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$10.8 BILLION TUNNELS UNDER NEW YORK CITY

www.TrainsMag.com • March 2015

p. 38

Why mail

may go by

rail again

p. 6

Freight

car 101

THE magazine of railroading

p. 20

Chicago’s

Metra:

Out

of the

storm

p. 48

Eight cars,

loads of safety

p. 24

MAP

Kansas City’s

busy routes

p. 46

SPECIAL SWISS REPORT

•

World’s steepest cog railway

p. 30

•

Cab ride over Gotthard Pass

p. 34

BONUS

ONLINE

CONTENT

CODE PG. 3

COPING WITH CRISIS

Final Decade for

Classic Railroading

In the 1970s, problems that had plagued the

railroad industry for decades came to a head. But

as the curtain closed on an era, the railroads fought

through adversity, surviving and setting the stage

for a prosperous comeback.

Add the ﬁnal

Classic Trains

decade-themed issue

to your set with this 124-page collectors edition.

Learn how – in that ﬁnal, tumultuous decade of

classic-era railroading – vintage diesels carried

the torch one last time, the echoes of the great

streamliners faded away, and a beleaguered yet

resilient industry coped with crisis.

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Trains of the 1970s

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vol. 75, no. 3 news and features

march 2015

FEATURES

COVER STORY

Metra mojo

Chicago’s Metra moves

commuters by the trainful

despite deficits and decay

Michael W. Blaszak

SPECIAL SWISS REPORT

Gotthard Pass video

Check out the action during

This train delivers

safety

‘Safety is a way of life’ is the

philosophy behind CSX

Transportation’s Safety Train

Scott A. Hartley

Up against

the mountain

Switzerland’s steepest cog

railway amazes

Jim Wrinn

a cab ride through Gotthard

Pass in Switzerland

Gotthard Pass

cab ride

A trip across the legendary

grade before it’s obsolete

Jim Wrinn

The $10.8 billion bore Map of the Month:

In My Own Words:

Nation’s biggest infrastructure

Going to Kansas City The early years

project will connect the Long

Island Rail Road to Grand

Central Terminal

Al DiCenso

Served by five Class I roads, see

the current look of the nation’s

leading city for rail tonnage

Bill Metzger

A Chicago & North Western

dispatcher helped change

commuter railroad business

Alan T. Smith

Hot Spots Reader

Gallery

Share your photos of select

train-watching spots, and check

out other readers’ shots, too!

Photo by Drew Halverson

ON THE COVER

A westbound Metra train on the

Milwaukee West line approaches the diamonds at Spaulding

Junction in Elgin, Ill., on Feb. 3, 2013.

Photo by Duane Rapp

NEWS

News & Photos

Don Phillips

Fred W. Frailey

Locomotive

Technology

Passenger

Locomotive rosters

Subscribers can view and

download PDFs of the latest

locomotive roster data for North

America’s seven Class I

railroads and Amtrak

DEPARTMENTS

Eight cars, loads

of safety

Steepest cog railway

Gotthard Pass cab ride

$10.8 billion tunnels

Map: Kansas City’s

busy routes

Chicago’s Metra

From the Editor

Railway Post Ofﬁce

Preservation

Hot Spots

Ask

RAINS

Gallery

Subscribers can access all

the latest news and updates to

stories daily on T

RAINS

News Wire

us on

RAINS

Magazine (issn 0041-0934, usps 529-850) is published monthly by Kalmbach Publishing Co., 21027 Crossroads Circle, P.O. Box 1612, Waukesha, WI, 53187-1612. Periodicals postage paid at Waukesha,

Wis., and at additional ofﬁces. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to TRAINS, Kalmbach Publishing Co., P.O. Box 1612, Waukesha, WI 53187-1612. Canada Publication Mail Agreement #40010760.

FROM THE EDITOR

Jim Wrinn

A R T D I R E C T O R

Thomas G. Danneman

P R O D U C T I O N E D I T O R

Angela Pusztai-Pasternak

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

David Lassen

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

Steve Sweeney

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

Brian Schmidt

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

Diane Laska-Swanke

S E N I O R G R A P H I C D E S I G N E R

Scott Krall

G R A P H I C D E S I G N E R

Drew Halverson

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

Rick Johnson

L I B R A R I A N

Thomas Hoffmann

EDITOR

COLUMNISTS

JIM WRINN

An era of amazing megaprojects

The electric units effortlessly pulled the container train

into the Bellinzona, Switzerland, station, the engineer

eager for a green signal. More trains were on his heels.

I was there to ride across Gotthard Pass (pages 34-37),

which freights like this will bypass starting in 2016.

With that, 144 years of railroading will

be altered forever, and such freights will bur-

row instead of climb in a more efficient but

less spectacular assault of the Swiss Alps.

Also in this issue is the unfolding story of

the deep tunnel access project that will

change passenger railroading in New York

City (pages 38-45). Interestingly, both proj-

ects come in at a cool $10 billion dollars.

That tells me we’ve entered an era of

amazing megaprojects and along with them

equally outrageous budgets.

Big projects are not just publicly funded

works either. BNSF Railway’s announcement

that its 2015 capital budget will be a record

$6 billion shows the private freight carriers

are investing heavily in the future. As we’ve

reported in these pages, Eastern carriers are

busy raising tunnel clearances for stack

trains and building new yards.

I fully expect that the second half of this

decade will be filled with more such stories.

Fred W. Frailey, Don Phillips

CORRESPONDENTS

Roy Blanchard, Michael W. Blaszak, Justin Franz,

Steve Glischinski, Chris Guss, Scott A. Hartley,

Bob Johnston, David Lester, David Lustig

C O N T R I B U T I N G I L L U S T R AT O R

PUBLISHER

Bill Metzger

Diane M. Bacha

CUSTOMER SERVICE

DOUBLE-TRACK COSTS

In the January issue I called attention to

the growing need for not only more double

track, but in some cases, triple track on

America’s increasingly busy freight net-

work. I made mention of the cost of a mile

of double track at being around a million

dollars. Industry friends pointed out that

such a figure is attainable if the planning,

engineering, grading, and other infrastruc-

ture is already in place. But building a sec-

ond track from scratch?

You could be looking at as much as $3.5

million per mile when you get into every-

thing that’s involved. That’s expensive infra-

structure out there, and no wonder it’s an

act of faith and courage to add more.

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T R A I NS H O M E PAG E

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

editor@trainsmag.com

Charles R. Croft

Kevin P. Keefe

S E N I O R V P, S A L E S & M A R K E T I N G

Daniel R. Lance

V I C E P R E S I D E N T, C O N S U M E R M A R K E T I N G

Nicole McGuire

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

Maureen M. Schimmel

M A N A G I N G A R T D I R E C T O R

Michael Soliday

G R O U P C I R C U L AT I O N M A N A G E R

Kathy Steele

S I N G L E C O P Y S A L E S M A N A G E R

Michael Barbee

C I R C U L AT I O N C O O R D I N AT O R

Holly Schlaefer

C O R P O R AT E A D V E R T I S I N G D I R E C T O R

Scott W. Bong

A D V E R T I S I N G S A L E S R E P R E S E N TAT I V E

Mike Yuhas

A D V E R T I S I N G S A L E S R E P R E S E N TAT I V E

Todd Schwartz

A D S E R V I C E S R E P R E S E N TAT I V E

Christa Burbank

P R O D U C T I O N S U P E R V I S O R

Helene Tsigistras

P R O D U C T I O N C O O R D I N AT O R

Sue Hollinger-Yustus

PRESIDENT

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

FOU N DER

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articles, see Contributor Guidelines at www.TrainsMag.com. Printed in

Scaffolding for repairs surrounds the Bellinzona, Switzerland, railway station in

September 2014 as a container train heads north toward Gotthard Pass.

R A I NS

Jim

Wrinn

rains

MARCH 2015

RAILWAY POST OFFICE

Hot Metal Street crosses the east portal of

the J&L Tunnel in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Mike Stokes

TUNNEL BENEFITS

Earl Bugaile’s feature, “Moving Moun-

tains to Move Freight” [pages 48-55, Janu-

ary], was a helpful update on the National

Gateway project. Here in western Pennsyl-

vania, CSX double-stacks now roll through

after many years of single-level traffic only.

The locals’ concerns about proposed

changes to Washington, D.C.’s Virginia

Avenue tunnel are understandable. How-

ever, CSX’s redo of Pittsburgh’s J&L Tunnel

shows the results can benefit all. The area

above is now a grassy esplanade flanked by

stores, restaurants, hotels, and offices. From

the east portal at Hot Metal Street to the

western mouth a half-mile away, passing

trains are out of sight, mind, and hearing.

This is a total change from the days when

J&L’s vast steel works stood on the site.

Mike Stokes, Pittsburgh

The

Hickory Creek

brings up the rear of Amtrak’s

California Zephyr

on Union

Paciﬁc’s Moffat Tunnel Subdivision at Tolland, Colo., on Oct. 2, 2012.

Ch ip Sh erma n

THE ‘HICKORY CREEK’

I read with great interest Geoffrey H.

Doughty’s article, “Restoring a Railroad

Icon” [pages 32-37, January], on the

restoration of

Hickory Creek,

the Pull-

man observation car that once carried

the markers of the post-World War II

Century Limited.

I was disappointed, however, that the

story did not mention the cost of acquir-

ing the car from the unnamed “railroad

equipment broker” as well as the total

cost of restoration. Also, it would have

been nice to know if the United Railroad

Historical Society of New Jersey had the

cash on hand to underwrite the job, or if

a major fundraising effort was done.

And, why did the society engage Star

Trak Inc. for the work? Did the company

have a reputation for high-quality resto-

rations of historic railcars? Were other

vendors considered?

Paul Seidenman, San Francisco

Author Geoffrey H. Doughty replies:

Walter Grosselfinger was president of the

United Railroad Historical Society of New

Jersey when the car was rescued. He was

instrumental in finding the grant monies

and gathering the political support neces-

sary to achieve the grant.

Jon Clark, an equipment broker, had

done business with the Ringling Brothers

and Barnum & Bailey Circus before. He

needed two stainless steel coaches (ex-

Pennsylvania Railroad former 21-room-

ette cars) owned by the United Railroad

Historical Society that he wanted to sell

to Ringling Bros. He contacted the society

and asked if they wanted to purchase the

Hickory Creek.

The society members

voted in favor of buying and restoring the

car. So, a deal was struck: the two Penn-

sylvania Railroad cars in return for the

Hickory Creek.

In order for the society to restore the

car, however, the members realized they

needed a federal grant (for historical pur-

poses), which they obtained after soliciting

the support of New Jersey state officials

and Congressional members.

To comply with the grant, the society

had to get three bids, which they did. Star

Trak, which had done work for the soci-

ety on previous occasions, was the low

bidder, but Ray Clauss, president of Star

Trak, was extremely interested in doing

the work. Some of the work was also

done gratis out of love

for the car.

The grant for the res-

Inside Amtrak’s

new electrics

toration was $616,908.

The society raised about

$15,000 more to com-

plete the restoration of

this historic car.

‘20

CENTURY LIMITED’ OBSERVATION CAR REBORN

Merger

puzzle

update

Steam:

What’s

ahead

>> CORRECTIONS

January 2015:

Page 25: The ACS-64 locomotive’s short-

time power output rating was incorrect.

The amount should be 6,400 kilowatts.

Page 51: The location of CSX’s tunnel

alley and the credit were incorrect in the

top photo caption. Alex Mayes took the

photo of Stuart Tunnel, on CSX’s

Cumberland Sub on the Magnolia Cutoff, at

milepost 145.

Worthy successor

to the GG1?

CSX moves

mountains

GEs in EMD

territory

PLUS

MAP:

Amtrak’s

new ACS-64

tests on the

Northeast

Corridor.

Predominant

carrier by state

Florida East Coast’s

rebound and passenger hopes

Trains welcomes letters on railroad matters both

in and out of the magazine. Send letters to: Trains

Railway Post Office, P.O. Box 1612, Waukesha,

WI 53187-1612; fax (262) 798-6468; email: rpo@

trainsmag.com. Letters cannot be acknowledged,

and may be edited for clarity and length.

www.TrainsMag.com

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Trains.2015.01.pdf (39687 KB)
Trains.2015.11.pdf (61745 KB)
Trains.2015.05.pdf (56420 KB)
Trains.2015.12.pdf (46524 KB)
Trains.2015.10.pdf (44376 KB)

Trains.2015.03.pdf

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