A website dedicated to interesting train stations I run across, or trains perhaps, or perhaps just interesting things connected with railroads.
Wednesday, December 27, 2023
Lex Anteinternet: Monday, December 27, 1943. Seizing the railroads, ...
Saturday, October 21, 2023
Industrial History: BNSF coal train derailment north of Pueblo, CO, ki...
Monday, October 16, 2023
Towns and Nature: Chugwater, WY: Lost/CB&Q Depot and Three Wood Grai...
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Kingston's Hanley Spur: Locomotives of the Hanley Spur
Towns and Nature: Lapeer, MI: Amtrak/GTW Depot and 3 Preserved Cabooses
Saturday, October 7, 2023
Towns and Nature: Laramie, WY: UP Depot, Roundhouse and Water Tower
Friday, September 29, 2023
Lex Anteinternet: September 27, 1923. Disaster at Cole Creek.
September 27, 1923. Disaster at Cole Creek.
Today In Wyoming's History: September 27: 1923 Thirty railroad passengers were killed when a CB&Q train wrecked at the Cole Creek Bridge, which had been washed out due to a flood, in Natrona County. Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.
Saturday, September 29, 1923. Mandates and Floods.
The British Mandate for Palestine went into effect, as did the French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon.
With this, the British Empire, and I'd guess French Empire reached their maximum territorial extents.
The grim news kept coming in on the recent Cole Creek disaster.
Wednesday, September 13, 2023
Towns and Nature: Mandan, ND: NP Roundhouse
Wednesday, August 30, 2023
Lex Anteinternet: Monday, August 30, 1943. The Lackawanna Limited wreck
The Lackawanna Limited wreck occurred when a Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad passenger train, the New York-Buffalo Lackawanna Limited collided with a freight train. Twenty-seven people were killed in the collision, and about twice that number injured, many from steam that poured into the railroad cars.
Tuesday, August 29, 2023
Wednesday, August 23, 2023
Towns and Nature: Ishpeming, MI: C&NW Depot
Sunday, August 6, 2023
Towns and Nature: Gillette, WY: 1907 CB&Q Roundhouse and Water Tower
Thursday, August 3, 2023
Wednesday, July 19, 2023
Saturday, July 15, 2023
Lex Anteinternet: Sunday, July 15, 2023. Harding drives a golden spike.
Sunday, July 15, 2023. Harding drives a golden spike.
Harding drove in a golden spike on the Alaska Railroad at Nenana, a town near Fairbanks.
Harding was really putting in the miles, and saw a great deal of Alaska during his trip, at a point in time at which it was fairly difficult to do so.
The most dangerous major airline in the world, Aeroflot, saw its birth when its predecessor, Dobrolet, began operations with a flight from Moscow to Nizhny.
Egypt banned its citizens from making the Hajj in reaction to the King of Hejaz barring an Egyptian medical mission which was part of it. The latter was done as an assertion of sovereignty by the Kingdom, which was not long to remain.
Sunday, July 2, 2023
Lex Anteinternet: Monday, July 2, 1923: Harding at the controls.
Monday, July 2, 1923: Officers behind bars, French seize Krupp factory
President Harding, continuing his Voyage of Understanding, was allowed to take the controls of a locomotive, fulfilling a boyhood ambition. It was an early electric locomotive.
The trip took Harding to Spokane, where he addressed a crowd on public lands. In his address, acknowledging the growing conservation movement that had received a large boost during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, he argued that use of public resources from public lands, rather than locking them up, preserved them. He also more or less correctly anticipated the size of the US population in 2023.
Saturday, April 22, 2023
Lex Anteinternet: Manual Jobs that have disappeared. Railroad Crossing Watchman.
Manual Jobs that have disappeared. Railroad Crossing Watchman.
The thing that surprises me here is that it never occurred to me that there were human manned railroad crossings, but as this photo shows, they existed into the 1940s at least:
Indeed, in looking it up, it seems like the modern type of crossing with the lowering arms came about in the 1950s. An earlier automatic type called a "wig wag" was patented in 1909, but it must not have had universal use.
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
Lex Anteinternet: The 2023 Wyoming Legislative Session. Length of Trains
HOUSE BILL NO. HB0204
Allowable train lengths.
Sponsored by: Representative(s) Chestek, Berger and Newsome and Senator(s) Gierau and Rothfuss
A BILL
for
AN ACT relating to public utilities; requiring trains to be not more than a specified length; providing operational requirements; providing a civil penalty; providing definitions; and providing for an effective date.
Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:
Section 1. W.S. 37‑9‑1401 and 37‑9‑1402 are created to read:
ARTICLE 14
RAILROAD TRAINS
37‑9‑1401. Definitions.
(a) As used in this article:
(i) "Branch line" means a secondary railroad track that branches off from a main line;
(ii) "Director" means the director of the department of transportation;
(iii) "Mainline" means a class I railroad as documented in current timetables filed by the class I railroad with the federal railroad administration under 49 C.F.R. 217.7 when the railroad has five million (5,000,000) or more gross tons of railroad traffic transported annually;
(iv) "Railroad" means any form of non‑highway ground transportation that runs on rails or electromagnetic guideways;
(v) "Train" means one or more locomotives, coupled with or without cars, that require an air brake test in accordance with 49 C.F.R. part 232 or part 238;
(vi) "Siding" or "passing track" means a sidetrack with switches at both ends.
37‑9‑1402. Train length; penalties.
(a) In addition to other administrative or criminal remedies authorized by law, the director, after notice and opportunity for hearing, shall assess a civil penalty against a railroad company, corporation or employer as provided in this section.
(b) No railroad company operating in the state of Wyoming shall run or permit to be run any train that exceeds eight thousand five hundred (8,500) feet in length or exceeds the length of the shortest passing track or siding on which it travels on any mainline or branch line, or that routinely or repeatedly blocks any intersection for periods exceeding ten (10) minutes at one (1) time.
(c) Except as provided in subsection (d) any railroad company who willfully violates subsection (b) of this section shall be subject to a civil penalty in an amount not less than five hundred dollars ($500.00) per foot nor more than one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) per foot of the amount of a train exceeding the limitation set forth in subsection (a) of this section.
(d) Any railroad company who commits a grossly negligent violation or who has a pattern of repeated violations of subsection (b) of this section which violation caused an imminent threat of death or injury to another person or that caused death or injury to another person shall be subject to a one (1) time fine not to exceed two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000.00).
(e) In determining the amount of any civil penalty under this section the director shall consider:
(i) The nature, circumstances, extent and gravity of the violation;
(ii) The degree of culpability, history of violations, ability to pay and any effect on the violator's ability to continue to do business;
(iii) Any other matters that justice requires.
(f) At the request of the director, the attorney general may initiate a civil action to collect any civil penalty imposed pursuant to this section. The attorney general may bring a civil action in any court of competent jurisdiction. A civil action under this section shall be commenced within three (3) years of the date of the violation or within three (3) years of the latest violation if a repeated offense is alleged.
(g) Any civil penalty received under this section shall be deposited in the state highway fund.
Section 2. This act is effective July 1, 2023.
Saturday, January 21, 2023
Saturday, January 20, 1923. Canadian Northern Railway merged into Canadian National Railway.
The Canadian Northern Railway and the Canadian Government Railways merged into the Canadian National Railway. The merger of the CNR and the CGR was forced by the government due to the financial failure of the CNR, although at one time the railroad had steamships as well as trains.
The CNN is one of the world's great railways, spanning all of Canada and the Eastern United States.
You'll note that the creation of this system is either an application of the American System of economics, albeit in Canada, or of Socialism. At one time the nationalization of railroads was not the controvery it would be now.
Thursday, December 1, 2022
Lex Anteinternet: Subsidiarity Economics. The times more or less locally, Part XI. The Waiting for a Train Edition
Subsidiarity Economics. The times more or less locally, Part XI. The Waiting for a Train Edition
December 1, 2022