Much of life is the art of turning adversity into virtue. The darkest years of the Great Depression (1931-1934) provided a wakeup call for the railroad industry. Variations of best practice pre-1930 would no longer suffice, especially with railroad motive power. The Union Pacific was among the carriers that got busy and applied intelligence with …
Continue reading “History of the Union Pacific Challenger Class”
The US military and our railroads have developed a strong bond that began during the Civil War. That was the first time in our pioneering Nation that national unrest and our railroad infrastructure became intertwined. In truth, had the conflict erupted much earlier, the eventual resolution would have been longer in coming, simply because our …
Continue reading “Veterans Day Observance – Military Railroads”
Much confusion and a long history regarding the terms Bilevel, Hi-Level, Double-Decker, Duplex and Gallery prevails but all those tags refer to passenger cars with two levels. References into this subject state that this concept was experimentally tested in France in the 19th century. Interest in the US was tepid ironically until the bleakest periods …