Trains June 2009

Trains Express downloadable package
Shortline railroads have been part of Trains magazine's coverage since 1941. Learn how small railroads do big jobs, how motive power changes patterns, and how Iowa Interstate works.


Facing a Raging Storm Together
How CSX and its shortline partners can look beyond the economic tsunami
By Roy Blanchard


Map of the Month: What Ever Happened to the Anthracite Roads
We map the disposition of eight Pennsylvania coal-haulers
By Bill Metzger and Matt Van Hattem


Big Power for the Little Guys
What's fueling the trend prompting regional railroads to buy big diesels
By Eric Powell


Bonus Content
See a roster of several short lines' locomotives
Meet the artist who created the striking EMD ads of the 1960s in the Spring 2008 issue of Classic Trains magazine


Out of the Woods
A McCloud River Railroad remembrance
By Ted Benson


Bonus Content
See more gorgeous black-and-white photography of McCloud River Railroad.


America's Energy Independence Rides the Rails
Two short lines play a big role in U.S. gas and oil production
By Roy Blanchard


The Bad and the Ugly
Railroading has its rewards but, as one shortline boss recalls, some days you just wish you had stayed in bed
By Forrest L. Becht


Bonus Content
See more bad days on the Arizona Eastern and Louisiana & Delta.


Railroad Reading
Drop everything and go: A New England short line fills an order on the double before jobs and cash dissolve
By David Simington


Gallery
Breaking dawn at Rochelle, Ill., fast freight on the Boston & Albany; racing a stack train by boat; and the steady hand of an engineer
By Assorted photographers