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Where do you find inspiration?
Here in Dairyland in January, it’s cold, the days are too short, the snow is an inconvenience (although sometimes beautiful, but it overstays its welcome), and the pandemic continues to harsh one’s...
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'Big Projects' arrives, with stories both timely and timeless
[caption image="/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-07-48/3108.Projects_5F00_Cover.jpg" position="right"]The cover of our latest special issue, 'Big...
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Trains magazine celebrates its 80th year with Soo Line No. 1003
Trains is turning 80 in November and what better way to celebrate than with a steam engine near and dear to Wisconsin’s heart. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic quashing the plans for our evening soirée...
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When railroads changed the world — looking for stories
We know railroads have changed the course of history.From making frequent, long-distance travel practical and affordable to lowering the transportation costs of heavy or distant goods, railroads have...
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Steaming the Last Baldwin, 1309: With these rings, I thee steam
I touched base Friday with the team working on Western Maryland Scenic Railroad 2-6-6-2 No. 1309. They are busy at the shop in Ridgeley, W.Va., working on multiple fronts at one time, in an effort to...
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Steam the Last Baldwin: 1309 work progresses thanks to your donations
If you have been involved in the restoration of a full-sized steam locomotive you know there are long periods of time between the big events that mark progress. There’s the hydrostatic test of the...
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CSX at 40: A visit to Cowan, Tenn., where helpers still rule
We put together a special issue called CSX at 40 to mark the four decades of this Eastern giant. In editing that special issue (available here https://bit.ly/3lk12G4), I kept looking at one great image...
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Rebuilding a railroad above the clouds: Pikes Peak's cog
PIKES PEAK, Colo. — We have driven in a pickup up the dirt road that for 128 years has been The Broadmoor Manitou & Pikes Peak Cog Railway. We have reached a spot approximately 11,000 feet above...
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First impressions of scrappy Rio Grande Southern 20 at the Colorado Railroad...
GOLDEN, Colo. — Since my first visit to the Colorado Railroad Museum in 1987, I have walked by the stuffed and mounted Rio Grande Southern 4-6-0 No. 20 and admired the displayed locomotive many times....
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It's time to Steam the Last Baldwin: A final push!
For the last six months, dear readers, you’ve patiently endured my calls to support the Steam the Last Baldwin campaign, the effort to restore the 1949 2-6-6-2 No. 1309 at the non-profit Western...
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An open letter to the Forest Service about the Durango & Silverton
U.S. Forest ServiceSan Juan National Forest Headquarters15 Burnett CourtDurango, CO 81301Attn: Supervisor Kara ChadwickDear Ms. Chadwick:You and I have never met, but I hope you will allow me to speak...
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Rio Grande Southern 20: An iconic photo, a careful restoration
There are iconic American steam locomotives that appropriately have national and even worldwide followings. Most are big mainline rigs that exude personality and charisma as they blast down the...
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Railroading is everywhere, just look around!
A quick note from me to remind you to look for railroading all around you as you are out and about this summer. You never know when some slice of railroading will present itself. I was reminded of this...
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Two yanks in Montreal (in 2017) in pictures
Your humble correspondent once had high-minded aspirations and sincere intentions of saying something appropriately meaningful about a 2017 visit to Montreal as a part-work trip part-vacation visit...
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Signaling complicates positive train control
[caption image="/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-07-48/0640.TRNC111401A3.jpg" position="right"]A Union Pacific train heads eastbound on BNSF Railway tracks in...
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CSX's Sand Patch Grade: A place I should have visited long ago
SAND PATCH, Pa. – I am now at a stage in life where I am grateful for my life’s experiences, especially those that I’ve had in the enjoyment of train life. At 59, I’m far from done, but I am also...
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Rewheeling the last Baldwin: Of cranes, heroes, and invocations
RIDGELEY, W.Va. – In 1995 when Steamtown opened as a National Park Service site in Scranton, Pa., after years of debate and derision, there was a ceremony. At the conclusion of the speech making,...
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Colorado Railroad Museum on the restoration of Rio Grande Southern 20
The Colorado Railroad Museum is restoring a legendary Centennial State narrow gauge locomotive to operation. Rio Grande Southern No. 20, a 3-foot gauge 4-6-0 built in 1899 for the Florence &...
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Durango & Silverton on steam, diesels, and the future
Colorado’s Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is arguably one of the best and highest profile steam tourist railroads in the country. The remnant of the Rio Grande’s famed Silverton Branch...
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Why Norfolk & Western Y6 No. 2156 should stay in Roanoke
I can remember buying one of the bumper stickers as a teenager on a late 1970s visit to what was then called the Roanoke Transportation Museum. I didn’t fully understand it, but I got the joke. It...
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