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What's ahead for the steam scene in 2020

Posted 8 months ago by Jim Wrinn

It’s shortly after the first of the new year and it’s time to dust off the crystal ball that John Craft and I fashioned 20-something years ago for his Steam Central Website. The crystal ball was and still is about coming attractions in the U.S. steam scene. A heads up back in the day when the internet was in its infancy and before there was social media. Today, it’s time to break out the big ball and gaze into what 2020 may bring. If 2019 was the year of the articulate...

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Railroad Maps Vol. 2, and the process behind it

Posted 8 months ago by David Lassen

We’re about to deliver our special issue, Railroad Maps Vol. 2, and thought there might be some interest in a look at the map-making process — in this case, how it looks from the editing side. (We showed a little bit of the design process in Matt Van Hattem’s editor’s note in the original printing of Railroad Maps Vol. 1, back in 2013.) First, a few notes, based on some questions I’ve received online: — None of these maps were included in Railroad Maps Vol. ...

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On the road with Big Boy No. 4014: The end of the beginning. What it means

Posted 10 months ago by Jim Wrinn

No. 4014 rolls south near Black Rock, Utah, in early October 2019. Jim Wrinn photo Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 is set to return to the steam shop in Cheyenne, Wyo., today. When fireman Austin Barker shuts off the oil fire, the pressure starts to slowly drift south of 300 psi, and the stack cap goes on for the last time in 2019, it will mark the end to an unexpectedly spectacular year for the first 4-8-8-4 to steam under its own power in 60 years. UP didn’t just run the engine o...

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Take A Train To Work on Nov. 22

Posted 10 months ago by Steve Sweeney

Now, you can interpret that headline at least two ways. If you can, I hope you choose to both, A.) Take a commuter train into the office (a cab ride if you are a qualified railroader) and B.) Take one of your model trains, toy trains, or old lanterns, switch locks, or pocket watches to work. Why? Because Kalmbach Media is making a holiday out of it by re-starting Take A Train To Work Day. The holiday started back in the early 2000s with our friends at Model Railroader, who chose a day i...

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On the road with Big Boy No. 4014: Texas

Posted 10 months ago by Jim Wrinn

MARSHALL, Texas – Everything is bigger in Texas … except Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014. On a cloudy rainy Monday as the cold front swept through, UP’s steam public relations mega force sat on display and entertained crowds in this former Texas & Pacific shop town. In fact, the locomotive and its display train occupied the site of the now demolished T&P shop. In the last few days since we met No. 4014’s train in College Station for the donat...

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Postcard from Cass, W.Va.: A Climax in Shay country

Posted 10 months ago by Jim Wrinn

CASS, W.Va. – This former lumber mill town and logging railroad center along the Greenbrier River is a familiar place to me. I came here for the first time some 44 years ago as a broken-hearted teenager whose favorite steam-powered railroad (North Carolina’s Graham County Railroad) had just closed down. My parents thought a visit to the former logging railroad turned tourist hauler in the Back Alleghany Mountains of West Virginia might do me good. They were so right. So I&...

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A visit to the Grand Canyon Railway: Deep ballast, steam, pocket streamliners

Posted 11 months ago by Jim Wrinn

WILLIAMS, Ariz. – Our Trains Magazine photo charter last weekend saw me return to a landmark preservation railroad for the first time after 10 years. The Grand Canyon Railway, I am happy to report, is doing well. I found the 65-mile railroad’s track to be well surfaced with deep ballast, 115-pound rail, and a contour that some Class I railroads would envy. The motive power and the passenger car fleet were in outstanding shape. It is a model for anyone who wants to see the ...

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“What makes for an exceptional photo?” according to 22 railroad photographers

Posted 11 months ago by Angela Pusztai-Pasternak

Photo by John Gruber. See caption below. After nearing the end of a yearlong stint curating the “Gallery” for the 2019 issues, I was reflecting on how much I enjoyed putting them all together. I’m sure I was supposed to be doing something else at that moment, which was the real reason why I was dreaming up this idea. Normally, I let things simmer a bit before acting on them, but not this time. I wrote up an email July 12 that I intended to send to all the photographers fea...