Railroad Nation

WILLIAMS, Ariz. - The Grand Canyon Railway will bring back steam to commemorate the 20th anniversary of its rebirth on Sept. 19 with a special roundtrip run to the Grand Canyon with 2-8-2 No. 4960 fueled by recycled vegetable oil. The event will feature live music, photo opportunities with the locomotive, a ribbon cutting, and remarks by local dignitaries.

The 65-mile-long excursion from Williams, Ariz. to the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park and back departs Williams at 9:30 a.m. and arrives at the Grand Canyon Depot at 11:45 a.m. The return trip departs the Grand Canyon at 3:30 p.m. and arrives in Williams at 5:45 p.m. Tickets for adults range from $70 to $190, and children’s rates range from $40 to $110. Children 15 and under are permitted only in the coach and first classes.

In addition to the run to the Grand Canyon, the 4960 will also make several eight-mile trips out of Williams on Sept. 5 and 6 using Harriman cars built in 1923. Tickets for the “Cataract Creek Rambler” will be sold on-site for unreserved seating and will cost $15 for adults and $10 for children 15 and under.

The railroad operated steam from Memorial Day to Labor Day but in 2008 discontinued regular runs because of environmental considerations. Operating an all-diesel fleet of locomotives year-round saves fuel and reduces greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.

For more information about the railway and the steam runs, go to www.thetrain.com

For more information on Arizona train rides, visit:

http://www.scenicrailexcursions.com/arizona_trainrides.php

Can you believe it's the end of summer already? And now, with kids going
back to school, maybe it might be the right time to start thinking
about the Holiday Season and some of the many opportunities for the whole
family to ride a special themed train.

One of the most popular family theme train experiences during the Holiday
Season is a Santa Special Train.

The Essex Steam Train and Riverboat offers up a Santa Special for a
one-of-a-kind Connecticut holiday experience! Enjoy the spirit of the
season as you relax with family and friends aboard festive rail cars
adorned with vintage decorations.
Be sure to bring your camera for that special moment . . .
as Santa promises to visit each child to review his or her Christmas list! Mrs. Claus,
Rudolph and Pablo the Penquin will be on board to spread holiday cheer.
Plus, each child will receive a small holiday gift from
Santa's Elves!

Santa Special Tickets go on Sale, Tuesday, September 1st!

So climb on board the Essex Steam Train "Santa Special" today!
Dates:
Nov 27 - 29,
Dec 5 - 6, Dec 12 - 13, Dec 19 - 20
Departures:  1:00 pm and 2:30 pm
Parlor Car
Tickets:  $34.00
Coach
Tickets:  $17.00
To PURCHASE TICKETS, call the Valley Railroad Ticket
Office at (800) 377-3987.

You can also visit http://www.essexsteamtrain.com/santa.html for
more information.

ATSF No. 213, similar EMD F7(A)

CARONA, Kan. - Watco has donated Watco CF7 No. 7104 to the Heart of the Heartlands Corp. for display at the company’s museum in Carona. The locomotive served on Watco short lines from April 1987 until its retirement this June.

Heart of the Heartlands is a railroad historical society that Watco founder Dick Webb established in 1989. The group plans to restore the locomotive to the colors of South East Kansas Railroad, the first Watco short line and the railroad it served on from 1987 until 1990.

Santa Fe rebuilt F7s into CF7s at its Cleburne, Texas, shop. The rebuild gave train crews better visibility from the cab, making the units ideal for switching and local work. After Santa Fe began retiring the units, many found homes on short lines and regional railroads across the country. No. 7104 was built as Santa Fe 218C (builder’s number 8923) in 1949, and was rebuilt to CF7 standards in 1973. Santa Fe retired the unit in 1987.

No. 7104 began its Watco career as South East Kansas No. 1000, and later became Osage Railway 1000; Osage was a sister Watco short line. After its stint on Osage, the locomotive bounced around to several different Watco operations, and was numbered WAMX 7104. Watco retired the unit June 18.

In the 1920s, the United States poured millions into a federal highway program that coincided with the automakers’ creation of lower-cost cars. The developments enabled almost all Americans the freedom to travel independently for the first time. But personal cars - even limousines - were cramped for families, offered few amenities, and had limitations that made long auto trips physically miserable. The automobile was good for short hauls and day trips, especially for residents of out-of-the-way towns. In cities, commuter trains still provided day-trip opportunities that even today seem seductive.

The nation’s railroads responded to the automobile with deluxe services and scenic-travel opportunities that motorists could not match. And the railroads took just as much care in designing the promotional materials for these travel opportunities as they had in planning the luxury trains. True, not everyone could afford that kind of travel. But those who remember being crammed for hours into a pre-World War II car on a cross-country trip also remember the envy with which they devoured the railroad advertising that made them wish they were on the train, not sitting next to a competitive sibling, unable to move. And if a crack limited happened to pass the highway, the envy escalated almost unbearably.

The railroads’ advertising and brochures made their way into millions of households. For the most part, the campaigns were as identifiable as the railroads themselves. (”Branding” is not new.) Each railroad hired the best commercial artists and designers to illustrate and create calendars, brochures, posters, timetables, guidebooks, and an array of other printed pieces that ranged in size from large posters (now prized collectibles) to matchbooks and match boxes (equally collectible).

John Gruber collection

Southern California was an especially alluring area for Northerners and Midwesterners in the winter, and the Southern Pacific Railroad did not overlook the opportunity. It hired an array of prominent designers and artists for its promotional work, among them Maurice Logan, a Californian who painted in the state’s distinctive style, examples of which are coveted by Arts and Crafts collectors today. His 1928 watercolor illustrations for “How best to see the Pacific Coast” tempt the traveler with a Spanish mission, palm tree and coastline of California as well as the snow-capped peaks, conifer forests, and rushing streams of the Pacific Northwest. The trains in the illustrations are not as up-to-date stylistically as the art itself. But they do not dominate the pictures; the scenery does. Logan knew how to create desire.

John Gruber collection

In 1930, Illinois Central (”The Road of Travel Luxury”) issued a guide called “Chicago: The Vacation City” with an opening quote from Illinois poet Carl Sandburg: “Come and show me another city with lifted head so proud to be alive.” The cover is a sleek, mostly light-blue-and-white watercolor by Chicagoan Paul Proehl, who threw in touches of orange, black, gray, and light green for contrast. Two young women stride forward from a Lake Michigan park with a brand-new sculpture in the background, drawn in idealized fashion. They wear the latest, somewhat revealing (for the day) clothing, wind-whipped for Windy City effect. The women show a lot of shapely leg. And there’s a suggestive skyscraper silhouette in the background. If you take the train to Chicago, you’ll find the allure of fashion, modernity, and daring architecture. And you can get around on the El, don’t forget. Who needs a car? Well, someone does, since there’s the suggestion of a nifty, long-nosed auto peaking from behind the statue. Proehl captured the urban landscape, not the natural, plus modernity and sex appeal. He, too, knew how to create desire.

John Gruber collection

Sometime after 1934, the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad turned to advertising its “Scenic Line of the World” with three- and five-fold brochures illustrated with watercolors and crayon drawings by Frank L. Philips, a Denver commercial artist. Compared to Proehl’s Chicago work, Philips’ is modest, almost retro in appearance. The brochures emphasized the railroad’s two spectacular engineering feats: the Moffat Tunnel west of Denver, and the twisting route along the Royal Gorge in Colorado - both places where autos could not go. (A scary suspension bridge spans the gorge; the train travels along the Arkansas River.) The five-fold brochure has a cartoon-like map, typical of 1930’s design, that depicts numerous attractions. It was the creation of Charles A. Dietemann, a commercial artist in Denver. His work has Disney-like traits and suggests that a good time will be had by all. Philips is far more serious and suggests that we vacation to be awed and informed, not to fulfill desire or be entertained.

John Gruber collection

Finally, from 1953, we have a Milwaukee Road calendar that promotes the Super Dome cars that it added to its trains in 1952. Artist Robert Addison of Chicago portrays the road’s Olympian Hiawatha in a mythical but very scenic, mountainous western canyon. A single Super Dome car dominates the image, encouraging us to want to travel for the sake of seeing wonders in comfort. A comely woman sits on an outcrop at the lower left, waving delightedly at the train, many of whose passengers turn towards her and away from the scenery to their left. A fisherman, barely visible, casts into the rock-strewn waters of the river in the background. Here we are both up-to-date and communing with nature simultaneously. We don’t have to break a sweat, and we are admired by those who do. Perhaps, Addison suggests, it is possible to do both, but not at the same time. Addison signed the illustration only with his last name, but his widow, Betsy, has confirmed that he was indeed the artist who then worked for a Chicago advertising agency. Addison, too, could create desire … G-rated desire.

It is unusual to identify artists who worked for advertising agencies; it is more common to identify them if they worked independently. For this brief overview I have concentrated on printed pieces credited to an illustrator or painter. Throughout the entire 20th century, railroads from the East to West coasts and all points in between churned out printed pieces, reaching a high point in the 1930s and ’40s. As passenger train frequency declined, so did the advertising pieces. In this age of a single national passenger train company, Amtrak, it is easy to forget the individualized and creative publicity and advertising work of the passenger railroad industry. But at the industry’s peak, the railroads looked to the best in the graphics business to promote their services in ways that ranged from the sober to the seductive.

JOHN GRUBER is a long-time Trains contributor, founder and president of the Center for Railroad Photography and Art, and editor of Railroad Heritage. He has been a freelance railroad photographer since 1960, and received a railroad history award from the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society in 1994 for lifetime achievement in photography.

The Steam Railroading Institute along with the Friends of the 261 and the Friends of SP 4449 are offing a “Once in a Lifetime” trip from Minneapolis, MN to Portland, OR behind the “World Famous” Daylight. The special train will leave Minneapolis on October 13 and arrive in Portland on October 20. Travel at mainline speeds behind steam while viewing some of the most scenic landscapes in the World. You will see the wonderful colors of the Fall and fresh snow caps on the mountains. Fresh mountain streams hug the train and provide a wide variety of wildlife. Ride in luxury dome cars  while enjoying a specially prepared meal by one of the trains many chefs.  You will see the steam locomotive pulling the train while the mountains and streams pass by your window.

You can purchase tickets to ride in first class or coach for the whole trip or just one day. Tickets start under $200.

If you or someone you know would like to ride behind a historic train that will most likely never be repeated visit www.westbound4449.com for more information.

This three-day Rail Fest 2009 event celebrates the railroad history of Nebraska’s North Platte,  home of Bailey Yard, the world’s largest railroad classification facility,  at the Golden Spike Tower.

The Rail Fest is a unique event that embodies many facets of the world of Railroading, including preservation, education, safety, entertainment, and many other rail oriented activities. Rail Fest also incorporates many dynamic exhibits, programs and displays designed to entertain and educate the public.

At Rail Fest, attendees can get an up-close view of how Union Pacific processes more than 150 trains and 10,000 rail cars a day. Free bus tours of Bailey Yard will offer the ultimate rail fan experience – the opportunity to see the scale and the efficiencies involved in processing so many trains a day. There is only one place in the world this happens and it’s Bailey Yard at North Platte.

Displays include  the UP Heritage Steam Engine, No. 844 and a Union Pacific miniature train along with live entertainment and fun for the whole family.

The Original Town Association sponsors  this  annual festival to recognize the contributions the Union Pacific Railroad and its employees have made in shaping North Platte, Nebraska into the extraordinary community it is today.

For more information, visit www.nprailfest.com

September 5, 2009

Enjoy a fun-filled day of trains, music, and more!! Join in the fun for the  1st annual RAILFEST at the historic Texas State Railroad!

The Labor Day  weekend event will feature steam engine No. 300’s Restoration Debut & Ceremony. Train rides with the newly restored 1917 steam engine  will run on Sunday.

Additional activities and events will include :

• T&P Steam Engines 201 & 610 on display
• Photo-ops
• Motor Car rides
• Shop tour
• Live Steamers
• Live Musical Entertainment All Day!!
• Meet Miss Texas
• Euro-bungee
• Railroad & Food Vendors
• And fun for the kids: bounce houses, petting zoo, miniature train ride & more!

Tickets (to enter the event)

Tickets price includes: train ride, shop tour, concert, meeting Miss Texas, & more

$20 for Adults (12 & over)

$10 for Child (3-11)

September 6, 2009

9:00am to 11:45am

Steam Excursion with Steam Engine 300 from Palestine to the Maydelle Turntable

BBQ lunch included with ticket.

Tickets:

Coach Seating: $40.50 for Adults (12 & over) & $23.00 for Child (3-11)

Climate Controlled: $43.50 for Adults (12 & over) & $25.00 for Child (3-11)

Book together & save!

Book your RAILFEST tickets & RAILFEST train ride together and save 10% on your train ride!

This offer is only available if booked before the date of RAILFEST.

For more information on Railfest, visit www.texasstaterr.com

For infomation on Texas train rides, visit www.scenicrailexcursions.com/texas_trainrides.php

DENVER - The operator of tourist- and freight-hauling short line Rio Grande Scenic is considering resuming the Denver-Winter Park, Colo., “Ski Train,” the Denver Post has reported. Iowa Pacific Holdings President Ed Ellis said the talk is “very premature,” but he has alerted Union Pacific, the line’s owner, to his desire to run the train.

In April, Denver billionaire Phil Anschutz’s company said it was selling the Ski Train’s rolling stock to Canadian National’s Algoma Central Railway, ending a 69-year run for the excursion train. Anschutz’s company attributed the decision to overall cost increases, particularly for liability coverage, operating issues with freight trains, and uncertainty surrounding the redevelopment of Denver’s Union Station as the hub for light rail and commuter services.

In a presentation to government leaders, Ellis’ company said the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad “can provide all services necessary for the Winter Park train,” including “railcars and locomotives, onboard services, reservations and ticketing, sales and marketing, and administration.”

A UP spokesman said the railroad department that interfaces with passenger operators hasn’t received a proposal from Ellis yet.

A company with experience running excursion passenger trains in southern Colorado is interested in reviving Ski Train service between Denver and Winter Park, beginning with the upcoming season.

It is “very premature” to talk about the resumption of the Ski Train, said Edwin Ellis, president of Iowa Pacific Holdings LLC, which counts the Alamosa-based San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad and Rio Grande Scenic Railroad among its properties.

The 56-mile train trip takes about two hours each way, and many riders say it’s worth the cost to avoid the traffic hassles of the oft-congested I-70.

For more information on Colorado train rides visit: http://www.scenicrailexcursions.com/colorado_trainrides.php
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