-
Harrisburg Amtrak station. train sits for a day or more because there is stow, where terminal dwell was the system’s
MID-AUGUST, BNSF HAD FILLED 34 OF 49 VACANT POSITIONS.

The combining of 130-car empty coal nothing to spare,” an engineer says. “Every highest at 38.7 hours. On Aug. 7, the train
trains into 260-car behemoths for the trip locomotive is planned out and already was tied down 57 miles east of Barstow in
back to the Monongahela mines in west- scheduled to another train before it even the passing siding on Ash Hill, with trailing
ern Pennsylvania contributed to conges- arrives. What happens when it has a unit 5535 as its remaining power. It was still
tion at Enola. It’s a process that can tie up mechanical failure? … Just today blew a there, baking in the sun, on Aug. 9.
the yard for hours. traction motor, so an outbound train now On CSX, some Selkirk-bound merchan-
Union Pacific’s crew shortages have been doesn’t have enough power.” dise trains suffered the same fate. “Some of
most significant on its main line across In some instances, crewless merchandise those trains had the locomotives stripped
Nebraska and up to the Pacific Northwest.
As a result, UP has maintained its efforts to
combine trains, a strategy that allowed the
railroad to make the most of its active crews.
But longer trains come at a cost. “I’m
seeing a new circus each day,” says one UP
crewman in Pocatello, Idaho. “Nearly every
train works pickups and setouts, fuel, air
test, and to add or remove DPUs. They
seem so obsessed with doubling trains that
trains are tied down or in the terminal for
12 to 24 hours, regularly blocking all three
main lines. So consequently, trains are tied

Maine event: ES44DC No. 7201 leads a west-

bound stack train through Maine, Ariz., on
Aug. 10, 2022. A shortage of workers on extra
boards made recrew needs a significant
challenge across the southwest portion of
BNSF’s Southern Transcon.

32 JANUARY 2023
 After being delayed by a high-wind warning, eastbound stack train Q-LACATG6 eases into
Needles, Calif., on the afternoon of Aug. 9, 2022. Filling crew positions in a small, remote
community like Needles has been a problem for BNSF.

BNSF’s extra boards in the Southwest goes, so goes the 179.6-mile Needles Sub-
were threadbare. In Winslow, for example, division to Barstow, the junction of BNSF’s
the combined conductor/brakeman extra main lines to the Los Angeles Basin and
board in July had 18 slots but only one per- Northern California via the Central Valley.
son assigned to the Seligman Subdivision. “Barstow is by design a staging location
To the east out of Winslow, the combo to meter trains over the Cajon into the
board had 37 slots but just two people Basin and Tehachapi into the Valley, and the
assigned to cover the Gallup Subdivision. Needles Subdivision is a buffer to assist in
This left no cushion for BNSF to absorb the facilitating optimal meeting times,” BNSF
impact of frequent recrews. spokesman Ben Wilemon explains. “Early
How did BNSF get into such a jam? on we had a reduction of crews due to attri-
off and used on other trains. Some have run The railroad says congestion in South- tion. Many businesses in California encoun-
out of fuel sitting there,” Joshua Therrien, ern California was a culmination of factors, tered a similar situation as residents were
local chairman of the SMART-TD union, including operational constraints, resource relocating out of state to less expensive loca-
wrote in an Aug. 22 letter to the STB. levels, and bad weather. Labor leaders say tions. It was difficult to balance employee
BNSF’s controversial Hi-Viz attendance needs as the volumes were coming in waves
CAUGHT SHORT policy played a role, too, because it led and were unpredictable.”
When a maintenance foreman requests some veteran crews to leave the railroad. Needles, with a population of less than
track time on BNSF’s Seligman Subdivi- BNSF disputes this and says Hi-Viz has 5,000 people, is not an easy place to hire.
sion near Flagstaff, Ariz., the dispatcher improved crew availability. The closest cities to recruit conductors are
quickly says he’ll have to wait. “I’ve got Whatever the case, this much is clear: Bullhead City, which has a competing job
seven eastbounds coming at you, and The epicenter of BNSF’s Southwest crew market with nearby casinos, and Lake
they’re all short-timers,” she explains. Her shortage has been Needles, Calif., an old Havasu City, which is a 45-minute drive
goal: Make sure the trains arrive at Win- Route 66 town on the Arizona border. As it to Needles.
slow for a crew change without running
afoul of the hours of service law.
Nowhere was harder hit by recrews
than BNSF in California and across the
Southern Transcon in Arizona, New
Mexico, and Texas. In this wide swath of
territory, the percentage of trains requir-
ing a recrew en route was consistently the
highest in the U.S. beginning in May,
according to a review of data reported to
the Surface Transportation Board.
In Barstow, you hear the dispatcher
tell the crew of an inbound train on the
Mojave Subdivision from Northern Cali-
fornia to tie down their train — and then
ride a crew van to pick up the crew of the
following train, too. In Needles, a train
had no more than left town when the dis- BNSF’s S-LBELPC1 eases through a work zone, part of a 29.23-mile third main project between
patcher let the crew know they’d tie down Needles and Goffs, Calif. The project will make it easier to separate slower, heavier trains from
their train on Ash Hill, 112 miles away. priority westbounds on the 1.4% grade from Needles to Goffs.

Trains.com 33
 BNSF train Q-STOCHI6 climbs out of Seligman,
Imbalanced traffic flows didn’t help the of storing a container at a marine terminal Ariz., on Aug. 10, 2022, passing an international
crew situation as eastbound trains outnum- or rail facility. As a result, chassis cycle intermodal train awaiting terminal space in
ber westbounds, leaving crews and loco- times are impacting the availability of those Chicago. That train still had its rear distributed
motives out of position, particularly on the assets to unload trains, and consequently, power unit, but the lead locomotives had been
Needles Sub. we are having to meter volume at ports.” taken for use elsewhere.
The active crew base at Needles is more BNSF worked with ocean carriers to
than 470 train, yard, and engine employees. shuttle long-dwelling containers from its intermodal flatcars due to their inability to
By mid-August, BNSF had filled 34 of the 49 terminals to off-site container yards. be unloaded and the subsequent slowing of
vacant positions, and another 25 people had Railroads have had to deal with the slow their return to the West Coast to handle the
accepted the railroad’s job offers. BNSF also unloading issue since intermodal traffic continued strong demand for imported car-
had 36 crew members transfer temporarily rebounded in the second half of 2020. On go. It has also limited our ability to handle
to Needles from other areas on the system, a BNSF, it helped create a downward spiral other traffic on the Southern Transcon as
practice CSX, NS, and UP followed at their nearly 2,000 miles away. sidings, mainline segments, and terminals
TERMINAL DWELL AT BARSTOW FELL TO 34.8 HOURS,

most affected terminals, as well. Needles “This has led to a significant number of are congested with staged freight.”
DOWN FROM 56 HOURS WHEN THE EMBARGO BEGAN

staffing levels were similar in October, but eastbound trains heading for LPC being You spot two such international stack
with the railroad more fluid, crew demands staged in sidings across the Southern Trans- trains on the Seligman Subdivision in
were reduced. con waiting to arrive at and be unloaded at Arizona on Aug. 10.
At the other end of the Southern LPC,” BNSF told the STB. “This phenome- One of them, without locomotives, fills
Transcon, intermodal customers have non has, in turn, reduced the velocity of the 9,170-foot siding between East and West
been slow to pick up their containers at
Chicago terminals, particularly Logistics
Park Chicago, or LPC, amid high volume
and a shortage of chassis, truck drivers,
and warehouse capacity.
“Over-ordering earlier this year has left
retailers with stagnant merchandise in their
stores and crowded warehouse distribution
centers with remaining storage space at
1-2%,” Wilemon says. “This has resulted in
the usage of boxes on chassis as a storage
solution where it’s far cheaper than the cost

Chicago-bound stack train S-LBELPC1 leaves

Barstow on Aug. 9, 2022. Two westbound
intermodal trains await crews, while three
more westbound trains are holding to the
east. This left just one of three main tracks
open between Barstow and West Daggett.

34 JANUARY 2023
 A westbound Union Pacific grain train heads
Berry, east of Kingman. Not long after sun- go in place was not one we took lightly,” downgrade at Hermosa, Wyo., on Sherman
rise at East Berry, a westbound stack train Chief Marketing Officer Steve Bobb and Hill on June 18, 2018. UP issues in delivering
stops briefly at a private grade crossing. A Chief Operations Officer Matt Igoe wrote feed to a California customer led to an emer-
deadheading engineer and conductor climb in an Aug. 23 letter to customers. “Still, it gency order from the Surface Transportation
down from the second unit and get into a was a step we knew we had to take in re- Board in June 2022. Alastair Poll
waiting crew van. An eastbound would later sponse to significant ongoing service chal-
set out locomotives for their train. lenges, especially in Southern California.” stockpiles where timing is not crucial. But
Stashed in the siding at Seligman is an By the time the embargo ended in with chicken feed supplies running low and
international stack train that has kept its September, manifest traffic backlogs were coal inventory dwindling at utilities in the
distributed power unit but not its lead at their lowest level since December 2021. Southeast, CSX has had to devote scarce
locomotives. You watch as Stockton, Calif.- Terminal dwell at Barstow, where BNSF crews to unit trains. That’s meant some
Chicago stack train Q-STOCHI6 charges classifies traffic to and from the Los Ange- merchandise trains have taken delays of 24
through town, past the idle marine boxes les area and northern California, fell to 34.8 hours or more.
and Burma-Shave signs on Route 66. hours, down from 56 hours when the em- “We’re in an environment when we
NS and UP responded to congestion by bargo began, and has held steady at around have … to make sure that chickens get fed
limiting or prohibiting containers from en- 30 hours since. and … lights stay on,” Jamie Boychuk,
tering several intermodal terminals. At vari- The number of trains requiring a recrew CSX’s executive vice president of opera-
ous times from spring through fall, UP em- also improved significantly by October, tions, said on the railroad’s July earnings
bargoed traffic or barred ingates at terminals falling to 8% on the California Division call. He added: “It’s a just-in-time service.
in the Twin Cities; Seattle and Tacoma, and 9% on the Southwest Division as crew And it never was before.”
Wash.; Portland, Ore.; Chicago; and the Los ranks grew and congestion eased. And by Midwestern ethanol producers have
Angeles area. “Congestion across the entire Halloween, BNSF was current on ship- complained to regulators about being last in
supply chain continues to exist, which is ments to inland intermodal terminals. line, and coal mining companies in Septem-
pressuring our intermodal service product, ber told federal regulators that erratic ser-
especially at some of our inland intermodal BULK TRAIN BLUES vice, particularly on CSX and NS, had
terminals,” Kenny Rocker, UP’s executive In terminals where railroads are particu- forced them to curtail production even as
vice president of marketing and sales, said in larly short of engineers and conductors, op- demand for coal rose.
an Oct. 27 customer update. erations people have had to play a game of UP found out the hard way that bulk
Congestion on the California Division train crew triage. If there are more trains in customers cannot be ignored.
prompted BNSF to issue an embargo in late the lineup than the number of rested crews The STB on June 17 issued an emergency
June on shipments of certain carload com- available, the railroads have to decide what service order requiring UP to prioritize corn
modities bound for the Golden State. The freight moves and what gets held. Typically, shipments to a California poultry and feed
embargo worked as intended: It prevented the pecking order is intermodal, followed producer. Foster Farms is the largest chicken
congestion from worsening over the by merchandise, and then bulk traffic. producer in the West and uses UP-delivered
Fourth of July holiday week, when many Yet sometimes that formula doesn’t corn to make the feed that thousands of
crews mark off. And it helped cut in half work. Normally, unscheduled bulk trains dairy cattle and millions of chickens depend
the number of trains holding for crews. have the lowest priority on the railroad be- upon. Repeated UP service failures forced
“The decision to put the limited embar- cause they deliver grain or coal to large Foster Farms to suspend production at its

Trains.com 35
 ON-TIME PERFORMANCE, FOUR LARGEST CLASS I RAILROADS
Week ending May 27 v. Week ending Oct. 10 NA—Not available
Railroad BNSF Union Pacific CSX Norfolk Southern
Goal 5/27 10/10 Goal 5/27 10/10 Goal 5/27 10/10 Goal 5/27 10/10
Manifest 63% 53% 63% 70% 69% 70% 80% 66% 87% 61% 52% 61%
Grain 75% 59% 45% 81% 67% 64% 75% 82% 96% NA NA NA
Coal 75% 68% 71% 81% 73% 83% 90% 96% 98% NA NA NA
Automotive 63% 62% 70% NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
NEARLY HALF OF CHEMICAL SHIPPERS SAID SERVICE WAS WORSE IN JULY COMPARED TO THE FOURTH QUARTER OF 2021

Crude oil 70% 55% 61% 81% 34% 53% NA 100% 100% NA NA NA
Ethanol 50% 25% 36% 81% 53% 58% 90% 74% 85% NA NA NA
Intermodal 70% 63% 79% 80% 70% 73% 95% 95% 99% 93% 95% 93%

facilities in Traver and Turlock, Calif., creat- STB Chairman Martin J. Oberman ques- Rail Shippers conference in late September.
ing the prospect that livestock would go tioned whether the railroads would reach One thing that’s helped: Resumption of
hungry or have to be euthanized. their year-end goals. “The service recovery hump operations at several yards, says Eric
Over UP’s objections, the board or- targets provided by the railroads were quite Monger, vice president of KBX Rail, the
dered the railroad to live up to its promise modest in terms of their ambition, and were logistics arm of the Koch Industries con-
to add a fifth 100-car unit train set to understood to be only goals for immediate glomerate. KBX ships more than 180,000
Foster Farms service until volume com- service recovery,” Oberman told Trains in carloads annually of everything from
mitments were reached; prioritize unit late October, just before the board extended lumber and toilet paper to diesel fuel and
trains, crews, and locomotives bound to the expanded data reporting requirements anhydrous ammonia.
and from Foster Farms; and to provide the until May 2023. “While some carriers have NS resumed hump operations at its
STB with daily updates. in recent weeks begun to hit those targets yards in Macon, Ga., and Bellevue, Ohio,
“We have failed to provide adequate ser- consistently, there is still volatility in these this summer. UP reopened the eastbound
vice to Foster Farms,” UP CEO Lance Fritz metrics and the question will be whether the hump at Bailey Yard in North Platte, Neb.,
wrote in a June 16 letter to the board. “I am railroads can sustain — and improve sub- and resumed hump operations at Davidson
writing to convey Union Pacific’s firm and stantially beyond — this performance going Yard in Fort Worth while construction is
clear commitment to providing Foster forward in order to provide the level of ser- under way on an intermodal terminal ex-
Farms the service it deserves and the ser- vice needed by their customers and increase pansion at its yard in West Colton, Calif.
vice we expect to provide.” their support of the nation’s economy.” Missed switches remain a problem for
Ultimately the corn inventory was re- Carload shippers say their experience shippers of steel, scrap metal, and treated
plenished. In fact, UP had to divert three of mirrors on-time performance trends. Some lumber products, who said service problems
its last 11 Foster Farms emergency service 90% of chemical shippers, for example, re- bounce from location to location and rail-
order trains to other customers because ported longer transit times, while 66% suf- road to railroad.
Foster couldn’t accept more corn. fered from missed local switches, and 64% This was reflected in a quarterly rail ship-
said they had reduced days of local service. per survey by investment firm Cowen. “De-
SERVICE SUFFERS Service on the big four railroads is im- spite the significant push by the Class Is to
Throughout 2022, shippers faced wide- proving slowly but remains uneven amid ramp hiring to improve rail service, shippers
spread delays and unpredictable transit ongoing and sporadic crew shortages, ship- continue to feel the impacts of service issues,
times on the big four U.S. railroads, even as pers said at the North East Association of even worsening sequentially according to
service remained at relatively normal levels
on Canadian National, Canadian Pacific,
and Kansas City Southern.
Overall on-time performance for the
big four U.S. systems fell from a pre-pan-
demic average of 85% to just 67% in the
last week of May 2022, according to data
the railroads reported to the STB regarding
trains that arrived at their destinations
within 24 hours of original estimates. The
board began requiring expanded perfor-
mance metrics a few weeks after its April
26-27 hearings on rail service problems.
Regulators also ordered the railroads to
submit service recovery plans and targets
for operational improvements.

A westbound BNSF train with J.B. Hunt boxes

departs Winslow, Ariz., on Aug. 11, 2022, as an
eastbound approaches. J.B. Hunt executives
reported unprecedented intermodal delays as
of August, but by October service had
improved dramatically, particularly on BNSF.

36 JANUARY 2023
 At sunset on May 9, 2021, an eastbound BNSF
our survey,” Cowen analyst Jason Seidl UP’s recovery showed progress over the manifest freight makes its way around a
wrote in an Oct. 13 note to clients. summer but lagged in the fall. In October, stopped intermodal train and past the
Short lines also felt the pain. Says one UP was still struggling to meet demand for signals at Ludlow, Calif. Railroads say their
short line leader at the mercy of the big four unit trains of coal, grain, and rock. And its service issues are easing as crew availability
systems: “Class I interchange performance performance metrics — including average improves. Kenneth Edmier
is brutal.” train speed, trains held for power or crews,
Over the summer intermodal service and on-time performance — had plateaued. service and hampered the industry’s ability
was running at historically low levels, with With conductor training classes full and to grow. Will railroads now look at surge
trains routinely arriving a day or two behind railroads determined to put the service capacity differently?
schedule, J.B. Hunt executives said in Au- crisis in the rearview mirror, analysts saw “We’re coming out of this learning les-
gust. BNSF is J.B. Hunt’s railroad partner in trouble around the bend. Leading economic sons,” Boychuk said on CSX’s earnings call
the west, while NS is its primary carrier in indicators portend a downturn that would in October. “If we haven’t learned lessons
the east. In October, however, J.B. Hunt said reduce railroad volume. That raised the along the way as an industry — it’s not just
rail service had improved considerably — prospect of the F word: furloughs. CSX — then we haven’t been watching or
particularly on BNSF — and was on par “This may seem premature, but we’re listening to our customers.”
with levels of early 2021. soon going to be dealing with a situation If freight demand softens, Boychuk says
where some of the big U.S. railroads start CSX wants to protect its workforce and will
SIGNS OF HOPE? furloughing train crews, which will create rely on attrition and reducing conductor
By October, service was on the mend as some awkward optics with customers and training class sizes before resorting to fur-
more conductors completed training and the regulator,” Loop Capital Markets ana- loughs. “We are going to be prepared to
entered active service, which helped reduce lyst Rick Paterson wrote in an October handle all the traffic that comes back at us,”
the number of trains holding for lack of note to clients. Boychuk says. NS Chief Operating Officer
crews or power. As railroads neared or met The number of crews a railroad needs Cindy Sanborn echoed that sentiment on
their train and engine crew hiring goals for hinges on a combination of staffing levels, the railroad’s earnings call in October.
the year, executives said they expected their velocity, and volume. If traffic declines as Shippers and regulators have been
railroads to return to pre-pandemic service the railroad speeds up, the crew shortage encouraging railroads to build adequate
levels by the end of 2022 or in early 2023. will quickly turn into a crew surplus. “To crew capacity buffers.
Most operational data pointed to green be sure there’s still a lot of fine-tuning to “We’ll see how many management
shoots. Chief among them: Average train be done at the individual crew district teams actually do so given ever-present
speeds on BNSF, CSX, and NS improved all level, but once that’s done the railroads Wall Street pressure to lower operating
summer and by October were at their are going to reflexively want to furlough ratios and the fact that scrutiny and heat
highest levels in more than a year. Velocity excess crews, like they’ve always done,” from the STB and other federal entities will
is a key measure because the faster a rail- Paterson says. have moderated by then,” Paterson says.
road moves, the fewer crews and locomo- And that could leave the railroads un- “As usual, management teams that are
tives it needs. The three railroads also prepared to handle the inevitable rebound unable to build in this resiliency will be ex-
showed considerable improvement in the in traffic. Fadi Chamoun, an analyst at posed sooner or later during the volume
on-time performance for merchandise car- BMO Capital Markets, notes that railroads’ recovery or an extreme, yet inevitable,
loads and intermodal trains. history of periodic crew shortages has hurt weather event.” 2

Trains.com 37
The rear observation platform of a business car provided
a superb venue for viewing the Mount Washington Valley
as the train approached Crawford Notch. It slowed to pass
over the curved Frankenstein Trestle, named for German-
born artist Godfrey Frankenstein.

38 JANUARY 2023
That’s the name of the game when stakes are high
Story and photos by Geoffrey H. Doughty
ON JUNE 1, 2022, CSX purchased Pan Am Railways — that’s purchased, not merged
with — formerly Guilford, Springfield Terminal, née Boston & Maine, née Maine Central, a
combination that early on also included the Delaware & Hudson. The CSX acquisition of
Timothy Mellon’s Pan Am marked an important occasion as far as New England railroad-
ing is concerned. For me, it recalled another event some 40 years earlier, when Mellon’s
Guilford Transportation Industries purchased Maine Central, followed by his purchase of
the Boston & Maine, then consolidated the two under a single management.
On that occasion, those of us in the managerial ranks held great hopes and anticipation
that such a combination would lead to a rejuvenation of the two companies, now one. New
England railroads were the last holdouts in an era when their connections had evolved into
large systems and railroading in general was evolving following the passage of the Staggers
Act that deregulated the industry.
Maine Central was an anomaly of sorts, being a relatively small regional operation and
more importantly, remaining profitable. It became the banker of the new company as it had
credit. Mellon’s purchase of the B&M brought that company out of bankruptcy.
 Led by two of Maine Central’s venerable GP7s, Nos. 470 and 573, the
train backed through a nearby junction before heading up the scenic
Mountain Division, soon to be abandoned in favor of a longer Maine
Central/Boston & Maine/Delaware & Hudson routing.

Railroad mergers were still viewed as important financial events, and

this one held the promise of transforming rail transportation in
Massachusetts and northern New England.
To Fink and Mellon, the trip was of such importance that, in
addition to state officials — from Maine, New Hampshire and
Vermont — members of the press were invited to ride. David Fink
would be available to conduct interviews.
“Why not Timothy Mellon?” a reporter asked. “I’m prettier,”
Fink replied.
Each of us accompanying the train was given a specific assign-
ment. Mine was to babysit a television crew from the Boston office
of NBC Nightly News and make sure they didn’t get hurt trying
The NBC crew was used to “photo ops.” Left to right: producer, the something stupid. Fred Briggs, NBC’s New England correspon-
camera duo, and (the late) Fred Briggs, after arrival at Whitefield. dent, along with his three-member crew, would ride from Portland
to Whitefield. They would ride back to Boston in a car dispatched
Setting the scene for them by NBC.
To celebrate the consolidation, (the late) David Fink, Sr., presi- I knew Fred Briggs by sight, having seen him on TV countless
dent at the time, felt there should be a special train to showcase the times. As he was talking with his crew, I introduced myself and
new company, slated to begin on July 1, 1983. The four-car train was told him that I was his liaison. My job, as I explained to him, was
led by two Maine Central GP7s (No. 470 and No. 573, Maine Cen- to make sure they could shoot what they wanted, safely, of course,
tral’s remaining steam generator-equipped unit), now painted dark and to answer any questions. As I expected, there was nothing pre-
gray and lettered for their new owner. tentious about the man; he was friendly and down to earth.
On the morning of June 29, the train would leave from the park-
ing lot behind Maine Central’s general office building, back to Lights, camera, action!
Mountain Junction just behind the train, and proceed up Maine Could the camera crew take shots from the locomotive? I
Central’s scenic Mountain Division, soon to become a fatality of the thought if they wanted to do that, the best time would be upon
acquisition. It would proceed to Whitefield, N.H., where it would departure, although I explained that the lead locomotive’s cab
join Boston & Maine’s line from might be tight. We had our road
Berlin, N.H., and continue west foreman as engineer running
to the main line parallel to the the engine and a trainmaster.
Connecticut River to Greenfield, What I hadn’t realized was a The regular engine crew, an
Mass., then to Boston for a brief engineer and fireman, were rid-
onboard celebration on the 30th
classic cameraman’s tenet: ing in one of the coaches as they
before returning to Portland that Anything for the shot. were still being paid — union
evening. The acquirement by rules. They could be inter-
Mellon was big news back then. viewed, I told Briggs.

40 JANUARY 2023
 As it turned out, I took only the cameraman into the cab and
returned just before departure. I was relieved. That was my first
challenge, and it went well. But they “needed” more.
As the train departed, I found seats for the camera crew in the
Champlain. This car, along with the business car 100, was traded
with the D&H through a curious arrangement. The D&H was on
its knees, financially, in debt to the State of New York and others,
no doubt. The State had taken as collateral about everything of
value belonging to the company in exchange for tax and
financial assistance.
With the potential buyout of the D&H in Mellon’s plan, the
D&H would become the westernmost component of the “system.”
Maine Central, being the one of the three that had any money,
bought D&H equipment so the bankrupt railroad could buy fuel
for its fleet of locomotives, just one part of the deal.
David Fink, confident that New York would approve the sale to
Guilford, told us that the D&H needed our help, so Maine Central The comfortable lounge of the former D&H (ex-D&RGW) Pullman-
purchased and exchanged some locomotives and rolling stock, i.e., Standard Champlain was an exquisite place to relax and enjoy the
the Champlain and the 100, but lettered for Guilford. Thus, both scenery as the train ascended New Hampshire’s White Mountains.
cars became part of the Guilford business train along with Maine
Central’s quartet of cars (the business car No. 333, two former All this time, the train was moving along. His assistant even
Penn Central stainless steel passenger coaches, and No. 322, a joined in and said, “I’ll hold you while you hold him.” Against my
standard baggage coach with an electric generator). better judgment, I gave in. “BUT… for 10 seconds and you’re
done!” I said.
Mission impossible They agreed. I sprung the trap, grabbed onto his belt at his back
As the train gained speed, Briggs wanted to do interviews for while the other guy grabbed my belt, and the three of us slowly
background. While he was doing that, the camera crew asked if and carefully got into position. The camera was rolling.
they could open one of the vestibule doors to shoot video. That I realized in that time frame that if anyone walked by and saw
seemed reasonable enough, I thought. They were Dutch doors what we were doing, my career was over. I still cringe after all these
that opened halfway, and the crew could shoot without difficulty. years. What was I thinking? I suppose at the time I justified it as
I was naïve. They wanted more than that. doing what was good for the company as it was good publicity.
Not satisfied with leaning out the door, the lead cameraman “Anything for the shot.” When 10 seconds were up, I yelled,
wanted me to open the trap so he could take a shot from close to “CUT!” He said it was good enough and retracted the camera.
the track. At any speed this was dangerous, and I apologized say- Somehow, we all got back into the vestibule without any prob-
ing such a request was out of the question. lems. I closed the trap, shut the door, and swore both men to
What I hadn’t realized was a classic cameraman’s tenet: Any- secrecy about what we had done. Nobody was to be told, not
thing for the shot. They will do anything to get a good shot. even Briggs.
I told them it was too risky. If he were to fall out there would We arrived at Whitefield after a great ride. Briggs, happy that
be Hell to pay, and I would never forgive myself. he had an interview and great video, was assured. They thanked
With straight faces they protested that this was important and me for my assistance, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
hailed, “We have insurance!” He said I could hold onto his belt Two nights later my father called me and said he saw the footage
while he sat on the lower vestibule step holding the camera down on the Nightly News. He asked me how they managed to get the
and out far enough to get the shot. “It’ll be very safe,” he exclaimed. down-at-track-level shots. I told him he didn’t want to know. 2

The freshly-painted inspection train came down from Maine Central’s Waterville Shop the night before the trip. In the early morning, it was
spotted on the main line behind the company’s general office building.

Trains.com 41
PRESERVATION

Last Alaska Railroad steam engine

reaches restoration milestone
Tender work completed, reattached to engine

Alaska Railroad No. 557, mated IT WAS THE LAST STEAM LOCO-
for the first time with its com- MOTIVE in service on the Alas-
pleted tender, stands outside the ka Railroad, and now No. 557
restoration shop on Oct. 8, 2022 is being restored to operate
for public viewing. The rebuild, again on the final frontier.
which will return the last Alaska The project recently reached
Railroad steam locomotive to a significant milestone with
operation, is scheduled to wrap the completion of work on the
up in 2024. Terry Douglas tender. The tender has been
reunited with the locomotive.
The story of No. 557 begins
during World War II. The loco-
motive is one of 2,120 S-160
class 2-8-0 Consolidations built
for the U.S. Army Transporta-
tion Corp. between 1942 and
1945. They were originally in-
tended for use in Europe and
Africa. Before all were retired, Alaska Railroad No. 557 still needs a number of major items installed,
members of the S-160 class including running gear, boiler tubes and superheater flues, before
worked on every continent ex- testing and certification. Michael Bridges
cept Australia and Antarctica.
Twelve of the S-160s were mate with larger compound air 1954, when No. 557 became
transferred for service in Alas- compressors mounted on the the final steam locomotive on
ka in an attempt to relieve an front pilot, steam coils to pro- the roster, it was converted
acute motive power shortage. vide heat for the cabs, and from coal firing to oil burning.
The Alaskan 12 were further snowplows fashioned for sea- The railroad then eliminated
modified for the northern cli- sonal use. Additionally, in its coaling facilities.

42 JANUARY 2023
 The locomotive that became Alaska
Railroad No. 557 was built by the Baldwin
Locomotive Works with serial number
70480. While working for the USATC, the
Cast Hiawatha emblem
locomotive was U.S. No. 3523. It was re-
numbered to No. 557 when it arrived in
Alaska in December 1944.
stolen from Skytop car
The locomotive became the last Alaska One of two original castings removed from car side
Railroad steam engine due to a diesel
shortcoming. The area around Nenana, A HIAWATHA “RUNNING INDIAN” Whoever committed the theft
Alaska, suffers from the regular flooding of LOGO from Milwaukee Road had to have planned it.”
the Tanana and Nenana Rivers. The rail- Skytop lounge observation car The casting is an original. The
road’s new diesel-electric locomotives had Cedar Rapids has been stolen, Skytops wore two such emblems,
considerable trouble navigating flooded car owner Friends of the 261 one on each side. Previously the
tracks, as their traction motors would short reports. The car was recently Friends had the two castings
out. No. 557 was found to easily ford up to used on the Autumn Colors chrome-plated. This will make
2 feet of water over the rails. Aside from Express in West Virginia and the stolen casting easier to iden-
flood duty, No. 557 pulled the occasional had been returned to its home tify. “If anyone comes across a
special-event train. In fact, the last train it in St. Paul, Minn., when the chrome-plated Hiawatha logo,
pulled before being retired was a run from logo was stolen. It is believed that is the one that was stolen,”
Anchorage to the state fair in Palmer, Alas- the theft was committed the night of Oct. Sandberg says.
ka, on Sept. 5, 1959. 25, 2022, in the Minnesota The group has cast aluminum replicas of
A Washington scrap dealer and muse- Commercial Railway yard in St. Paul. the emblem, one of which will be chrome
um owner, Monte Holm, purchased No. The theft was planned, according to plated and installed in place of the stolen
557 in 1964. On June 14, 1965, the loco- Steve Sandberg, president and chief operat- original. “We will end up putting it on so …
motive left from Whittier, Alaska, aboard ing officer of the Friends of the 261. “To re- even if you have the specialty wrench you
Train Ship Alaska bound for Everett, move the logo, you had to use a special type could not get if off,” Sandberg says.
Wash. Instead of scrapping the engine, of wrench,” Sandberg says. “It’s not like they Anyone with information about the
Holm preserved it for school groups to could walk up and use a screwdriver, you theft is asked to contact the Friends at
witness steam engine history in action. actually had to order this special wrench. www.261.com. — Steve Glischinski
For the next three decades, Holm kept it
in running condition and parked at his
hobo museum — the House of Poverty —
in Moses Lake, Wash. Upon his passing the
museum was closed and the locomotive
Training firemen on
left without a caretaker.
In 2011, Jim and Vic Jansen, owners of
several Alaska-based transportation com-
a miniature stoker
panies, purchased the locomotive from the Museum restores Duplex training tool to operation
Holm estate, ensuring its return to Alaska.
The Jansens donated the locomotive to the A TRAINING DEVICE for steam locomotive
Alaska Railroad with the stipulation that it firemen has been restored at the Railroad
be relocated to Anchorage, rehabilitated, Museum of Pennsylvania. Built by the
and eventually put back into service. The Duplex Stoker Co. of Pittsburgh, the ma-
Alaska Railroad arranged for No. 557 to be chine is a fully operational scale model.
moved home, arriving in Whittier, Alaska, The Duplex company made a number of
on Jan. 3, 2012. miniature stokers for use by railroads to
Since that time, The Engine 557 Resto- train firemen in the safe and economical fir-
ration Co., a non-profit group established ing practices to conserve fuel and reduce
to restore, maintain, and operate the loco- smoke output. This machine was delivered
motive, has been working on its rebuild. to the Reading in early 1943, as the Reading
Thus far over 150,000 hours have been giv- had a substantial number of locomotives
en to the project. At this point, the crew is equipped with Duplex stokers. It was used
working to reattach appliances to the loco- in a mobile training facility for several years,
motive, and install boiler tubes and super- until steam was retired in the early 1950s. The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania’s
heater flues. Everything on the locomotive Somehow, this machine survived in Duplex Stoker trainer is the only fully opera-
needs to be adjusted and tested, leading to storage in Reading until it was purchased in tional example known to exist. Wayne Laepple
hydrostatic test of the boiler to 285 pounds 1970 by George M. Hart, the museum’s first
per square inch. director. It was displayed at the museum for been painted black, but an examination
Completion of the project is estimated a few years before being stored in a boxcar found several colors had been used to des-
for 2024 with a total cost of $2 million. in 1983. There it remained until 2019. ignate components. The main stoker screw,
Presently, an additional $350,000 needs The stoker was moved to the museum’s for instance, is bright yellow. There are also
to be raised to complete the project. For restoration shop in 2020. Surprisingly, it small windows allowing students to observe
additional information on No. 557’s restora- was still operable after more than 60 years. the rack and pinion that drives the twin ele-
tion, please visit: www.557.alaskarails.org. In late 2021, volunteers disassembled it for vator screws and the gearing that powers
— Bob Lettenberger an overhaul. At some point, everything had the main screw. — Wayne Laepple

Trains.com 43
PRESERVATION PHOTOS
TO MARK THE 100TH ANNIVER-
SARY of the Yakima Valley
Transportation line, a special run
was made by YVT No. 298, a
50-ton GE freight motor, deliv-
ered in 1922. The Union Pacific
owned the 44-mile line until
1985, when it was donated to the
City of Yakima, which turned it
into an operating museum. No.
298, the line’s primary freight
motor, is still undergoing traction
motor repairs, but enough work
has been completed that the
motor could make a birthday
appearance. Robert Harbison

WITH CAB TOURS CONCLUDED for the season and snow accumulating in northeast Pennsylvania, Union Pacific No. 4012 awaits spring at
Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pa. Of the eight Big Boys that remain, five are exhibited outdoors. Steamtown, National Park Service

44 JANUARY 2023
Strasburg Rail Road steam engine
hits excavator standing on siding
No injuries reported; locomotive is back in service in less than a week
STRASBURG RAIL ROAD’S 4-8-0 STEAM ENGINE trackhoe were damaged in the collision. on the standing train, potentially diverting
No. 475 collided with a tracked excavator The trackhoe arm did not pierce or deform attention from the track ahead.
or “trackhoe” parked on a spur Wednes- anything vital to steam operation, such as The accident was widely viewed online
day, Nov. 2, punching a hole in the loco- No. 475’s flues or front flue sheet. via a Virtual Railfan streaming camera
motive’s smokebox. No injuries resulted The accident occurred at 11:23 a.m. as affixed to a pole at the exact switch involved,
and the engine, running light, remained the first passenger train of the day was and by a passenger riding the train who was
on the track. reversing ends at the connection with taking video of the runaround move.
On Monday, Nov. 7, No. 475 had been Amtrak’s electrified Philadelphia-Harris- The Federal Railroad Administration
repaired and was back in service, according burg, Pa., Keystone Corridor, a location was slated to visit the railroad to examine
to Jim Hager, the railroad’s general manag- that is commonly called Leaman Place No. 475 and interview the crew.
er. This confirmed initial reports that the Junction. As is customary, the train depart- Founded in 1832, Strasburg Rail Road
damage looked worse than it actually was. ed the station at Strasburg with the engine is the oldest short line in the United States.
Allegedly, the combination of a mis- running tender-forward on the 4½-mile Beginning in 1959, it was transformed
aligned switch — apparently left open when trip to Paradise, Pa. There, the train’s pas- from a weed-grown feeder line to the
a maintenance crew tied down the trackhoe senger cars were left standing while the en- Pennsylvania Railroad into a major steam-
on the spur — and the engine crew’s failure gine cut away and ran around to couple to powered excursion carrier with a machine
to operate the locomotive at “restricted the west end of the cars for the return trip. shop that caters to many other steam
speed” contributed to the collision’s cause. It was during this routine swapping of ends railroads. Situated in the heart of Pennsyl-
Damage to the locomotive included the that the incident took place. vania Dutch tourist country, it handles
smokebox front and door, some auxiliary Contributing further to the situation is 250,000 to 300,000 passengers a year.
metal pieces, and the headlight. The buck- that, during the runaround move, the en- It also services several freight customers.
et, pistons, and hydraulic hoses on the gine crew typically waves to the passengers — Dan Cupper

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Trains.com 45
TRAIN-WATCHING

Hot spot: Neenah, Wis.

Access, variety make this a good Midwestern train watching venue

That’s Neenah Foundry in the NEENAH, WIS., IS ONE OF THOSE duced a ton of paper and other and offer good positions for
background, home to thousands TOWNS you have probably nev- industrial products, like man- elevated photos. There is ample
of manhole covers. In the fore- er heard of. There is, however, hole covers. Today, there is still street parking available but
ground, Canadian National No. a good chance that something plenty of railroad activity, just plan for some short walks to
3863, a GE ES44AC, leads a from Neenah impacts your life concentrated in one road. ideal photo locations.
string of seven locomotives, five every day. Take a good look at Neenah is on CN’s line from
are being towed. It’s Oct. 8, 2022. the next manhole cover you RADIO FREQUENCIES: Chicago to International Falls,
The tracks in Neenah offer great cross. If it’s cast with the words 160.785 Neenah Subdivi- Minn./Fort Frances, Ontario,
access. This shot was taken from “Neenah Foundry Co., Neenah, sion, 160.845 for the yard, where the line meets the Cana-
the sidewalk along Harrison WI,” you now know the town 161.07 or 161.125 for switching dian transcontinental route.
Street. Three photos, Bob Lettenberger we are talking about. and yard. The CN through Neenah
offers a varied run of trains.
LOCATION: We are on the TRAIN WATCHING: You will see locals serving in-
west shore of Lake Win- The Canadian National dustries with covered hoppers
nebago about 2 hours north of tracks are easily accessed in for plastics, gondolas for scrap
Milwaukee and an hour south- Neenah. The line runs through metal, and boxcars for paper
west of Green Bay, Wis. Today, town following Harrison products. You will see through
Neenah is Canadian National Street, which is either next to trains made up entirely of oil
territory. Historically, the the tracks or a block away. tanks, auto racks, or double-
Chicago & North Western was Once across Main Street, the stacked well cars. With Preci-
first to arrive here in 1861, as it tracks cross and follow Lake sion Schedule Railroading,
built north from Oshkosh, Street. Between Main Street, on mixed merchandise trains are
Wis., on its way to Green Bay. the north end, and Bell Street, longer with interesting intra-
The original Wisconsin Central on the south end, the city has train blocking. Most through
(later Soo Line) built into town worked to close virtually all trains will have DPUs about
in 1880. The Milwaukee & grade crossings, replacing two-thirds of the way back or at
Northern (Milwaukee Road) them with viaducts at Main the end. Through trains can
was the last to show up, reach- Street, Winneconne Avenue, have foreign power, which
ing Neenah in 1881. Why all Cecil Street, and Bell Street. makes for interesting watching
the railroads? Neenah pro- The viaducts all have sidewalks and photos.

Emerging from under the Main

Street bridge on Oct. 8, 2022,
Kansas City Southern No. 4854,
a GE ES44AC, leads a merchan-
dise train north. Foreign,
run-through power is common
on trains in Neenah.

46 JANUARY 2023
 If you don’t have a scanner, watch the
signals just north of Winchester Road and
south of Cecil Street for an indication of
south bound trains. There are signals just
north of Bell Street to watch for north-
bounds. The signals will normally display
red and will change aspect when a train is
approaching. Once a signal changes it can
take 30 to 60 minutes for a train to arrive.

BEST VIEWING: Trains will come

through Neenah solo or in groups of
two to four. For multiples, it will usually be
a combination of north and southbounds.
The multiples will meet and pass in town.
Northbound trains are held around Bell
Street when preparing for a meet. Crossing Lake Street, on Neenah’s north side, Canadian National No. 3051, a GE ET44AC, leads
As the tracks run north-south, early a merchandise train made up of mostly covered hoppers and tank cars into town.
morning and late afternoon offer good
shadows and contrast on the respective 10
To Green Bay

ver
Ri ox
sides of the rails. Also, looking north from

F
the Main Street bridge is an interesting S-
curve. Good photos can be had from either
side of the curve. WISCONSIN
If you’re looking for industrial switching Green Bay
or yard shots, stake out one of the bridges. Neenah
Most of the industrial action is on the east
side of the tracks. Street-level access is diffi- Milwaukee
10 Neenah, Wis.
cult. The Neenah yard extends from Win-
neconne Avenue south to Cecil Street. The
Cecil Street bridge offers great views of the Lit tle
yard switching action. L ake But te To Manitowoc
To Stevens Point des Mor t s
Lastly, the C&NW Neenah depot still
Fritse
stands. Built in 1892, the depot is located at Park
500 N. Commercial St. Architecturally, the
stone and brick depot was designed by Trestle
Winchester Rd. Train Bridge
Charles Sumner Frost in the Richardsonian
Romanesque Style. Frost designed a num-
Lake St.

ber of significant depots for the C&NW.

The depot has been restored and is now the Chicago &
offices of a local architectural firm. The Plaza at North Western Depot
.
l St

Gateway Park
rcia

Main St.
me

FOR THE FAMILY: While you are

Com

watching the trains, the rest of Wis

rth

con
the family may wish to stroll downtown
No

sin
Ave
Neenah, which offers a collection of unique .
41 ve. Bergstrom-Mahler
shops and eateries. If you are in town during on ne A Museum of Glass
nec
the winter months, visit The Plaza at Gate- Win
South Commercial St.

way Park, which is part of downtown. The LAKE

Plaza offers outdoor ice skating, fire warm- W I N N E BAGO
ing pits, and Globe Coffee for seasonal bev- Cecil St.
erages. A visit to the Bergstrom-Mahler Mu-
seum of Glass would be a great experience.
t.

The museum exhibits the world’s largest col-

son S

lection of paperweights along with plenty of

Harri

other glass works. Neenah has numerous

parks with lake views and hiking trails. For
the railroad enthusiast, a visit to Fritse Park
Bell St.
is a must. Here you can walk the Trestle
Trail, which is the old C&NW bridge across N
Little Lake Butte des Morts. Finally, wrap up
your train watching day with a visit to
Cranky Pat’s Pizza at the corner of Cecil and CN Canadian National
South Commercial Streets. This local institu- 0 Scale 2 miles
tion has been rolling out thin-crust pizzas © 2023 Kalmbach Media Co., TRAINS: Roen Kelly
since 1955. — Bob Lettenberger To Oshkosh G

Trains.com 47
ASK TRAINS

Q What is a transfer caboose? How is

it different from a regular caboose?
— John Rose, St. Francisville, La.

The transfer caboose provided A As the old proverb states: ing developed, train crews transfer caboose. They began
basic shelter for the local crew “Necessity is the mother of in- found that the facilities needed with the steel underframes
while running between yards. It vention.” Herein lies the story in a caboose were different for from older wooden boxcars and
was a working platform, afford- of the transfer caboose. those staying in town and those built up from there. The UP’s
ing expanded visibility and During the 1920s, inter- heading out over the road. The transfer cabooses were only
quick, safe access to the ground change traffic between railroads transfer caboose is born. 24 feet long. The Milwaukee
for switching. Even some smaller increased dramatically at major The transfer/local crew Road repurposed the frames
railroads like the Green Bay & terminals. At times, the inter- needed more visibility than from 46 steam locomotive
Western had transfer cabooses. change trains would become what was available from the tenders as the starting point
Here No. 602 departs GB&W’s rather long. With traffic growth cupola of a standard caboose. for its transfer cabooses.
Norwood Yard in Green Bay, Wis., also came more switch jobs They also needed to get on and At least a couple of railroads
in December 1973. Jim Hediger working businesses within a off the caboose quickly and safe- had regular cabooses that were
city or industrial zone. Accom- ly for switching operations. hybrids. The Illinois Central
modations were needed for Sheltering the crew from bad fielded a road caboose with
these local train crews while on weather was a requirement of wide vision cupola and extra-
the road, even if it was for a the local caboose. The local large covered platforms at both
shorter distance between yards caboose did not need bunks, a ends. Inside are all the facilities
or on an industrial branch — larger stove, or restrooms (they of a full caboose — storage,
generally less than a 20-mile were in the city). Finally, fewer bunks, big stove, restroom,
trip. The already proven ca- windows on the local caboose a desk, and bench seating.
boose was the answer. would be a plus due to the The Missouri Pacific rostered
There were two complica- increasing number of projectiles a road caboose that looked
tions with this idea. The style of hurled at trains in the lesser exactly like a transfer caboose
railroad operation in the 1920s neighborhoods of the big cities. — small shack mid-car with
put a squeeze on the existing This necessity led many extra-large open platforms.
caboose inventory for many railroads to build their own It even had full-sized bay
railroads. It was preferred to transfer cabooses. The home- widows for better visibility.
have a fully equipped caboose built route was followed to keep Necessity is the mother
trailing a freight train on the expenses to a minimum. The of invention. The transfer
main line as opposed to traips- Union Pacific fabricated eight caboose, like the road caboose,
ing around behind transfer jobs transfers in its Omaha shops was developed to meet the
or local switching runs. As during 1930. This is one of the needs of a specific railroad job.
transfer runs and local switch- first instances of a purpose-built — Bob Lettenberger

48 JANUARY 2023
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Trains.com 49
 ILLINOIS Mendota
RAILROAD UNION DEPOT RAILROAD MUSEUM
783 Main St., Mendota, IL 61342 STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION

ATTRACTION Open 12-4, Saturday & Sunday,

March thru Dec., located in re-
(Required by 39 USC 3685)
1. Publication title: TRAINS
2. Publication No.: 529-850

DIRECTORY stored 1888 depot building along

busy BNSF mainline, large operat-
3. Filing date: October 1, 2022
4. Issue frequency: monthly
5. Number of issues published annually: 12
ing HO model of 1940 Mendota,
STEP BACK IN TIME to experience historic railroad photos, operating
6. Annual subscription price: $58.95
7. Complete mailing address of known office of publication: 21027 Crossroads Circle,
telegraph office, large collection of Waukesha, WI 53186. Telephone: 262-798-6607.

the golden age of railroading. North HO brass engines, and Lionel cars;
8. Complete mailing address of general business office of publisher: same.
9. Publisher: Nicole McGuire, 21027 Crossroads Circle, Waukesha, WI 53186. Editor:
restored rail cars including 1923 Carl Swanson, same.

America’s railroad museums and tourist CB&Q Mikado steam locomotive, 10. Owner: Kalmbach Media Co., 21027 Crossroads Circle, Waukesha, WI 53186;
stockholders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of stock are: Debo-
1911 wood waycar, 1938 Milwau- rah H.D. Bercot, 22012 Indian Springs Trail, Amberson, PA 17210; Gerald & Patricia
kee combine car, 1949 Pullman SP Boettcher Trust, 8041 Warren Ave., Wauwatosa, WI 53213; Sally Darragh, 145 Pros-
lines provide affordable fun for the whole dining car, and 1937 Illinois Central pect Ave., Waterloo, IA 50703; Melanie J. Duval Trusts, 2948 Fontana Dr., Lincoln, CA
95648; Harold Edmonson, 6021 N. Marmora Ave., Chicago, IL 60646-3903; Laura &
mail car. Motor car rides and Am- Gregory Felzer, 3328 S. Honey Creek Dr., Milwaukee, WI 53219; Susan E. Fisher
family! Plan your complete vacation with trak waiting room available. Trust, 3430 E. Sunrise Dr., Ste. 200, Tucson, AZ 85718; Bruce H. Grunden, 7202 Wild
Violet Dr., Humble, TX 77436; Linda H. Hanson Trust, P.O. Box 19, Arcadia, MI 49613;
George F. Hirschmann Trusts, P.O. Box 19, Arcadia, MI 49613; Susan E. Ingles Trust,
visits to these leading attractions. For www.mendotamuseums.org 815-538-3800 2604 Oakcrest Dr., Waukesha, WI 53188; Charles & Lois Kalmbach Living Trust, 7435
N. Braeburn Ln., Glendale, WI 53209; Kalmbach Profit Sharing/401K Savings Plan &
Trust, P.O. Box 1612, Waukesha, WI 53187-1612; Elizabeth King Trusts, U.S. Bank,
information on advertising in this section, 777 E. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53202; Mahnke Family Trusts, 4756 Marlbor-
ough Way, Carmichael, CA 95608; Milwaukee Art Museum, Inc., 700 N. Art Museum
Dr., Milwaukee, WI 53202; Cynthia Darragh Oatman, 1708 Roxborough Rd., Unit E,
Charlotte, NC 28211; Lois E. Stuart Trust, 1320 Pantops Cottage Ct., No. 1, Charlot-
call Tom Vorel at 630-248-2299. tesville, VA 22911-4663; David M. Thornburgh Trust, 8855 Collins Ave., Apt. 3A, Surf-
side, FL 33154.
11. Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding
PENNSYLVANIA Marysville 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities: N/A
12. Tax status (for completion by nonprofit organizations authorized to mail at
BRIDGEVIEW BED & BREAKFAST special rates): Has not changed during the preceding 12 months.
810 S. Main St. 13. Publication title: TRAINS
At The Bridgeview B&B 14. Issue date for circulation data below: September 2022
15. Extent and nature of circulation:
The action comes to you! Average No. No. copies of
CALIFORNIA Campo Freight Trains are rolling copies each issue single issue
during preceding published nearest
in and out of Enola Yard
PACIFIC SOUTHWEST RAILWAY MUSEUM right past our front porch. From the spacious decks and a. Total number of copies (net press run)
12 months
91,961
to filing date
87,211
750 Depot Street b. Paid circulation (by mail and outside the mail)
sitting room, you can watch the Susquehanna River, Blue
1. Mailed outside-county paid subscriptions 60,720 59,062
Mountains and trains crossing World Famous Rockville Bridge, 3. Sales through dealers and carriers,
all in one spectacular panoramic view! Relax, in a comfortable, street vendors, and counter sales 6,415 5,623
c. Total paid distribution (sum of 15b1, 15b2,
“home away from home” atmosphere at The Bridgeview, 15b3, and 15b4) 67,135 64,685
where we feature 10 clean, cozy rooms, all with private baths, d. Free or nominal rate distribution
A/C, WiFi, plus a freshly prepared breakfast to start your day! 3. By mail 329 337
4. Outside the mail 0 0
Visit Harrisburg, Hershey, Gettysburg, Adamstown and PA Dutch e. Total free or nominal rate distribution 329 337
Country. See our website for more information, and give us a call. f. Total distribution
(sum of 15c and 15e) 67,464 65,022
Come experience The Bridgeview Bed & Breakfast, where g. Copies not distributed 24,497 22,189
you never know, what, you might see next!! h. Total (sum of 15f and 15g) 91,961 87,211
i. Percent paid (15c divided by 15f times 100): 99.51% 99.48%
www.bridgeviewbnb.com 717-957-2438 16. Electronic copy circulation
a. Paid electronic copies 1,996 1,860
b. Total paid print copies and paid electronic copies (sum of 15c and 16a)
69,131 66,545
c. Total print distribution and paid electronic copies (sum of 15f and 16a)
69,460 66,882
d. Percent paid (both print and electronic copies) (16b divided by 16c times 100)
99.53% 99.50%
17. Publication of statement of ownership: Publication required. Printed in the
Located 60 minutes east of San Diego PENNSYLVANIA Strasburg January 2023 issue of this publication.
18. I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete.
Ride on the San Diego & Arizona Railway: the last RAILROAD MUSEUM OF PENNSYLVANIA Nicole McGuire
Senior Vice President, Consumer Marketing.
trans-con link, completed in 1919 and built by sugar-magnate, 300 Gap Road Date: September 29, 2022
John D. Spreckels.

Trains depart from the historic 1917 Campo Depot every

☛
Saturday and Sunday. Check our website for train schedules
and tickets.

www.psrm.org 619-465-7776
RAILROAD ATTRACTION DIRECTORY

In the February issue

COLORADO Leadville
Real Trains. Experience our fascinating, world-class
LEADVILLE RAILROAD collection of 100 historic locomotives and railroad cars
326 East 7th in the climate-controlled Rolling Stock Hall. Real History.
Opening May 29th through January 15, 2022. NEW this year:
operating Winter runs for the 2021-22 season and daily Summer Climb aboard a caboose, take the throttle in an authentic
runs from May 29-beginning of October. Check out the website locomotive cab, inspect a 62-ton engine from underneath
for updates on schedules, restrictions, and fun in the Rockies! and stroll back in time through the 1915-era Main Street.
Real Excitement. Try out hands-on activities in Stewart
Junction railway education center and interactive exhibits
throughout the Museum. Visit during a family-friendly special
www.leadvillerailroad.com 1-866-386-3936 event. Features a working restoration shop, vast research
library and archives, tours and virtual tours, orientation video
in Steinman Station passenger depot and the Whistle Stop
Pushed off
Shop museum store. Open year-round, free on-site parking.

www.rrmuseumpa.org 717-687-8628
the mountain
INDIANA Connersville A farewell to Norfolk Southern’s custom
WHITEWATER VALLEY RAILROAD built SD40Es in helper service. Three
5th and Grand
generations of family railroading on the
CENTRAL INDIANA & WESTERN. In the
mid-1960s, huge volumes of southwest

Like us on Virginia coal led SOUTHERN RAILWAY to

innovate. Remembering Owney, the

Travel through time on Indiana’s most scenic railroad.

33-mile round trip to Metamora, May through Oct.
Facebook! RAILROAD POST OFFICE’S mascot. A stray
dog adopted by postal clerks, that racked
up 143,000 miles aboard the mail cars.
Special events Feb through Dec. Vintage diesels:
1951 Lima-Ham 750HP SW, 1954 EMD/Milw. SD10,
1948 Alco S1. Gift Shop. facebook.com/TrainsMagazine On sale January 10, 2023
www.whitewatervalleyrr.org 765-825-2054

50 JANUARY 2023
CLASSIFIEDS LODGING WANTED
Word Rate: per issue: 1 insertion — $1.57 per word, 6 “QUINN”TESSENTIAL RAILFAN ACCOMMODATION on ARE YOU GETTING THE BEST PRICE FOR YOUR TRAIN
insertions — $1.47 per word, 12 insertions — $1.37 per word. Airbnb. Private Guest house, close walking distance to COLLECTION? Our list of discriminating buyers grows each
$35.00 MINIMUM per ad. Payment must accompany ad. To tracks and Tehachapi Loop. Located next to tunnel 10. day. They want bigger and better train collections to choose
receive the discount you must order and prepay for all ads at Railroad Memorabilia on property. A Railfan Hidden Gem! from! We specialize in O Gauge trains- Lionel, MTH, K-Line,
one time. Count all initials, single numbers, groups of INN ON THE RIVER: Book your stay for a relaxing Williams, Weaver, 3rd Rail, etc. as well as better trains in
numbers, names, address number, street number or name, getaway overlooking the beautiful Mississippi! Guests all scales. We also purchase store inventories. Plus, we
city, state, zip, phone numbers each as one word. Example: are minutes from quaint restaurants, stores and many can auction your trains with rates starting as low as 15%.
Paul P. Potter, 2102 Pacific St., Waukesha, WI 53202 would outdoor opportunities. Each room has a private balcony for We travel extensively all over the US. Give us a call today!
count as 9 words. stunning views of the Mississippi River and the Burlington Send us your list or contact us for more information at
All Copy: Set in standard 6 point type. First several words Northern-Santa fe Rail Line. Reservations: 608-534-7784 www.trainz.com/sell Trainz, 2740 Faith Industrial Dr.,
only set in bold face. If possible, ads should be sent www.innontheriverwi.com or email: [email protected] Buford, GA 30518, 866-285-5840, [email protected]
typewritten and categorized to ensure accuracy. Fax: 866-935-9504
CLOSING DATES: February 2023 closes Nov. 14,
Mar closes Dec. 19, Apr closes Jan. 25, BOOKS AND MAGAZINES LOOKING TO PURCHASE 1947 FREEDOM TRAIN:
Collections, Photos, Scrapbooks, Pins, Footage and
May closes Feb. 22, June closes Mar. 22, July closes Apr. 26 LEARN WHAT IS GOING ON TODAY! David Maiers has Pennants, Slides, Toys. G.R. Barker, 2191 Cook Rd.,
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number and when using a P.O. Box in your ad, a street David comes from a four-generation railway background
address. giving a unique perspective on the railway scene. Large ORIGINAL SLIDE COLLECTIONS, B&W
Send your ads to: magazine – Classified Advertising black and white photos and detailed information. “Canadian Negative Collections, any railroads, any subjects.
21027 Crossroads Circle, P.O. Box 1612 Waukesha, WI Railways - Tales of the Silver Lady” is about the current [email protected]
53187-1612 Toll-free (888) 558-1544 Ext. 551 railroad landscape. CN and CP locomotives, container
Fax: (262) 796-0126 E-mail: [email protected] and oil trains are all covered. “Stainless Steel - A Book of PRR LW PULLMAN CAR Cast-iron door nameplates,
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RAIL SHOWS AND EVENTS grain transportation system. The grain elevators, machinery,
crops, trucks, and railway operations. Our best-selling book!
JANUARY 21-22, 2023: Dallas Area Winter Train Show. David’s father was a 35-year grain elevator manager. Stories AUCTIONS
Plano Center, 2000 E. Spring Creek Parkway, Plano, TX. come from first-hand accounts. Price $25 each includes shipping.
Saturday 10am-5pm; Sunday 10am-4pm. Adults $10.00, Mail check payable and address with note on books ordered AMERICA’S PREMIER RAILROAD AUCTIONS: Consign
12 and under free w/adult. 80,000 sq.ft. of model railroading to David Maiers, Box 489, Roblin, Manitoba, R0L 1P0 your quality items. One piece to an entire collection. Large
with numerous operating layouts, layout tours, vendors, and Canada. Paypal to: [email protected]. US orders in US$. 8-1/2 X 11” auction catalogs contain full descriptions and
door prizes. Information: Chris Atkins, [email protected] www.grainbook.net hundreds of photographs. Auctions are jointly sponsored
469-438-0741. www.dfwtrainsshow.com by the Depot Attic and Golden Spike Enterprises. The

JANUARY 28, 2023: The 31st Annual Great Tri-State Rail COLLECTIBLES combined knowledge and experience of America’s largest
railroadiana firms will earn you “top dollar”. Mail and fax bids
Sale. La Crosse Center, 2nd & Pearl Streets, La Crosse, are accepted. Information: Railroad Auction, PO Box 985,
TOP DOLLAR PAID for steam/diesel or electric builder
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Toy & Antique Trains & Memorabilia, Sale & Swap Meet.
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FEBRUARY 4-5, 2023: Monticello 2023 Train Show. PHOTOS, PRINTS AND
Saturday 10am-5pm and Sunday 9am-1pm. Berndes SLIDES
Center, 766 N. Maple St., Monticello, IA 52310. Tables
TOP DOLLAR PAID: for 35mm slide collections
Go Digital!
$30. Admission: $5, children under 12 free w/paid adult.
especially pre-1980. Mr. Slides, [email protected]
Monticello RR Club, PO Box 169, Monticello IA 52310 or
email Ron Ackermann: [email protected] Telephone: 216-321-8446 Get instant access
RAILROAD ART to the digital edition
All listed events were confirmed as active at the THE ESTATE OF WELL-KNOWN RAILROAD ARTIST, of Trains magazine!
time of press. Please contact event sponsor for ANDREW HARMANTAS, is selling all remaining paintings
current status of the event.
from his collection. Paintings are of various railroads, steam,
diesel, and various sizes. Majority are framed. Inquiries,
Go to Trains.com
visit www.andrewharmantasart.com

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.

Big E Productions ..................................9 McMillan Publication .................................. 11 Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania .........50

Bridgeview Bed & Breakfast .................50 Mendota Museum & Historical Society ......50 Railroadbooks.biz ..................................9

Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Monte Vista Publishing ...........................9 Ron’s Books ..........................................9

Development ................................... 49 Morning Sun Books, Inc. ...................... 11 The Last Winter Book .......................... 49

Douglas Area Chamb of Comm...............9 National Railroad Museum ....................50 The Railroading Handbook .....................2

Leadville Colorado & Southern Peter Dougherty .................................. 49 Trains.com ..........................................60

Railroad Company ............................50 Photodecor.net ......................................9 Whitewater Valley Railroad ...................50

Majestic Switzerland Tour..........................49 Railroading Puzzles ..............................45 Wild Mountain Tour .............................. 11

Trains.com 51
GALLERY
The weather
outside is
frightful
But the cab of this old EMD
F7 is so warm and delight-
ful. We are cruising along
the Wisconsin Great
Northern Railroad east of
Earl, Wis., in December
2017. The locomotive is a
former Chicago & North
Western Railway unit now
dressed for the WGN.
Steve Smedley
Trains.com 53
 GALLERY

It’s a long way

to the top
Byron Hill, south of Fond
du lac, Wis., is enough of a
grade to require helpers,
especially with a loaded
taconite train. It’s January
2002. Canadian National
acquired the Wisconsin
Central one year earlier.
So now, ex-WC EMD SD45
No. 6593 lugs its loads up
the snow-covered hill with
a couple of CN mates
pushing on the back end.
Frank Orona

It’s a cold job

The conductor hops
back onto Gio Rail LDSX
No. 1597 after protecting
College Line in Corinth,
Ontario. This would mark
the first revenue run for
Gio Rail on the previously
dormant Canadian National
Cayuga Subdivision.
On this Jan. 4, 2022, the
crew would run the unit
solo from Tillsonburg to
St. Thomas to lift the two
tank cars and haul them to
Tillsonburg to be spotted.
Kyle Stefanovic

54 JANUARY 2023
No snow
This is what winter looks
like in the South. It’s Dec.
29, 2018, to be exact, in
Toecane, N.C. No snow, just
rain, as CSX Transportation
manifest Q693-28 passes
through town. That’s EMD
SD40-2 No. 8054 in charge
of the southbound today.
Jonathan McCoy

Dawn cold
It’s Dec. 27, 2018. As the
year draws to a close, a
winter sunrise lights the
surroundings of Liberty,
N.C. Aging ex-N&W, now
Norfolk Southern high-
hood EMD SD40-2 No. 1625
leads local train P10, which
is heading westbound
towards Greensboro, N.C.
Luke Harwell

Trains.com 55
GALLERY

Do the
Christmas
twist
Now wearing the colors
of the Western Maryland
Railway and running on the
Western Maryland Scenic
Railroad, 2-8-0 No. 734,
ex-Lake Superior &
Ishpeming Consolidation
No. 34, prepares for a
Christmas twist on the
turntable at Frostburg, Md.
Snow is falling and piling
up on this Dec. 14, 2013.
William Gill

56 JANUARY 2023
Comin’ ’round
the mountain
The twists and turns along
the Durango & Silverton
Narrow Gauge Railroad
on its route above Shalona
Lake, Colo., make an
interesting run for No. 476,
a class K-28 2-8-2. The
flanger special is working
the line on Jan. 9, 2019.
Lawrence Gross

From above
Looking down on Iowa
Traction Railroad’s No. 50,
a century-old Baldwin-
Westinghouse steeple-cab
electric, offers an interest-
ing perspective on winter
railroading. It’s March 10,
2019, in Mason City, Iowa,
and the steeple-cab crew
is working through the
chore of switching in the
snow. Craig Williams

Trains.com 57
GALLERY

Into daylight
The legendary Norden,
Calif., perched atop the
Southern Pacific’s Donner
Pass, is the city inside a
snowshed. Southern Pacific
No. 7424, an EMD SD45R,
emerges into daylight and
accumulated snow on this
December 1982 day as it
continues its eastbound
trek. Steve Schmollinger

Another day
on the job
For Canadian National
No. 4132, a GMD GP9RM,
it’s another day on the job,
albeit a snowy one. Seen
here on Jan. 9, 2014, the
locomotive and short train
are northbound at Martins,
Ontario, milepost 141 on the
CN Newmarket Subdivision.
The trip north is made
Monday, Wednesday, and
Friday with a return to
Longford Mills, Ontario., on
Tuesday and Thursday.
Wayne D. Shaw

58 JANUARY 2023
Clear
and cold
The switch stand absorbed
the cold on this chilly Dec. 8,
2017, near Olin, Ind. Just as
you can feel heat radiate
from it after baking in the
summer sun, the winter cold
sends forth a metallic chill.
Ex-Erie Mining No. 4210, an
EMD F9A, waits while
Vermilion Valley Railroad’s
Travis Hunt coaxes the
switch open. Steve Smedley
 U N L I M I T E D
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