Celebrating The Founding Of The Union Pacific

The name Union Pacific has dominated railroad transportation since its founding on July 1, 1862 and with good reason. The original Union Pacific Rail Road was incorporated on July 1, 1862, under an act of Congress entitled Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. The act was approved by President Abraham Lincoln, and it provided for the construction of …

 

Cool It! – The Heritage of Refrigerator Cars  

Most of us think nothing of going to the grocery store and selecting choice meats, lush vegetables, and fresh fruits whenever we want irrespective of supply limitations or the short duration of specific growing seasons. Advances in refrigeration make that possible and the railroads jump-started that process prior to the American Civil War. The first …

 

50 Years of Amtrak

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue could accurately describe May 1, 1971, Amtrak Day One. On that date the entire US long-distance passenger network became nationalized.  The only really “new” element on that date was the partially-completed organizational structure to manage that new unwieldy public entity. The “old” and “borrowed” distinctions were the …

 

Five Essential Elements for Modeling the Age of Steam

There’s little doubt that steam locomotives have a certain romanticism to them. More than half a century beyond their final days in revenue service, they still remain integral to railroad imagery in popular culture today. If you’ve experienced steam locomotive trains in action, whether at a train museum or in service, you’ll understand why. From …