Railroad Nation

DENVER—The Ski Train may be back this winter after the Union Pacific Railroad agreed to let a new owner use its tracks between Denver and the Winter Park resort.The special passenger train was in danger of dying when the previous owner folded the operation last spring after a 69-year run.

Chicago-based Iowa Pacific Holdings, which operates freight and excursion trains in six states including Colorado, wants to take over the service.

On Thursday, Omaha-based Union Pacific agreed to let Iowa Pacific use the same route the previous Ski Train owners used.

Iowa Pacific President Ed Ellis says the train would use his company’s equipment and Amtrak would provide the crews.

An Amtrak spokesman said Friday the company is reviewing Iowa Pacific’s proposal but no decision has been made.

Denver Post 9/18/09

For more on Colorado Train Rides, see: http://scenicrailexcursions.com/colorado_trainrides.php

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska Railroad announced last week it would lay off 127 employees and cancel it’s ski train excursions next spring, the Anchorage Daily News has reported. The state-owned railroad has lost business in the recession, forcing the cuts.

A tradition going back to the 1940’s, the train has carried thousands of skiers into the remote backcountry of Grandview, south of Anchorage, and Curry, near Talkeetna.

All winter excursions, except maybe the holiday train to Seward will be canceled. Wendy Lindskoog, the railroad’s associate vice president of corporate affairs, said the ski train could be a money-losing proposition depending on weather. “There is extra cost associated with running charters in the winter,” she said. “Weather can throw unexpected hurdles at you, and you often end up not making money. On some charters you make money, but on others you don’t.”

Regularly scheduled passenger service to Fairbanks will continue through the winter.

For more on Alaska Train Rides, visit:

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GARIBALDI, Ore. — Two locomotives will return to steam as part of a unique agreement between West Coast preservation groups in which a California tourist line will trade a three truck Heisler to an Oregon tourist road for boiler work on another engine.

The agreement, reached earlier this month after two years of negotiations, is between the Pacific Locomotive Association, which runs the Niles Canyon Railway near the Bay Area of California, and the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad in Garibaldi.

In return for boiler work to return the association’s Sierra Railway 2-6-2 No. 30 to operation, Oregon Coast will take ownership of 85-ton Sunset Timber Co. Heisler No. 1. The 1913 engine was last operated by the Pickering Lumber Co. of Standard, Calif., and sold to an individual who partially dismantled the engine and moved it to Monterey, Calif., then donated the engine to the association. The association moved the engine to Fremont, Calif., where it has been in storage.

Besides operating a two-truck 55-ton Heisler on the Port of Tillamook Bay Railroad, the Oregon Coast has two non-operational Heislers and the remains of the world’s oldest surviving Shay locomotive. Each of these locomotives is under restoration under Chief Mechanical Officer Scott Wickert.

The PLA has operated steam locomotives since it was organized in 1961, and its operating fleet consists of two Alco 2-6-2Ts. The association is also restoring to operation a 2-6-6-2 T logging Mallet under the direction of CMO Alan Siegwarth.

The boiler and the Heisler will move to Chehalis, Wash., later this fall. — Martin E. Hansen

For more on Oregon Train Rides, visit:
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For more on California Train Rides, visit:

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MIAMI - The Gold Coast Railroad Museum is looking for grants to restore the interior of presidential private car Ferdinand Magellan as years of service have taken a toll on its condition.

“Hundreds of people have walked through the car and sat on the chairs for pictures,” said Executive Director Mike Hall. “The carpeting is badly worn and the upholstery has started coming apart.”

The car’s exterior already has received a lot of attention. Now, the museum is looking for financing to reupholster 12 chairs and a sofa and replace the carpeting. The estimated cost is $6,000.

“We can have the interior faithfully reproduced,” Hall said, “but it’s a question of money.”

The Ferdinand Magellan was built in 1922 by the Pullman Company as a private car. It was one of six similar cars named after famous explorers, Ferdinand Magellan, David Livingstone, Henry Stanley, Marco Polo, Robert Peary and Roald Amundsen. After the United States entered World War II, it was suggested by Secret Service agent Mike Reilly and White House Press Secretary Stephen Early that President Franklin D. Roosevelt needed a specially equipped and armored car rather than using standard equipment provided by the Pullman Company. The Ferdinand Magellan was selected, and the Pullman Company rebuilt the car. The Ferdinand Magellan became the first passenger railcar built for a President since the War Department had built a special car for the use of Abraham Lincoln in 1865

When the Ferdinand Magellan was rebuilt, the original six bedrooms in the car were reduced to four, and the dining room and observation lounge were enlarged. Two of the bedrooms were a suite for the President and the First Lady, with a fully equipped bathroom, including a bathtub, connecting the two bedrooms. The dining room could also be used as a conference room. It has a solid mahogany table that measures 38″ x 72″ (96.3 cm x 183 cm) and seats eight. The front end of the car held quarters for two stewards, a pantry, a galley, mechanical equipment, storage and ice bunkers.

President Roosevelt’s first trip in the Ferdinand Magellan was to Miami, Florida, where he boarded a Pan American World Airways flying boat for his trip to the Casablanca Conference in 1943. He traveled approximately 50,000 miles (81,500 km) in the car in the next two years, using it for the last time on a trip to Warm Springs, Georgia the day before he died.

For more on the Gold Coast Railroad Museum and Florida train rides and museums, visit; http://www.scenicrailexcursions.com/florida_trainrides.php

NORTH FREEDOM, Wis. — One of the long-time steam stars at Wisconsin’s Mid-Continent Railway Museum is nearing a return to operation after nine years of inactivity. The boiler for privately owned Saginaw Timber Co. 2-8-2 No. 2 was at Milwaukee Boiler International on Thursday, where co-owner Skip Lichter and worker Dave Wurtz were busy drilling mudring holes.

The boiler has been inverted (turned upside down) to make the work easier, much as many British preservation railway shops have done for easier access to boiler parts. Mid-Continent leased the engine after it arrived in 1983, and it last operated in February 2000. Baldwin built the 70-ton logging Mikado type in December 1912 for Saginaw Timber in Washington State. The engine later worked for Polson Brothers and Rayonier before it went to Michigan’s Cadillac & Lake City in 1962.

In addition to 302 new 2-inch tubes, the engine is getting a new firebox, throat sheet, and boiler braces. Operating pressure will be set at 180 psi. Lichter says he expects boiler work to be completed within the next two months; after that, the engine will go by truck to North Freedom for re-assembly and steam operation in 2010.

For more on Wisconsin train rides and attractions, visit:

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STRASBURG, Pa. — The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is raising money to restore its Pennsylvania Railroad E6 Atlantic in a special matching funds campaign with the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society. The society has agreed to match up to $50,000, funds raised for No. 460, known as the Lindbergh Engine, now through March 15, 2010.

Although the non-profit Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania organization has already raised nearly $50,000, the restoration is estimated to cost around $310,000.

Built in 1914 at the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Juniata, Pa., Shops, No. 460 is also the sole survivor of the fleet of 83 4-4-2s in its class. The engine powered distinguished trains such as the Broadway Limited, and spent most of World War II working on the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Atlantic Division before retirement in 1955.

Its most notable run took place June 11, 1927, the day U.S. President Calvin Coolidge made aviator Charles A. Lindbergh a colonel during a presidential medal of honor ceremony, following Lindbergh’s non-stop solo flight from Long Island to Paris. Several newsreel companies filmed the ceremony on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. One newsreel company put its film on an airplane for New York to be processed and rushed to theaters. The International News Reel Co. sent its footage on a train with No. 460 on the point, complete with a special B60 baggage car outfitted with a darkroom.

While the film was being processed on board the train, No. 460 covered the 216 miles to Manhattan Transfer in an amazing 174 minutes. At one point, while crossing New Jersey, its speed exceeded 115 mph. Although the airplane landed before the train arrived, the International News Reel Co.’s film was ready for theaters when it reached New York. Ever since, No. 460 has been known as the Lindbergh Engine.

Restoration will include lead paint removal, repair of rust damage to the cab and tender, and installation of piping, jacketing and running gear.

Work starts in November and is estimated to take 6,500 man-hours, and volunteers are needed. Donation may be made on line on the museum’s Web site at www.rrmuseumpa.org. Contributions also may be forwarded to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania’s advancement office, P.O. Box 125, Strasburg, PA 17579.

For more on Pennsylvania train rides, visit:

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NEW YORK - Amtrak has announced that its New York-Montreal Adirondack will again feature the company’s only remaining full-length, single-level dome car for this year’s fall color season. The car, which was originally built for Great Northern’s Empire Builder in 1955 and acquired by Amtrak in 1971, will run northbound Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from Oct. 1 through Nov. 9, and southbound on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, Oct. 2 through Nov. 10, 2009.

Returning to the Adirondack after a successful stint last fall, the dome operates only between Albany-Rensselaer and Montreal due to height restrictions on the Empire Service line south of Albany to New York’s Penn Station. It is usually kept on the West Coast as part of a standby set of single-level Horizon equipment, and will return there for the holidays, but it also is used as needed for charters around the system. The car is a welcome addition to the scenic route along Lake Champlain, especially because the Amfleet cars normally assigned to the Adirondack have such small windows. - Bob Johnston

For more on train rides in New York, visit:

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Hamburg Festival and Railroad Days

All Aboard! The Pere Marquette 1225 is heading for the Hamburg Festival & Railroad Days in Hamburg between Howell and Ann Arbor on Saturday, September 12th.
Smell the coal and feel the thunder as the 1225 steam locomotive heads to Osmer on the Great Lakes Central Railroad for these family fun excursions. The Steam Railroading Institute of Owosso and the Hamburg Historical Society are excited to offer one hour excursions with departure times at 10 am, 1 pm and 3 pm.
“The presence of a vintage steam engine will best capture Hamburg’s history as a passenger railroad destination,” said Suzanne Hines, president of the Hamburg Historical Society.
“We’re happy to collaborate with another like-minded organization that focuses its efforts on preserving history. It’s important for our organization and members to align our talents with good people like the Hamburg Historical Society,” said TJ Gaffney, executive director of the Steam Railoading Institute.
When the 1225 rolls into town make sure to have your ticket because seating is limited for only $25 per seat. For ticketing information visit www.michigansteamtrain.com.

For more information on Michigan train rides, visit:

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LEXINGTON, Ky. - The R.J. Corman Railroad Group’s steam locomotive “Old Smokey” will make its first public appearance under steam since its May 24, 2008, inaugural trip at the 35th Annual Midway Fall Festival.

The steam locomotive and train arrive at 10 a.m. Sept. 19 in downtown Midway, Ky., and will be on display through 6 p.m. at the North Gratz Street crossing. Joining the Chinese QJ 2-10-2 on display will be one of R.J. Corman-RailPower’s Tier II certified genset locomotives, a heavy duty service sand gondola built new in 2008. The Kentucky Operation Lifesaver grade crossing safety program and Corman’s “My Old Kentucky Dinner Train” will provide displays. The locomotive and train will be on display Sept. 20 until noon, when the consist will travel west to Lewis siding, turn on the wye there, and pass eastbound through Midway about 4:15 pm. Expected arrival in Lexington, Ky., is 5 p.m.

For more information on Kentucky trains, visit: http://www.scenicrailexcursions.com/kentucky_trainrides.php

For more on the Chinese QJ
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