It Started a Long Time Ago

Early American railroad pioneer Colonel John Stevens was granted the first charter for a railroad in this country in 1815. It was from Trenton to New Brunswick in New Jersey, about where Amtrak's Northeast Corridor is today. But Stevens reported "... the public mind was not sufficiently enlightened to induce moneyed men to embark their funds in a project then considered wild and impracticable."

Move forward a few years to when Stevens was granted a charter to build a railroad from Philadelphia to Columbia. Stevens' eyes were on the West and he thought of moving into the rich agricultural state of Ohio. Again private capital proved inadequate to this task. The Pennsylvania state government stepped in and directed its Canal Commissioners to layout a railroad from Philadelphia to Columbia where it would connect to the state's canal system to the West. Surveying began in 1828, construction in 1829, and the line was officially opened in 1834. In 1836 locomotives replaced horses for all the road's trains and thus the Pennsylvania Railroad began.

In the first photo below the tracks cross from Lancaster, Pennsylvania's Dillerville Yard towards downtown Lancaster. Today the tracks end immediately after crossing the street. Once they carried all the passenger traffic into and out of the city center.


In the next photo below a "linear park" is all that remains of the old PRR tracks.

The Tracks Did Not Always Look Like Today

The first railroads like the Philadelphia and Columbia did not have steel rails cushioned on wooden ties and crushed stone ballast. They rode on iron strips on wood rails fastened to stone blocks called "sleepers". This example sits behind the depot in Christiana, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The 1829 Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad came through here on its way from the Belmont Incline in Philadelphia to the Columbia Incline in Columbia.

Two Steps Ahead of The Wrecking Ball

Trains magazine and The Center For Railroad Photography and Art are encouraging photographers to document their favorite railroad subject before it's gone forever. My favorite subject is Norfolk Southern Railroad and I'm going to document some of the aspects of the road's Dillerville Yard in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The easternmost, most historical section of this small yard is in the process of being relocated a short ways west. This will be of great benefit to the city as the rail yard has cut the city's northwest in two. For railfans it will represent the loss of some great subjects.

Let me begin in nearby Columbia, Pennsylvania. The photo below is of a street sign for Plane Street. The name comes from the early 19th century inclined plane which lowered and raised railroad cars from the Philadelphia and Columbia tracks to the level of the Susquehanna River in days when locomotives did not have the power to handle the grades required. The plane was 1800 feet long with a rise of 1 foot in 20, a total rise of 90 feet.

Old Safety New Safety Same Message

Above is a vintage grade crossing sign on display at Lewistown, Pennsylvania where the old PRR station I showed you last Friday (7/16) is located. Below is a contemporary version of the same located farther east in Myerstown, Pennsylvania. Their message remains the same: trains can come at any time from either direction; the train has the right-of-way at the crossing; it's up to you to "Stop, Listen, and Live".

High Speed Rail Could Ruin US Railroads

An article in "The Economist" gets at the problematic core of all the high speed passenger rail talk. The US has the best freight railroad system in the world and taking parts of it to run more more passenger rail of any speed could ruin it.

This blog has been maintaining for two years that plans for high speed passenger rail have to include plans for investing in dedicated rights of way for passengers. Rail owners (remember, unlike trucking companies, the railroads own their own roads) are worried about demands for very expensive train control technology that freight railroads don't need.

Don't run passenger trains over our freight rail network! One Amtrak train at 110 mph removes the capacity to run 6 freight trains on any corridor.

Read the article in The Economist, please. The problems facing America's freight rail system are mostly being created by dithering in Congress and the Federal Railroad Administration. Don't let them screw up the best transportation system on earth! Write your Congressional Representative and Senators and appeal to them to not interfere with one of the best free enterprise transportation systems in the world. Current talk in Washington sounds like the government wants a return to the old days of stifling regulation. Businesses can't make long range investment decisions in that sort of climate.

You Say "Tomato"

We call them "roundhouse" in the USA. In England it's "running shed". Under any name they were the home and maintenance clinic of the steam engine. This example is from the 19th century at the British-owned Rio Tinto mines near Seville, Spain. My grandfather, Herbert Carter, worked there in the late 19th century as a mechanical engineer. He married an English girl, fathered two children, and then lost his wife to cholera. He moved to Mexico where he worked as an engineer in the mining industry before becoming the Mexico representative of the Babcock & Wilcox boiler company. In Mexico he met my Mayflower descendant grandmother and at age 50 became a father to my dad. Our three generations now span almost 160 years.

Hurricanes Hurt

Press Release from Kansas City Southern Railroad

Kansas City, Mo., July 20, 2010. Kansas City Southern (KCS) (NYSE: KSU) today reported that its Mexican subsidiary, Kansas City Southern de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (KCSM) estimates that if there are no new complications, its Nuevo Laredo gateway will be reopened for service sometime this weekend with the Anahuac Bridge repairs underway and expected to be in service by then. With the anticipated restoration of service, all current service embargoes imposed on July 3 are expected to be lifted early next week.

“I have just completed my third inspection of the area and am pleased to report that very significant progress has been made,” said David L. Starling, KCS president and chief operating officer from Mexico. “As a result, we anticipate, if there are no further unforeseen complications, the Anahuac Bridge will reopen sometime this weekend and that we can restore service to the KCSM Nuevo Laredo gateway at that time. As a result, we plan to lift all current service embargoes imposed on July 3 early next week.

Divers were at the Anahuac Bridge yesterday and today to inspect the bridge’s piers under the water line. After their inspection, no pier damage was found and a missing beam was located and will be reused in the bridge repairs which are underway. Reopening of the Anahuac Bridge will allow the Nuevo Laredo gateway and the main line to Saltillo to reopen.

A secondary route being used to divert some limited cross border traffic is KCSM’s Matamoros to Monterrey “F” line. That line has reopened and traffic is moving at reduced speeds. Ballast and large rock has been added to segments of that line washed out over the weekend, allowing restored service to this line on a restricted basis.

The “F” line was closed on Friday for 12 hours as local authorities in Reynosa prepared for flooding anticipated by the release of water from the nearby Falcon Dam upstream from Reynosa. On Saturday, July 17, the International Boundary and Water Commission had to open flood gates at the Falcon Dam where the water level was at 128 percent of capacity. As a result, the Rio Bravo/Rio Grande and Salado rivers overflowed and washed out track at two locations near Reynosa on Sunday afternoon.

KCSM continues to monitor water levels in various areas around the “F” line and is hopeful that they will continue to recede over the coming days. However, periods of rain fall are expected over the next couple days so this situation remains day to day for the time being.

Rail service in northern Mexico has been disrupted for all carriers as a result of Hurricane Alex, which made landfall in northeast Mexico on June 30. Highway infrastructure throughout northern Mexico also was severely damaged. The hurricane caused significant track damage around the Monterrey and Saltillo areas as well as on the lines to Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros.