Railroads By State: History, Maps & Firsts
Last revised: September 4, 2026
By: Adam Burns
Every U.S. state has a railroad story, and none of them is the same story. Massachusetts can claim the first working commercial railroad. Maryland chartered the first common carrier. Pennsylvania ran the first steam locomotive on American rails. South Carolina put the first scheduled steam passenger train in revenue service. Illinois became the place East meets West. Wyoming still moves Powder River coal. Hawaii’s common carriers are gone. Alaska’s state railroad is still a lifeline.
This page is the directory. The national arc—inventors, Civil War, the transcontinental, streamliners, Penn Central, Staggers, today’s Class I map—lives on the railroad history hub. What follows here is how the fifty states differ, a table of firsts, and a link to every state history guide already on American-Rails.com.
Rio Grande GP9 #5901, and a pair of F-units, layover at North Yard in Denver, Colorado, circa 1970. Robert L. Eastwood, Jr. photo. American-Rails.com collection.
On this page: At a glance · Who was first · Why states differ · Mileage · The East · West of Chicago · All 50 states · Related reading
At a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| What this hub is | A state-by-state directory of railroad history pages. Not a second national encyclopedia |
| National story | Railroad history hub |
| Peak U.S. route-mileage | 254,037 in 1916 (ICC / Stover atlas tradition) |
| Freight network today | About 140,000 route-miles (AAR, 2025 fact sheet: “nearly 140,000 miles”) |
| Class I railroads (U.S.) | Six: BNSF, CN, CPKC, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific. About 615 Class II/III short lines |
| All six Class Is meet | Chicago / Illinois. Roughly one in four U.S. carloads or intermodal units touches the Chicago area |
| How to read a state page | First railroad, fallen flags, peak vs today’s mileage, who hauls freight now, Amtrak if any, tourist rides and museums as pointers—not ticket offices |
Mileage definitions vary (route-miles vs. miles of track; Class I vs. all freight). Treat AAR state fact sheets as living documents. Information compiled September 4, 2026.
Who was first depends on the question
American railroad “firsts” are a pile of different dates. They are not in conflict if you keep the nouns straight. The national timeline on the history hub uses the same list.
| Claim | When | Where |
|---|---|---|
| First North American railroad charter | 1815 | Col. John Stevens, New Jersey Railroad Company. Not built as chartered; later tangled in the Pennsylvania Railroad family story. Stevens also ran a steam demonstration on a circular track at Hoboken in 1826 |
| First working commercial railroad | 1826 | Massachusetts. Gridley Bryant’s Granite Railway, Quincy quarry to a Neponset River dock at Milton. Horses, not steam |
| First common-carrier charter | February 28, 1827 | Maryland. Baltimore & Ohio, built to keep Baltimore in the race after New York’s Erie Canal |
| First steam locomotive to run in the United States | August 8, 1829 | Pennsylvania. Horatio Allen tested the English 0-4-0 Stourbridge Lion on Delaware & Hudson track at Honesdale. Too heavy for regular service |
| First scheduled steam passenger service | December 25, 1830 | South Carolina. South Carolina Canal & Rail Road, 0-4-0 Best Friend of Charleston |
| Longest railroad in the world (briefly) | 1833 | Same company: Charleston–Hamburg, about 136 miles |
| First U.S. transcontinental | May 10, 1869 | Utah. Union Pacific and Central Pacific met at Promontory Summit—not Promontory Point. Full story: transcontinental railroad |
Canals had the political leverage in the 1820s. New York had just spent a fortune on the Erie Canal (Buffalo to the Hudson). The Delaware & Hudson Canal (1820s–1890s) moved anthracite toward New York water; its gravity railroad and the Stourbridge Lion test are the railroad footnote, not the canal’s whole life. Baltimore could not dig a canal west over the mountains, so it chartered a railroad. Once steam worked in all weather, canals lost the argument. John Stover’s Routledge Historical Atlas of the American Railroads is the atlas this site has used for the national numbers; the January 2007 Trains package “Great Railroading: State-By-State” is still a useful magazine overview of all fifty, including Alaska and Hawaii.
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western F3A #656, in a grey-dip scheme without maroon pinstripes, along the Delaware River near Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania, 1950s. American-Rails.com collection.
Why one state is not another
Traffic follows geology and ports. That is the whole comparative method:
- Illinois is the railroad capital because eastern trunks, western transcontinentals, and the granger roads all had to meet somewhere. They met at Chicago.
- West Virginia and Wyoming are coal states of two different eras: Appalachian hoppers on steep, tunneled mains; Powder River unit trains on the plains.
- Texas is petroleum, chemicals, and Gulf ports as much as it is cotton and cattle.
- Minnesota and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula are iron ore to the lakes.
- California and Washington are Pacific gateways plus agriculture.
- Alaska is a state-owned railroad from Seward through Anchorage to Fairbanks because the highway map still is not enough.
- Hawaii was plantation railroads and two serious common carriers. The April 1, 1946 tsunami wrecked the Hawaii Consolidated Railway on the Big Island (abandoned that year). Oahu Railway & Land, worn out by wartime traffic and then hit on the North Shore, ran its last main-line trip on December 31, 1947. Trucks and the wartime road net did as much as the wave. What remains is heritage (Hawaiian Railway Society) and Honolulu rail transit, not freight.
A state page that only lists Class I names is incomplete. The interesting map is usually the short lines, the abandoned coal branches, the logging trams, and the one tourist railroad that still interprets the grade.
From 254,037 miles to about 140,000
By the early twentieth century almost every town of any size had a railroad, or wanted one. Weston, West Virginia, and Deadwood, South Dakota, both got rails. Peak U.S. route-mileage is the 1916 ICC figure of 254,037. Highways, regulation, and then abandonments cut that nearly in half. The Association of American Railroads now describes a freight network of nearly 140,000 miles, with six Class I companies holding about two-thirds of the miles and most of the revenue, and roughly 615 short lines doing the rest.
The pruning was not evenly distributed. The Midwest’s granger branches (C&NW, Milwaukee Road, Rock Island) and the Northeast’s duplicate mains came up first. Western long-haul coal and intermodal, and Southern chemical and merchandise density, held together better. That is why a 1970s map of Pennsylvania looks like a disaster and a 1970s map of Nebraska still looks like a railroad.
A pair of Milwaukee Road Little Joes lead an eastbound freight past the Primrose Substation, Montana, circa 1972. American-Rails.com collection.
The East: first, steep, and short-haul
Eastern railroads started the industry: B&O, Pennsylvania, New York Central, the New England roads, later the Southern, Atlantic Coast Line, Chesapeake & Ohio, Norfolk & Western. The topography is the other half of the identity. The Appalachians and the Berkshires forced tunnels, stone viaducts, and grades that never stopped being expensive.
Mid-nineteenth-century stonework still carries trains: Thomas Viaduct in Maryland, Rockville Bridge and Starrucca Viaduct in Pennsylvania. The Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific between Cincinnati and Chattanooga—Southern’s “Rathole Division”—was famous for 27 tunnels and 105 bridges. The B&O’s Parkersburg line in West Virginia, 103.4 miles Grafton–Parkersburg on the company’s January 1, 1948 Official List, packed 22 tunnels into what became part of a St. Louis main. Those are eastern operating facts, not scenery.
The commercial problem was different. Cities sit close together. New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore are a few hours apart. Short-haul freight pays poorly; less-than-carload traffic vanished after World War II; too many companies split the same region. Pennsylvania and New York Central merged as Penn Central on February 1, 1968, and failed on June 21, 1970, taking much of the Northeast with them. Conrail started April 1, 1976, earned a profit in 1981, and was split between CSX and Norfolk Southern in 1999. Southern roads—Southern Railway, Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard, N&W, L&N—never went through that collapse. They were profitable when the merger wave reached them. The full crisis narrative is on the history hub; the state pages are where the abandoned branches actually sit.
Union Pacific 4-6-6-4 #3964 and 4-8-8-4 Big Boy #4004 lead a westbound past the tower and out of Cheyenne, Wyoming, the morning of September 6, 1956. J.E. Shaw photo. American-Rails.com collection.
Missouri-Kansas-Texas (“Katy”) GP7 #95 at the engine terminal in Parsons, Kansas, circa 1970. American-Rails.com collection.
West of Chicago: long haul, fewer names
West of the Mississippi the distances pay. Rails were in parts of Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri by the 1850s. After Promontory in 1869 the rest of the West filled in: Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Santa Fe, later the Milwaukee Road’s Pacific Extension, Southern Pacific already on the coast. Streamliners that sold the region—City of Los Angeles, California Zephyr, Olympian Hiawatha, Super Chief—were a passenger overlay on freight that was already long-haul.
The 1960s–70s bankruptcies that wrecked the East were rarer here because a carload of something could still travel a thousand miles on one railroad. That did not save the Rock Island or the Milwaukee Road, and it did not save every granger branch in Iowa. It did mean the surviving western systems went into the mega-merger years as going concerns.
Burlington Northern was assembled from Great Northern, Northern Pacific, CB&Q, and SP&S in 1970 and merged with Santa Fe in 1995 as BNSF. Union Pacific absorbed Missouri Pacific, Western Pacific, Missouri-Kansas-Texas, Chicago & North Western, and Southern Pacific. Canadian National and CPKC (Canadian Pacific plus Kansas City Southern) are Class I companies on U.S. rails as well. Powder River coal and Pacific-coast intermodal are why BNSF and UP are the two largest U.S. freight railroads. The state pages are where those systems actually sit on the ground.
A trio of Rio Grande GP30s, led by #3025, with a westbound freight grinding upgrade at Plainview, Colorado, 1960s. American-Rails.com collection.
Union Pacific DDA40X “Centennial” #6905 and an SD40-2 lead trailers westbound, west of Cheyenne, Wyoming, summer 1984. Mike Bledsoe photo. American-Rails.com collection.
Soo Line SD40-2 #771 and SD40 #740 at Stevens Point, Wisconsin, April 23, 1974. American-Rails.com collection.
Rock Island E8A #652 at Joliet, Illinois, with the eastbound Quad Cities Rocket, circa 1971. American-Rails.com collection.
All 50 states
Every link below is a live American-Rails state history page. Kansas is /knrs.html, Vermont is /vrmt.html, California is /clfa.html, Hawaii is /hawaiian-railroads.html—those slugs are old and preserved. Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, and West Virginia are the 2026 rewrites. The District of Columbia has no separate state leaf; it is covered from the Maryland, Virginia, and passenger/terminal pages.
| State | Region | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | South | al.html |
| Alaska | Noncontiguous | ak.html |
| Arizona | Southwest | az.html |
| Arkansas | South | ar.html |
| California | Pacific | clfa.html |
| Colorado | Mountain | co.html |
| Connecticut | New England | ct.html |
| Delaware | Mid-Atlantic | de.html |
| Florida | South | fl.html |
| Georgia | South | ga.html |
| Hawaii | Noncontiguous | hawaiian-railroads.html |
| Idaho | Mountain | id.html |
| Illinois | Midwest | il.html |
| Indiana | Midwest | in.html |
| Iowa | Midwest | ia.html (2026 rewrite) |
| Kansas | Plains | knrs.html |
| Kentucky | South | ky.html |
| Louisiana | South | la.html |
| Maine | New England | me.html |
| Maryland | Mid-Atlantic | md.html |
| Massachusetts | New England | ma.html |
| Michigan | Midwest | mi.html |
| Minnesota | Midwest | mn.html (2026 rewrite) |
| Mississippi | South | ms.html |
| Missouri | Midwest | mo.html |
| Montana | Mountain | mt.html |
| Nebraska | Plains | ne.html |
| Nevada | Mountain | nv.html |
| New Hampshire | New England | nh.html |
| New Jersey | Mid-Atlantic | nj.html |
| New Mexico | Southwest | nm.html |
| New York | Mid-Atlantic | ny.html |
| North Carolina | South | nc.html |
| North Dakota | Plains | nd.html |
| Ohio | Midwest | oh.html (2026 rewrite) |
| Oklahoma | South / Plains | ok.html |
| Oregon | Pacific | or.html |
| Pennsylvania | Mid-Atlantic | pa.html |
| Rhode Island | New England | ri.html |
| South Carolina | South | sc.html |
| South Dakota | Plains | sd.html |
| Tennessee | South | tn.html |
| Texas | South / Southwest | tx.html |
| Utah | Mountain | ut.html |
| Vermont | New England | vrmt.html |
| Virginia | South | va.html |
| Washington | Pacific | wa.html |
| West Virginia | Appalachia | wv.html (2026 rewrite) |
| Wisconsin | Midwest | wi.html |
| Wyoming | Mountain / Plains | wy.html |
Rio Grande GP9 #5943 at Pueblo, Colorado, early 1970s. Robert Eastwood, Jr. photo. American-Rails.com collection.
Related reading
- U.S. railroad history (national timeline, mileage, regulation)
- Transcontinental railroad · Civil War railroads · 1900–1910
- Fallen flags · Class I railroads · Short lines
- Tourist trains · Museums · Logging railroads · Narrow gauge
- Amtrak · Commuter rail
State firsts and the 1916 peak follow John F. Stover, The Routledge Historical Atlas of the American Railroads (1999), and the research already on this site’s history hub. Modern network size and Class I count: Association of American Railroads fact sheet (updated September 2025). Photographs are from the American-Rails.com collection except as credited.
Recent Articles
-
Southern Pacific Railroad: Map, History, Logo
Nov 08, 26 01:58 PM
The Southern Pacific, from the December 2, 1865 charter and the Big Four to Sprint, the Rio Grande Industries purchase of 1988, and the Union Pacific merger of February 1, 1997. -
California Awards Flexible Rail Aid to Nine Projects
Nov 08, 26 01:15 PM
CalSTA on November 5, 2026 awarded $66.58 million in flexible State Rail Assistance to nine California projects. Each amount in the summary is a cap, printed as up to. -
CSX Leaves Three Days Out of the Weekly Reports
Nov 08, 26 12:02 PM
CSX told the Surface Transportation Board it cannot recover October 27-29 data for the EP 724 and EP 787 reports covering the week ending October 30, 2026. -
NJ Transit Advances Three Station Housing Projects
Nov 08, 26 11:56 AM
NJ Transit on November 5, 2026 advanced station projects in Jersey City, Bound Brook, and Morristown. The three are projected to add more than 1,000 homes. -
River Fox Train Wraps a Locomotive for America 250
Nov 08, 26 11:06 AM
The River Fox Train in West Sacramento wrapped a locomotive with America 250 markings, the American flag, and the Sacramento skyline. The wrap is expected to stay through 2027. -
California Keeps Metrolink Service in the 2027 Budget
Nov 07, 26 11:35 PM
Metrolink says a California State Transportation Agency grant lets the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget keep service at current levels. The board hearing is November 13, 2026. -
WM's 4-6-6-4 Locomotives (M-2): Specs, Roster, History
Nov 07, 26 04:37 PM
Western Maryland class M-2, twelve Baldwin 4-6-6-4s numbered 1201-1212, built in 1940 and 1941 for Hagerstown-Connellsville fast freight. Roster, specifications, and retirement in 1952-1953. -
Missouri Pacific Diesel Roster (All-Time)
Nov 07, 26 04:26 PM
Missouri Pacific diesel roster with builder serials, order numbers, subsidiary lettering, and renumberings. Alco, Baldwin, Electro-Motive, and General Electric. Texas and Pacific locomotives are on th… -
Missouri Pacific Steam Roster (Built Since 1900)
Nov 07, 26 04:21 PM
Missouri Pacific steam locomotives built since 1900. Drury quantity column 1,439. Sedalia rebuilds counted once, 1,407 frames. Last steam was 0-6-0 9301 in November 1955. -
Missouri Pacific Railroad: Map, Locomotives, Logo, History
Nov 07, 26 04:19 PM
The Missouri Pacific was a large Midwestern that carried a long history of financial difficulty until later years. -
LIRR Service Changes Start on November 9
Nov 07, 26 03:15 PM
New Long Island Rail Road schedules start on every branch on Monday, November 9, 2026. Midday and weekend times change. Rush hour does not. Babylon service returns in stages. -
Draft EA Reviews Norfolk Southern Track in London, Ohio
Nov 07, 26 11:35 AM
The Surface Transportation Board environmental office issued a draft assessment on November 6, 2026, for about 0.96 miles of Norfolk Southern track in London, Ohio. Comments are due November 20. -
Metrolink Lines Will Not Run on Three Routes November 7
Nov 07, 26 10:53 AM
Metrolink will not run the Ventura County, Orange County, or Inland Empire-Orange County lines on November 7 and 8, 2026. The advisory says no substitute transportation will be provided. -
Hartford Line Adds a Weekday Round Trip on November 16
Nov 07, 26 10:48 AM
Connecticut said the Hartford Line adds a weekday New Haven-Hartford round trip on November 16, starts a morning train in Springfield, and extends weekend stops to Windsor and Windsor Locks. -
Board Issues a Policy Statement on Rail Preemption
Nov 07, 26 10:44 AM
The Surface Transportation Board placed a policy statement on public inspection for the November 9 Federal Register. It reviews existing preemption precedent and says it makes no binding determination… -
NJ Transit Restores Lines After the Newark Drawbridge Stop
Nov 07, 26 10:37 AM
NJ Transit said Morris and Essex service between Hackettstown and Dover, and Montclair-Boonton service between Hackettstown and Montclair State University, resumed after the Newark Drawbridge stop. -
EMD "SD35" Locomotives: Data Sheet, Specs, Roster
Nov 06, 26 10:35 PM
EMD SD35, 2,500 horsepower, 16-cylinder 567D3A, built June 1964 through January 1966. 360 locomotives. Specifications and the production roster by owner, serial, and order. -
EMD "SDP35" Locomotives: Data Sheet, Specs, Roster
Nov 06, 26 10:32 PM
EMD SDP35, the steam-generator SD35. 35 locomotives, July 1964 through September 1965. Seaboard Air Line 1100-1119, Atlantic Coast Line 550, Louisville and Nashville 1700-1703, Union Pacific 1400-1409… -
RJ Corman Will Be Replaced on Part of the Luzerne Lines
Nov 06, 26 01:34 PM
A November 6, 2026 notice says Wilkes-Barre Terminal Railway would acquire about 59.65 miles in Luzerne County and replace R.J. Corman as operator on part of the line. The earliest date is November 22… -
NS Names a Student Hub at the University of Georgia
Nov 06, 26 12:03 PM
Norfolk Southern said a 100,000 dollar gift named a student-organization hub in Driftmier Engineering Center. The University of Georgia marked the naming on October 26. The space is for 23 clubs. -
Union Pacific Filed Its Vena Recording Certification
Nov 06, 26 11:56 AM
Union Pacific filed a November 5, 2026 verified statement that the confidential label is off the March 17 Vena recording and that parties of record received a copy at 3:30 p.m. Eastern. -
OmniTRAX Adds Tenants at Its Blue Island Hub
Nov 06, 26 10:26 AM
OmniTRAX has signed new construction-company leases at its 90-acre Blue Island, Illinois, hub and is planning a second phase. -
Veterans and Active-Duty Members Exceed 16 Percent of Norfolk Southern
Nov 06, 26 10:14 AM
Norfolk Southern said on November 5, 2026, that more than 3,000 veterans and active-duty service members are more than 16 percent of its workforce. This year grants are $100,000 and $50,000. -
BNSF: Merger Would Put Half of U.S. Rail Shipments Under One Railroad
Nov 06, 26 10:00 AM
BNSF chief marketing officer Tom G. Williams told customers on November 3, 2026, that a Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger would put about half of U.S. rail shipments under one railroad. Nothing is… -
Amtrak Opens a Winter Fare Sale
Nov 06, 26 09:28 AM
Amtrak opened a Winter Wanderlust sale on November 5, 2026. Book by November 12 for travel from December 1, 2026, through March 14, 2027. Blackout dates apply. Coach and Acela Business only. -
CN and CPKC Report October Grain Records
Nov 06, 26 08:50 AM
CPKC reported October 2026 grain records in Canada and the United States. CN reported 3.54 million metric tonnes across Canada. The releases do not print a combined total. -
New Brunswick Transload Gets CN Rail Service
Nov 06, 26 08:49 AM
CN said on November 4, 2026, that it has started serving AD Gagnon Transload Services near Grand Falls, New Brunswick. The site is three kilometres from the Trans-Canada Highway and lists room for 106… -
Together, Freight and Passenger Rail Can Grow, Union Pacific Says
Nov 06, 26 08:47 AM
Union Pacific said on November 5, 2026, that passenger obligations would remain if it combines with Norfolk Southern. The capacity claim is a Union Pacific analysis, not a Surface Transportation Board… -
FM "C-Liner" Locomotives: Specs, Roster, Photos
Nov 05, 26 11:19 PM
Fairbanks-Morse Consolidation Line cab units, the C-Liners. 165 locomotives, Beloit and Kingston, March 1950 through February 1955. Models, specs, and production rosters. -
Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast Railroad: Map, History, Roster
Nov 05, 26 12:03 PM
Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast, from Brunswick and Waycross to Atlanta and Birmingham. Atlantic Coast Line control at the close of 1926. Merged in January 1946 as the Western Division. Steam roster of th… -
El Paso & Southwestern Railroad: Map, History, Logo
Nov 05, 26 12:00 PM
The El Paso & Southwestern, the Phelps Dodge copper railroad from Tucson to the Rock Island at Tucumcari. Southern Pacific control on October 31, 1924. -
Brightline Says Orlando Service Has Resumed
Nov 05, 26 11:55 AM
Brightline said on November 5, 2026, that trains to and from Orlando have resumed after weather suspensions in Brevard County. Later that morning the departures page still showed the Orlando segment s… -
Metra Customers Must Sign Up Again
Nov 05, 26 11:43 AM
Metra says customers who want service alerts must sign up again at metratracker.com. The November 2 story says the new system has launched and the old email list is shut down. A notice on the same pag… -
Norfolk Southern Packs Six Projects Into One Window
Nov 05, 26 11:38 AM
Norfolk Southern used one 26-hour window on the W Line for six projects in Indiana and Kentucky, including three bridge replacements. The October 27 account does not give the calendar day of the work. -
CSX: More Time to Comment on an Inspection Waiver
Nov 05, 26 11:29 AM
The Federal Railroad Administration extended comments on a CSX petition for relief from some qualified mechanical inspector rules until December 2, 2026. The November 2 notice does not grant the waive… -
Brightline Expects Orlando Service on Thursday
Nov 05, 26 09:21 AM
Brightline said on November 4, 2026, that it expects trains to and from Orlando to resume on Thursday, November 5. South Florida stations kept running. The departures page still showed the Orlando seg… -
Union Pacific: More Time to Comment on an Inspection Waiver
Nov 05, 26 09:15 AM
The Federal Railroad Administration extended comments on a Union Pacific petition for relief from some qualified mechanical inspector rules until December 2, 2026. The November 2 notice does not grant… -
Wisconsin Opens Comments on the 2027 Freight Plan
Nov 05, 26 09:03 AM
WisDOT opened the draft 2027 State Freight Plan for comment through December 1, 2026. The plan covers freight rail with highways, harbors, aviation, and intermodal links. Completion is expected in sum… -
U.S. Rail Traffic Rose 3.5 Percent in the Week Ending October 31
Nov 05, 26 08:52 AM
U.S. railroads moved 514,080 carloads and intermodal units in the week ending October 31, 2026, up 3.5 percent from a year earlier, the Association of American Railroads said on November 4. -
Muni and Bay Area Transit Measures Pass
Nov 05, 26 08:49 AM
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency said on November 4, 2026 that Proposition H and a regional transit measure passed. Proposition H is about 160 million dollars a year for Muni. The regiona… -
Ground Rules Set for Responsive Applications
Nov 05, 26 08:47 AM
Decision No. 46, served November 4, 2026, denies a request to add Walsenburg to the Union Pacific interchange list and sets what CPKC and CN must include in responsive applications. Four CPKC proposal… -
Video of the Vena Address Must Be Released
Nov 05, 26 08:42 AM
The Surface Transportation Board on November 4, 2026 denied the Union Pacific appeal and ordered the March 17 shipper-conference recording released to the parties by 5:00 p.m. Eastern on November 5. C… -
Chicago & North Western Iron Ore C628s
Nov 04, 26 11:47 PM
Chicago and North Western C628s 6701-6730, the ex-Norfolk and Western high-hoods, in Upper Peninsula iron-ore service from the mid-1970s until December 21, 1986, and what happened to each unit. -
Warrenton Railroad: Serving Warrenton, NC (1884-1985)
Nov 04, 26 10:33 PM
The three-mile Warrenton Railroad, from Warren Plains to the North Carolina county seat. Chartered January 28, 1871. First train November 8, 1884. Closed in 1985. -
Rio Grande Steam Locomotives (Since 1900)
Nov 04, 26 11:40 AM
Denver & Rio Grande Western steam locomotives built since 1900. Standard gauge quantity 435 and narrow gauge 48. Challengers, 2-8-8-2s, Mountains, Northerns, and the K-27, K-28, K-36, and K-37. -
Rio Grande Diesel Locomotives (All-Time)
Nov 04, 26 11:39 AM
Denver & Rio Grande Western diesel locomotives, each frame once. 554 units, from the 1941 NW2 through the 1990 GP60s. FT, F3, F7, and F9 sets are not counted again under their 1950 numbers. -
Rio Grande Railroad: Map, Logo, History, Rosters
Nov 04, 26 11:34 AM
Denver & Rio Grande Western history, from William Jackson Palmer and the October 27, 1870 charter through the Royal Gorge, the Moffat route, the California Zephyr, and Union Pacific common control… -
Lindblom Gift Expands the Fort Wayne Restoration Shop
Nov 04, 26 11:14 AM
Art Lindblom gave the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society more than $1.4 million, its largest single gift, to expand the New Haven shop. The addition is planned for late 2026 and early 2027. A sepa… -
Design Contract Awarded for the Forest Park Branch
Nov 04, 26 11:09 AM
The Chicago Transit Board approved a design contract for about 13 miles of Blue Line track from the Illinois Medical District to the I-290 Bridge. The release summary calls it a $17 million contract… -
Kanawha River Railroad: The Norfolk Southern Lease Is Renewed
Nov 04, 26 10:51 AM
Kanawha River Railroad filed to keep leasing 309.45 miles from Norfolk Southern in West Virginia and Ohio. The second amendment is dated August 17, 2026. The Board has not set the date the exemption t…
