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Restoration of The Spirit of Sir John A. right on track
The Kingston Branch of the Southern Ontario Locomotive Restoration Society, working with the City of Kingston, plans to relocate the engine as early as November of this year. For the group, comprised of local volunteers with a shared interest and passion for both history and trains, the restoration project has been a long time coming. But with a $650,000 grant from city council the project, which will see the locomotive air lifted to a newly-built site about 6m from where it now sits, is moving full steam ahead.
Source: Kingston This Week, ON, Canada
Posted on 7/29/2010
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Railyard restoration projects near final stages
Two projects are under way this summer as part of an effort to preserve the historical area at the Evanston railyards.One of the projects is to restore the superintendent’s office and the shower house buildings that are located in the plaza between the Machine Shop and the Roundhouse. The other project is to transform the old oil house into a new visitor’s center.
Source: Unita County Herald, Evanston, Wyoming, USA
Posted on 7/28/2010
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Streetcars on track for Minneapolis
Although the last streetcar rolled out of Minneapolis in 1954, city officials are moving forward on plans to bring the city's extensive streetcar network back to life.
Source: Twin Cities Planet, Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, USA
Posted on 7/28/2010
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Dansbury Depot demolition back on track
A Monroe County judge Tuesday lifted a court order halting the demolition of Dansbury Depot because the woman who sought the injunction failed to post the required $50,000 bond.
Source: Pocono Record, Pocono, Pennsylvania, USA
Posted on 7/28/2010
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Engine 18 makes first V&T run
Engine 18, the steam locomotive purchased seven years ago for the V&T Railway, made its debut last weekend, carrying passengers between Virginia City and Eastgate Siding on Saturday and Sunday.
Source: Nevada Appeal, Carson City, Nevada, USA
Posted on 7/28/2010
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Fire destroys part of rail workshop
A Massive blaze swept through a new workshop at the Watercress Line railway at Ropley on Monday evening just six months after the building was officially opened.Half of the workshop was badly damaged, and a 66-year-old diesel locomotive and its tender and two carriages were destroyed as part of the roof collapsed.
Source: Petersfield Today, UK
Posted on 7/28/2010
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Fire destroys High River museum
The Museum of the Highwood, housed inside a historic Canadian Pacific Railway Station in downtown High River, started burning early Wednesday morning.
Source: Calgary Herald, Alberta, Canada
Posted on 7/28/2010
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Rabbitbrush Rambler: Remembering railroaders
The event was celebrating the retirement of Terry Coombs after his 42 years of railroading. He proudly reported that he was the last trainman hired on the Denver & Rio Grande Western’s narrow-gauge freights at the time of the final runs between Alamosa and Durango in 1968-1969, shortly before the route across Cumbres Pass became an excursion line.
Source: Valley Courier Online, Alamosa, Colorado, USA
Posted on 7/27/2010
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Steam link returns
The members of the Helston Railway Preservation Society have spent a busy five years restoring both track and rolling stock in order to run trains from the old platform at Trevarno gardens.
Source: British Broadcasting Corporation News, London, England, UK
Posted on 7/27/2010
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Push To Save Dansbury Depot
The fate of the Dansbury Depot train station in Monroe County could be changing. The local landmark received a huge boost of support Saturday.
Source: WFMZ-TV , Allentown, PA, USA
Posted on 7/26/2010
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Showing tools of his trade
Every museum can use someone who lived the history. That's the philosophy that brought Scott Mattingly to the Linden Depot Museum, where on Saturday he demonstrated tools of the railroad worker's trade.
Source: thepaper24-7.com, IN, USA
Posted on 7/26/2010
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State sprucing up locomotive
The old steam locomotive No. 2164 at Camp Hancock in Bismarck is now under a complete restoration at the state historic site where it has been displayed since 1955.
Source: Tribune, Bismarck , North Dakota, USA
Posted on 7/25/2010
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Caboose restoration in Fanwood must wait
Fanwood’s historic caboose will have to wait a while longer to be restored after the borough rejected three bids for the project this month. The bids were as high as $90,000, leaving too little money to move the restored caboose and improve its permanent display site.
Source: NJ.com, NJ, USA
Posted on 7/25/2010
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Tracked Down
A steam loco that used to shunt wagon loads of chocolate is discovered in a garden.
Source: Bristol Evening Post, Bristol, Avon, United Kingdom
Posted by Richard Buckby on 7/25/2010
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Historic Eastern Pa. Train Depot Gets Reprieve
Judge Jerome Cheslock issued the emergency injunction pending a hearing on the fate of the Dansbury Depot after a resident sought a 30-day delay Friday.The judge said the 1864 building had historical significance in Monroe County, and a month was not too much to ask. The depot is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Source: CBS 3, PA, USA
Posted on 7/24/2010
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Developer: $50K alone won't stop demolition of Dansbury Depot
It's the $50,000 question: Will last-ditch fundraising efforts prevent demolition of the Dansbury Depot? Unlikely, says developer Troy Nauman.He said he intends to demolish the historic East Stroudsburg train station even if Save Dansbury Depot, the preservation group formed in the last week, manages to raise $50,000.
Source: Pocono Record, Pocono, Pennsylvania, USA
Posted on 7/23/2010
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Survivors of Earlier Era: 11 Beloved Trolley Parks
The parks were built by trolley companies at the end of the line in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as a way to get workers and their families to ride streetcars and railways on weekends. Today, only 11 trolley parks remain in operation
Source: ABC News, New York, New York, USA
Posted on 7/23/2010
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Trolley concerns surface with park plan
A design concept for Paseo Park won acceptance from Bellaire City Council on July 12, but planners still have plenty of time to figure out how to preserve the symbolic 100-year-old trolley car as its centerpiece. Like other parks projects in Bellaire, improvements to Paseo Park have no source of funding in this or even next year's budget, which will be presented during the council's regular meeting
Source: Houston Chronicle, Houston, Chronicle, USA
Posted by o anderson on 7/22/2010
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Gypsies of the Rails
They are small, self-propelled, and at first glance could be mistaken for a brightly-colured amusement ride on the midway of a country fair. They are motor cars, once the frugal little workhorses of the railways and long since retired.
Source: Southwest Booster
Posted on 7/22/2010
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Community wishes No. 40 Happy Birthday
Amidst bustling crowds of families and friends, train whistles, steam and thousands of pounds of real coal, the Queen of Steam, Locomotive No. 40, celebrated its 100th birthday with style and panache at the Nevada Northern Railway's East Ely Depot on Saturday.
Source: Ely Times, Ely, Nevada, USA
Posted on 7/22/2010
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Group pledges $20,000 to Chama trestle
The $20,000 pledged by the Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenie Railroad covers only part of the $50,000 deductible in the C&TS insurance policy covering the trestle.
Source: KRQE, Albuquerque, NM, USA
Posted on 7/21/2010
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A piece of rail history
The 22-hectare site, off Hundred Road in March, is currently undergoing a £20 million transformation to turn it into the new National Track Materials Recycling Centre (NTMRC)As part of archaeological works, artefacts were uncovered and have been put on display.Steam sheds dating from the 1880s and 1930s, turntables from before and after the war and a wartime air-raid shelter have been unearthed, plus various railway artefacts.
Source: Fenland Today, UK
Posted on 7/21/2010
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Plans for Hanford rail cars gain steam
The Department of Energy is considering what to do with 14 contaminated railcars and two contaminated locomotives parked near central Hanford since at least 1997.DOE favors disposing of them, likely at a central Hanford landfill for contaminated waste.But it will consider whether one of the diesel locomotives and possibly a flatcar might be decontaminated and displayed at Hanford's historic B Reactor.
Source: Tacoma News Tribune, Tacoma, Washington, USA
Posted on 7/21/2010
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In Hollywood, all trains lead to Fillmore
David Wilkinson lowered his window to talk to a set decorator as they waited for a locomotive to reposition 14 wooden railway cars to be featured in the Fox film “Water for Elephants,” based on a book about a traveling circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression. “The train has become a rolling prop,’’ said Wilkinson on a recent sweltering weekday afternoon. “Last week we had tigers, an elephant and everything else on the train.”
Source: Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Posted by ROSS PINYAN on 7/21/2010
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Raising an Iron Giant
Milwaukee Road No. 261 has steamed more than a million miles since it rolled out of a factory in eastern New York state 66 years ago, but on Tuesday, it was the locomotive's trip of six feet — straight up — that made all the difference.
Source: Pioneer Press Online, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
Posted by Davidson Ward on 7/21/2010
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Riding the rails
Diesel Days is a unique chance for visitors to ride four different vintage diesel engine locomotives on 9-mile, 35-minute round trips at the Illinois Railway Museum.
Source: Northwest Herald, Crystal Lake, Illinois, USA
Posted on 7/20/2010
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Restored Excursion Train to Begin Regular Runs
The Downeast Scenic Railroad will begin making the nine-mile round-trip tours on Saturday, July 31. The run took 75 volunteers four years to restore, under the oversight of the Downeast Rail Heritage Preservation Trust.
Source: MPBN News, ME, USA
Posted on 7/20/2010
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Last whistle to blow for Jenks depot
Despite its place in local history, the last remaining section of Jenks' railroad depot proved too small to use and too costly to save Monday.Jenks Public Works Authority members voted 5-0 to pay Ark Wrecking $6,000 to demolish the structure along the railroad tracks near A Street and haul away two railroad cars.
Source: Jenks Journal, Jenks, OK, USA
Posted on 7/20/2010
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Dansbury Depot through time
History of depot that is open and exposed to the elements since a fire, the building is close to being condemned and demolished.
Source: Pocono Record, Pocono, Pennsylvania, USA
Posted on 7/20/2010
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Maine Narrow Gauge Museum displays
Several towns are unofficially interested in acquiring Maine Narrow Gauge Museum displays and stock, to supplement the extant Portland operation. One of those interested towns is, in fact, Portland itself. Another is Bridgton. Bridgton gets a chance to express an official interest — not a binding obligation — by late August. Towns expressing such official interest will then be invited to submit specific proposals. The narrow gauge nonprofit might be able to make a decision on a move (if and where and how much) by this October.
Source: BRIDGTON NEWS, Bridgton, ME, USA
Posted by o anderson on 7/20/2010
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Rally to Save Historic Landmark
As the former Dansbury Depot sits boarded up after a fire, nearly 75 people gathered, trying to figure out how to save the piece of East Stroudsburg's history.
Source: WNEP-TV, Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA
Posted on 7/19/2010
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Old Hyde-away rail station up for sale
The building was saved from demolition and restored by a young joiner who used to go rabbit shooting in the area, but his journey has reached the end of the line.Richard Hay denies he's a train spotter but he has spent years restoring the Hyde railway station, buying it 20 years ago when the line was closed.
Source: 3News, NZ
Posted on 7/18/2010
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White Pass pushes Yukon rail routes
The head of the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad Company says he wants to bring back freight rail service to the Yukon, as the territory's mining industry is on the upswing.White Pass president Eugene Hretzay signed a letter of understanding Friday with the Alaska municipality of Skagway, agreeing to push towards restoring rail service to Whitehorse and perhaps even through to Carmacks, Yukon. Hretzay told CBC News the time is right for the Skagway-based company to get back to its original business of connecting Yukon mines to the outside world.
Source: CBC News British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Posted by o anderson on 7/18/2010
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Princeton caboose undergoing facelift
Long-awaited renovations to a caboose weathered by time and the elements are underway at the Princeton Railroad Museum. A contractor selected by the city of Princeton began working last week to renovate the caboose.
Source: Bluefield Daily Telegraph, WV, USA
Posted on 7/18/2010
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Carriages destroyed by fire at Sussex's Bluebell Railway
Three historic carriages were destroyed in a blaze at the Bluebell Railway. Firefighters believe the carriages, which date from about 1880, were set alight after gusts carried embers from a bonfire on the railway’s Horsted Keynes site.
Source: The Argus, UK
Posted on 7/18/2010
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Steam train transports adventurous visitors back in time
Echoes of yesteryear are resonating through Vancouver Island's Alberni Valley as the historic McLean Mill and the Alberni Pacific Railway's classic steam train gear up for another season of transporting visitors back to the early 1900s.
Source: Vancouver Sun, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Posted on 7/18/2010
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Wabash Station celebrates 100 years of service
Columbia's Wabash Station was built in 1910 with limestone from Boone County quarries that matched the MU's white campus and other downtown buildings.At the time, most train stations were made of wood or brick, so limestone made Columbia's station unusual. Built at the cost of $15,000, it featured a clay tile roof and forest green walls with red mahogany trim inside.
Source: Columbia Missourian, Columbia , MO, USA
Posted on 7/16/2010
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Austin Steam Train Association
On July 25, 1992, a passenger train made its first run between Cedar Park and Burnet in more than 55 years. The Hill Country Flyer was a tourist train maintained by the nonprofit organization Austin Steam Train Association. Since then, more than 400,000 passengers have taken The Hill Country Flyer or one of its sister rides for a trip into the Hill Country
Source: Community Impact Newspaper, TX, USA
Posted on 7/16/2010
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Depot on way to grand opening
Everything is on track for the Aiken Railroad Depot's Sept. 18 grand opening, according to All Aboard! Chairman Tim Simmons.Work on the main building is nearing completion and the last of the museum's interactive exhibits designed by The History Workshop of Charleston is expected to be installed by July 28. Pullman green paint will go up on the dining cars next week with ''The City of Aiken'' printed along the sides in gold lettering. Restoration of the cars' interiors and construction of the baggage building, which will hold the catering kitchen for the dining cars, is phase two.
Source: Aiken Standard, SC, USA
Posted on 7/15/2010
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Monkwearmouth Station Museum on track for restoration
A Museum housed in a former railway station is on track for a new attraction after a £92,000 lottery award yesterday. The Heritage Lottery Fund grant has gone to Monkwearmouth Station Museum in Sunderland to help fund a railway wagons and sidings restoration project.
Source: Journal Live, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Posted on 7/14/2010
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Seattle’s King Street Station re-emerges
Last week, a night crew removed the 1,600 acoustical tiles, exposing the original ceiling in its entirety after 47 years.The depot's ornate ceiling was covered up by a ''modernization'' project in 1963.It’s the latest step in a phased renovation of the station by the city of Seattle, which bought the building for $10 two years ago from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.
Source: Puget Sound Business Journal, WA, USA
Posted on 7/14/2010
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Paducah to seek grant for train renovation
The Paducah Sun reported that commissioners voted to apply for a $500,000 Kentucky Transportation Cabinet grant.If it's approved, the city would provide an additional $100,000 and the exterior of locomotive No. 1518 and its baggage car and caboose would be refurbished. A covering would also be built to protect the old Illinois Central train from the weather.
Source: Lexington Herald Leader, KY, USA
Posted on 7/14/2010
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Historical society eyes depot for museum
After taking a beating from Hurricane Ike, the building lost its most recent tenant, the Pearland Chamber of Commerce, but may soon be home to the Pearland Historical Society – that is, if the pieces fall into place.
Source: Ultimate Pearland, TX, USA
Posted on 7/14/2010
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Railway heritage expands
The Mary Valley Heritage Railway has added another wagon to its fleet with the donation of a specially fitted out goods van previously used as a display centre.
Source: The Gympie Times, AU
Posted on 7/13/2010
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Vandals Hit Historic Midstate Train Depot
The Cookeville Depot is one of a kind and on the National Register of Historic Places. But for the past several months, it's been the target of vandals. Now, city officials are looking for ways to stop the vandalism.
Source: NewsChannel5.com, TN, USA
Posted on 7/13/2010
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Train car plan on track in Rutland
Nearly a year after the city learned a 1913 Rutland Railway coach car was being donated to the community, the aldermen could make a decision this week that hastens its arrival.
Source: Rutland Herald, USA
Posted on 7/12/2010
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100th birthday could bring rebirth for historic depot
The 100th birthday of Joplin’s Union Depot may bring a rebirth for the building that for nearly 60 years served as a destination and departure point for local train travelers.City Manager Mark Rohr last week outlined downtown development plans that included a proposal for the depot be renovated as a site for the Joplin Museum Complex.
Source: Joplin Globe, Joplin, Missouri, USA
Posted on 7/11/2010
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SRI launches new fundraising initiative
At the Steam Railroading Institute in Owosso, promoting financial sustainability goes hand-in-hand with the organization’s efforts to preserve its historic coal-burning engine, the Pere Marquette Steam Locomotive No. 1225.With the aid of a new fundraising campaign and a financial relationship with Chemical Bank, the SRI has begun working to get the Pere Marquette Steam Locomotive No. 1225 up and running while stabilizing the organizaiton’s finances.
Source: Argus-Press, Owosso, Michigan, USA
Posted on 7/11/2010
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W. Sacramento fails to land federal funds for Tower Bridge streetcar
West Sacramento officials say they will continue their efforts to build a streetcar line connecting to Sacramento over the Tower Bridge despite failing Thursday in a bid for federal funds. The Obama administration on Thursday awarded $130 million in streetcar and trolley grants to Dallas, Fort Worth, Chicago, St. Louis, Charlotte and Cincinnati. They were among 65 cities, including West Sacramento, that had vied for the money.
Source: Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, California, USA
Posted by o anderson on 7/10/2010
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Train station's renovation continues
From the roof to the ground, Deerfield Train Station is shrouded in blue tarps. Inside, workers are painting the interior of a train station built in 1926 as a rival to Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway.
Source: Sun-Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
Posted on 7/10/2010
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Saving the depot: Will anyone get on board?
Once known as the Southern Pacific Railroad depot on the corner of Baker and Sumner streets, the building is now owned by Union Pacific Railroad after a merger in the mid-1990s.Appearing weather-beaten and forgotten, the east Bakersfield building is still used by crews manning the six to 10 freight trains that pass by the station every day.But the glory of its past -- when it formed the hub of a new town named Sumner, and when passengers would squeeze through its doors and line the benches of its waiting room -- are long gone.
Source: Californian, Bakersfield, California, USA
Posted on 7/10/2010
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Construction unearths old trolley tracks in downtown Tuscaloosa
Construction crews dug up steel trolley tracks and wooden ties earlier this year as they excavated the intersection of University Boulevard and 21st Avenue, said David Griffin, the city’s traffic engineer. The tracks and ties were again visible this week as crews removed asphalt in front of City Hall to build a landscaped median.
Source: Tuscaloosa News, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA
Posted on 7/9/2010
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Station to move to new home
The moving and restoration of the Borough of Hawthorne's railroad station, located at the corner of Diamond Bridge Avenue and Royal Avenue, is closer to fruition, with a groundbreaking ceremony
Source: North Jersey dot-com, New Jersey, USA
Posted on 7/8/2010
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Camp Hancock Revives Locomotive
The Northern Pacific locomotive at Camp Hancock on Bismarck`s Main Avenue is the largest single exhibit in the North Dakota Historical Society`s collection, weighing 150 tons. The locomotive was placed at the site in 1955 after it was decommissioned. This summer, the train is undergoing much needed restoration, including a new coat of paint and building a roof to protect the train from the elements.
Source: KFYR-TV, ND, USA
Posted on 7/8/2010
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