Prototype News

by Andrew Cox/photos by the author

Seattle’s waterfront dates to the late 1880s, when the city was just a small lumber and mineral town on the shores of Puget Sound. In the early years, Seattle grew slowly with few settlers reaching the unknown waterfront town, tucked away in a remote corner of Washington Territory. Logging camps in the western Cascades used the Duwamish River, Mount Rainier’s western drainage, to shuttle timber to a developing waterfront market. In 1897, however, the Klondike Gold Rush in Alaska and Canada’s Yukon Region completely changed the trajectory of Seattle’s development. Similar to the effect that the California Gold Rush had on the rise of San Francisco and Sacramento, Seattle’s waterfront exploded into a metropolis that served as a jumping-off point for prospectors hoping to strike it rich on the frontier. Suddenly, a prosperous city resided on the tide flats of Elliott Bay where the Duwamish River flowed into Puget Sound, and with it came the railroads.

The turn of the century could not have been any better for railroads that began gobbling up access to the waterfront. By 1911, Seattle hosted two downtown depots serving four transcontinental railroads. Northern Pacific and Great Northern shared a depot on King Street while The Milwaukee Road and Union Pacific built an ornate station just a block east. All four had dedicated trackage, with NP dominating the waterfront. Just a few blocks west of the two downtown depots, and down a very steep grade, NP and GN jockeyed for trackage along Seattle’s Railroad Avenue district, serving several docks and wharfs. Northern Pacific built a yard and port access on marshlands south of downtown, now known as SODO (SOuth of DOwntown). Just north of downtown, GN built a large yard and roundhouse between Magnolia and Queen Anne neighborhoods, calling it Interbay Yard. Union Pacific set up shop a few miles south of downtown at Argo Yard which has remained under UP control to this day.

ABOVE: Harbor Island offers an unusual opportunity to see BNSF and Union Pacific working side by side. Take this cold morning of February 5, 2024, for example, as BNSF spots loads at Shell Oil while UP shoves reefers for PCC Logistics and custom loads for the Alaska barge. The cement hoppers are just along for the ride, as they’ll be switched at Ash Grove Cement just off the island.

The growth of Seattle’s waterfront coincided with the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, causing several West Coast ports to modernize and expand their ability to handle anticipated surges in marine traffic on a global scale. The two world wars further spurred growth in Puget Sound with the addition of shipyards and steel mills, all served by the railroads. During summer 1964, GN would contract with Alaska Railroad out of Whittier, Alaska, to provide the nation’s first permanent rail-barge interchange between Alaska and the lower 48. To this day, Alaska Railroad operates weekly barge service to Seattle, making it the longest rail/barge transfer in the U.S.

By 1970, the great consolidation of America’s railroads was in full swing. In Seattle, GN and NP — along with Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and Spokane, Portland & Seattle — had merged to form Burlington Northern. The Milwaukee Road was on its way out, and had shifted its traffic to Tacoma; it would abandon its western route altogether in 1980. Three miles south of downtown, Union Pacific was still working its own trackage at Argo Yard, a small blip in the far northwest reaches of UP’s western division. The Emerald City, which had once hosted four of the nation’s premier railroads, was now blanketed in a sea of Cascade Green and just a touch of Armour Yellow.

ABOVE: The afternoon barge job has just started work on Harbor Island, delicately shoving its first cut of cars onto the barge under cloudy skies on November 1, 2023. The unique vantage point is thanks to a pedestrian overpass connecting Vigor Shipyards to its employee parking lot.

In the 21st century, BNSF has emerged as the primary operator in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle continues to host a thriving network of international trade, making it the ninth-largest port in the world. In 2022, the port of Seattle handled 3.4 million “TEUs” (20-foot container equivalent unit), 20 percent of which moved by rail. Seattle’s geographic positioning on the globe provides the shortest distance from seaports in Asia to the continental U.S. It is also the shortest distance between a West Coast port and Chicago, where both domestic traffic and marine traffic splinter off to markets farther east. It’s not just container traffic that keeps the Seattle waterfront humming; Seattle ports moved 3.5 million metric tons of agricultural products for export in 2023, consisting mostly of grain and soybeans, much of which was brought to Seattle on unit trains.

Harbor Island
In 1907, Puget Sound Bridge & Dredging Company embarked on a world-record-setting project in the southwest corner of Elliott Bay and metropolitan Seattle. Over the course of two years, the dredging company would forever change the geography of Seattle’s waterfront by splitting the Duwamish River into separate eastern and western waterways. Twenty-four million cubic yards of dirt from regrading projects in the city and dredged material from Seattle’s tide flats would create Harbor Island, at the time the world’s largest man-made island.

ABOVE: A mild winter’s sunrise casts long shadows across Harbor Island and BNSF organizing a cut of freshly delivered barge cars on January 15, 2025. Next, the railroad will deliver a fresh cut of loaded petroleum tanks to both Shell and ARCO tank farms seen in the distance on both sides of the yard.

Early industrial and commercial use of the island consisted of fish processing facilities, shipyards, and industries such as flour mills, grain elevators, lumber yards, and cold storage, primarily located on the island’s eastern shore. Commercial and industrial development continued after the 1940s, including oil terminals, shipyards, rail transfer terminals, and sand and gravel transfer stations. The first industry to occupy the island was Fisher Flouring Mills, which began milling grain in 1911. Served by NP, the towering grain silos of Fisher defined the western half of Harbor Island’s skyline. At the time, it was the largest grain mill in the western U.S., and was known locally for its scones and quality malt for scotch. The mill even had ties to famous Northwest bootlegger Roy Olmstead, who supposedly used Fisher’s milled grain to produce his infamous hooch.

Today, Harbor Island trackage is served by both Union Pacific and BNSF. The busiest location on the island is the 196-acre Terminal 18 that runs almost the entire length of Harbor Island’s east side and is jointly operated by both railroads. The 420-acre island is home to about 50 active businesses, six of which are served by rail. Two petroleum tank farms, Ray-Mont Logistics, Westway Feed Products, and Pacific Coast Container (PCC) complete the industrial leads. The large and very active Vigor Shipyard on the northwest corner of Harbor Island sadly no longer takes rail service at any of its leads. However, it does provide services for Washington state’s world-class fleet of passenger and car ferries…

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by Justin Franz/photos as noted

Chicago Union Station. Trains Editor David P. Morgan once compared it to a holy place of worship, and if Chicago is America’s railroad capital, then Union Station would undoubtedly be a fitting National Cathedral.

Outside, set against a backdrop of towering glass skyscrapers, Union Station’s stone pillars resemble something from the Roman Empire. Embedded in the high cornerstones are clocks announcing Elgin – Central Time, a nod to the railroad watchmaker located northwest of the city and the railroad’s impact on establishing time zones. In the glass windows are the names of the railroads that built and once served this storied terminal: Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; Pennsylvania Railroad’s subsidiaries Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis and Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago; and the tiny Chicago & Alton, which didn’t have an ownership stake but was a tenant of the others.

But beyond those heavy doors along South Canal Street lies the real magic. Inside the Great Hall, light from the towering barrel-vaulted skylight illuminates one of railroading’s finest spaces. The concrete pillars of the exterior have been replaced with towering marble ones that encircle the 20,972-square-foot space. Atop the pillars are intricate stone carvings, and on two are statues by American sculptor Henry Hering titled “Day” and “Night.” One figure holds an owl, while the other has a rooster, an unsubtle reference to the night-and-day pace of railroading. But perhaps the most important statue of all is also the simplest — a gold-plated post in the middle of the hall with a sign that reads “To Trains.” While the Great Hall is a setting fit for a papal conclave, the real action takes place one story below on the platforms.

ABOVE: Pennsylvania and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy trains mingle on the south side of Chicago Union Station in this August 1964 scene. This view would be all but impossible to capture now because it is covered by a building (not to mention that the photographer has wandered well beyond the platform to capture it). —John E. Gruber photo, Center for Railroad Art & Photography collection

A century after the completion of Chicago Union Station, this grand building continues to serve as the beating heart of railroading in the American Heartland. From here, more than 20,000 Amtrak trains and 77,000 Metra commuter trains arrive or depart annually (not counting position moves), carrying more than 38 million passengers each year.

Simply put, 100 years after it opened, the excitement and drama of railroading are still being preached from this storied space in the heart of America’s railroad capital.

‘The World’s Foremost Terminal’
In 1897, English journalist G.W. Steevens summarized the chaos of Chicago like this: “Chicago! Chicago, queen and guttersnipe of cities, cynosure and cesspool of the world! Not if I had a hundred tongues, everyone shouting a different language in a different key, could I do justice for her splendid chaos. The most beautiful and the most squalid. The most American of cities. Where in all the world can words be found for such paradox and incongruity? Someday, Chicago will turn her savagery into order and cooperation and she will become the greatest, as already she is the most amazing city in the world.”

ABOVE: In the morning and evening, Chicago Union Station is a scene of constant movement, with passengers rushing to and from their trains and with trains arriving and departing from multiple tracks at once. Passengers are waiting for a Metra train to pull in from the Roosevelt Road coach yard on the afternoon of April 17, 2019. With the exception of the Metra logos on the sides of these gallery cars, this scene has changed little in the last few decades. —Todd Halamka photo

While Steevens mused on the city itself, the passage also described its chaotic web of railroads. Chicago became the crossroads of American railroading due to its geography; on one side, it had easy access to the shipping lanes of the Great Lakes, and on the other, flat and fertile land ideal for railroad construction. The city’s first railroad was Galena & Chicago Union (predecessor to Chicago & North Western), built to connect lead mines in the northwest corner of the state with the Great Lakes. In fall 1848, the railroad opened Chicago’s first station, a simple wooden structure not far from the Chicago River, west of what is now Canal Street and south of Kinzie Street. In the decades that followed the construction of Galena & Chicago Union, the Windy City became a spiderweb of rail lines with routes converging on the metropolis from nearly every direction.

By the 20th century, more than two dozen railroads were operating on thousands of miles of track within the city. To accommodate the hundreds of passenger trains and tens of thousands of riders who arrived or departed from downtown Chicago every day, six major stations were constructed: Central, Dearborn, Grand Central, LaSalle, Chicago & North Western, and Union Depot. The cluster of depots around downtown meant that if you were traveling through Chicago, you not only had to change trains but also probably had to go to an entirely different station. That wasn’t the only issue facing the city at the turn of the 20th century, however.

ABOVE: The exterior of Union Station on South Canal Street is lit up on the evening of April 18, 2011. —Otto M. Vondrak photo

In 1906, the Merchants Club hired architect Daniel H. Burnham (who, a decade earlier, had designed Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair) to create a plan to improve the city. The result was the 1909 Plan of Chicago, one of the country’s first major city planning documents, which called for new and wider streets, parks, civic buildings, and improved harbor and railroad facilities, most notably consolidating the six stations into one, ideally west of the Chicago River.

While the 1909 Plan of Chicago suggested a different location for this centralized station, the most logical choice was near Union Depot (opened in 1882), primarily because it wouldn’t require major track changes on the north and south approaches. Union Depot had been utilized by Pennsylvania; Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul; Chicago & Alton; and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. By the 1910s, however, it often became overcrowded and could not meet the demands of a growing city. In 1913, the Chicago Union Station Company was incorporated to construct a new Union Station. The company’s stock was divided among Pennsylvania, Milwaukee, and Burlington, although Pennsy was the dominant player. J.J. Turner, vice president of Pennsylvania Lines West, was named the company’s first president. Graham, Anderson, Probst & White was hired to design the new station; the firm was led by Ernest Graham, who had been a business partner of Burnham, who passed away in 1912, three years after his Plan of Chicago was released…

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The Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City is hosting the “Star Spangled Steam Up” on the weekend of July 4th, featuring three operating steam locomotives, including a special steam-powered guest. The four-day event, running from July 3 to July 6, will provide train rides, historic lectures by local experts, and unique photography opportunities. 

Virginia & Truckee 4-6-0 25, Carson & Tahoe Lumber & Fluming Company 2-6-0 Glenbrook, and Nevada County Narrow Gauge 2-6-0 5 will be the star attractions of the weekend. While both 25 and Glenbrook call Carson City home, locomotive 5 will be visiting from the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Museum. 

The museum will be open on July 4, 5, and 6, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Family activities, food trucks, and, of course, train rides will be available throughout the day. Admission tickets will cost $30 for adults, $20 for children, and kids under 3 can enter for free. A special evening program will also be held on July 3, 4, and 5, designed for serious railroad enthusiasts. Each evening will feature one of the operating steam locomotives, with a special excursion (either a mixed train with V&T 25 or double headers with the two narrow gauge 2-6-0s), along with a lecture about the history of each. Evening tickets are $45 per person, or you can attend all three nights for $120. Evening events start at 5:30 p.m.

For more information, visit carsonrailroadmuseum.org. —Justin Franz 

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Forty-one years after its creation, Metra finds itself at a pivotal moment in its history. Five years after a global pandemic upended the agency’s traditional model of moving people into the city in the morning and out in the evening, Metra is seeking to reinvent itself as a regional rail network rather than merely a commuter operator. However, complicating this transformation is an impending loss of federal funding that officials say could lead to “doomsday” cuts to all of Chicago’s transit agencies, including Metra. 

The man tasked with navigating these uncertain times is James M. Derwinski, who has served as the chief executive officer of the nation’s busiest commuter railroad outside of the New York City metropolitan area since 2017. Derwinski is no stranger to Metra—or railroading. After serving in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear submarine electrician, Derwinski hired out on Chicago & North Western in 1993. He joined Metra as an electrician in 1997 and steadily rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the railroad’s chief mechanical officer in 2013. In 2017, he was unanimously elected by Metra’s board to be CEO and executive director of the railroad. 

This week, Railfan & Railroad spoke with Derwinski to discuss the upcoming budget cuts, Metra’s motive power fleet, and the future of passenger rail in Chicago. 

Metra SD70MAC 513 leads a train across Canal Street in Chicago. The commuter agency has turned to rebuilt second-hand units as a way to address its motive power needs as a cost-savings measure. —Brian Caswell photo

This spring, Illinois lawmakers failed to pass legislation to prevent “doomsday” cuts to public transit in and around Chicago. The shortfall stems from the federal government ending pandemic-related funding subsidies for transit agencies, which will lead to a $770 million deficit for the three agencies under the Regional Transportation Authority (Metra, Chicago Transit Authority, and Pace bus service). 

Derwinski said it was too early to know exactly what those “doomsday” cuts could look like, but he anticipated having to eliminate approximately 260 weekday trains, 130 Saturday trains, and 58 Sunday trains from the present schedule. Where exactly those cuts are made would be determined by the Metra board of directors and a robust public engagement effort. He emphasized the importance of ensuring that the cuts didn’t gut the system or negatively impact riders. One way to avoid that would be to add extra cars to existing trains from consists that are parked due to schedule reductions. Currently, Metra has funding to maintain its current level of service through the middle of next year, so it’s possible that no changes will occur before then. However, Derwinski said it was also possible that RTA and Metra might start implementing cuts earlier to avoid more dramatic and sudden reductions later.  

“There is an immense number of scenarios, but the only thing we know for sure is that federal funding runs out in mid-2026,” he said. “It’s unfortunate… but we’re keeping our heads down and getting to work.”

One of the battery-powered trains currently being built for Metra by Stadler U.S. —Courtesy Image.

While Metra faces the possibility of significant service cuts, it continues to upgrade its rolling stock fleet, especially its locomotives. This week, the Metra board of directors was considering a plan to acquire nine additional SD70MACH locomotives, bringing the total to 42 of these unique six-axle passenger units. Derwinski said the next part of the fleet to be refreshed will be the ex-Amtrak F59s that the company acquired in 2018. 

Derwinski has also become a big proponent of finding the next generation of motive power for Metra, including battery-powered units. In 2024, Metra announced it was purchasing zero-emission, battery-powered trainsets from Stadler U.S. for use on the Rock Island Line’s Beverly Branch. Derwinski said the first trainset was expected to arrive next year and enter revenue service in 2027.

“We’re really excited to kick the tires of these units and see how they work,” he said. 

Derwinski said he was hopeful the Stadler trainsets could be the first of many battery-powered units on Metra, including yard switchers. When asked about expanded electrification (as CalTrain recently did), he noted that battery-powered units would require less infrastructure and be more financially feasible. He also said that the Stadler units might not be the final answer in Metra’s search for the next generation of motive power.

“We want to try different things,” he said, adding that he was keeping an eye on other developments within the industry, including hydrogen power.

Perhaps the biggest development at Metra this year — although one that hasn’t resulted in many visible changes — was the agency finally taking over the operation of the three Union Pacific (ex-C&NW) lines. Derwinski said because UP will still be dispatching those lines, it’s unlikely any major operational changes will occur. The main focus will be fully integrating the UP employees into Metra and its customer-focused culture. Eventually, he said there may be opportunities to find efficiencies in some maintenance operations (locomotive and car repair, train cleaning, etc). 

A Metra North Central Service line train at O’Hare Transfer in June 2024, led by MP36PH-3S 420. These units were built by Motive Power Industries more than 20 years ago, augmenting the carrier’s fleet of EMD F40 variants. —Photo by Justin Franz. 

Ridership on Metra remains below its pre-pandemic level, as it does at many agencies across the country, according to a recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. According to the report, Metra’s ridership from 2019 to 2024 was down 42 percent. However, according to Metra, ridership has been slowly growing, and from 2023 to 2024, it increased by more than 9 percent, from 31 million passengers to 35 million.

Derwinski attributed the overall decline to changing work patterns. That’s why he wants to see Metra transformed into a regional network rather than a traditional commuter railroad. In 2023, Metra released a five-year plan that called for operating more trains outside of the traditional rush hours to serve more people. Derwinski mentioned that a more robust schedule, with additional trains at night or during midday, has been rolled out on the Union Pacific North, Union Pacific Northwest, BNSF, and Metra Electric lines. He indicated that so far, those schedule changes have been well received. Another aspect of making Metra a more regional system is aligning schedules to ensure people can reliably make downtown connections, even if they need to change stations.

While challenges lay ahead, Derwinski and his team are working hard to minimize the impact of reduced funding while introducing what service enhancements they can to keep the Windy City’s commuter rail running smoothly for years to come. —Justin Franz

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Ohio’s Age of Steam Roundhouse has begun construction on a new 10-stall roundhouse that will be separate from its existing 18-stall facility. The new “East Roundhouse” will include an office, a storeroom and 10 stalls for equipment storage. 

The 10-stall roundhouse has long been a key part of Age of Steam’s master plan, drafted by its founder, Jerry Jacobson, in 2008. While the current roundhouse is primarily made of wood, this new one will be constructed of steel, reflecting the style of roundhouses built during the late steam era. The new roundhouse is expected to be completed next year. Although it will not be open to the public, the equipment stored inside will be rotated with that on public display in the main roundhouse. 

“When completed next year, the Age of Steam’s new East Roundhouse will increase our current roundhouse track capacity by 56 percent,” said Chief Mechanical Officer Tim Sposato. 

Age of Steam has a collection of nearly two dozen steam locomotives, many of which were once part of the Ohio Central Railroad fleet. For more information, visit ageofsteamroundhouse.org. —Justin Franz 

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The original number plate for the Boston & Maine’s Flying Yankee streamliner was recently discovered in the Steamtown National Historic Site collection and has been returned to New England. The stainless steel plate will be reunited with the three-car train that is currently being restored in New Hampshire. 

The Flying Yankee was built by the Budd Company in 1935 and operated in New England for 22 years until its retirement in 1957. It was privately owned and displayed at the Edaville Railroad for 40 years before being acquired by New Hampshire in 1997. Over the decades, there have been ongoing efforts to restore the train, and currently, the non-profit Flying Yankee Association is working on it at the Conway Scenic Railroad. The Flying Yankee Association obtained the car from the state in 2024. 

The No. 6000 number plate measures 24 inches long and approximately 8 inches tall. It was reportedly removed from the train in the late 1950s when preservationist F. Nelson Blount purchased it. Eventually, the plate found its way into the Steamtown collection in Scranton, Pa., where it was rediscovered this year by park staff. After conducting some research on the plate, National Park Service employees realized it belonged to the Flying Yankee and decided to return it to the organization. 

“We’re incredibly grateful to Steamtown for their efforts in reuniting this original piece of history with the Flying Yankee,” said Brian LaPlant, President of the Flying Yankee Association. “This is more than a plate; it’s a powerful symbol of the train’s legacy and journey through time.”

The Flying Yankee group recently raised more than $30,000 to restore the train’s traction motors. That work is expected to begin soon. For more information, visit flyingyankee.org. —Justin Franz 

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The New Mexico Department of Transportation and New Mexico Heritage Rail have agreed to allow Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe 4-8-4 2926 to operate on 40 miles of state-owned trackage around Albuquerque. The agreement announced on June 14 is a dramatic expansion of the 2.7 miles of main line the locomotive had previously been allowed to run on. NMHR’s operating territory will now go about 20 miles on either side of Albuquerque, from Bernalillo to Los Lunas.

“This agreement allows us to bring an important piece of New Mexico railroad history to more communities along the corridor,” said Mathew Casford, NMHR Vice President and Chief of Rail Operations. “We deeply appreciate NMDOT’s collaboration in helping preserve and operate this national treasure.”

The expanded access allows for non-revenue deadhead moves only, but means the locomotive can access eight additional NMRX commuter rail stations in central New Mexico. 

ATSF 2926 was built by Baldwin in 1944 and retired after just nine years of service. New Mexico Heritage Rail (also known as the New Mexico Steam Locomotive & Railroad Historical Society) spent nearly two decades restoring the locomotive and it returned to service in 2021. Since then it has made brief trips around Albuquerque on New Mexico Rail Runner Express and BNSF Railway trackage. It is the largest operating 4-8-4 in North America. —Justin Franz 

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New York’s MTA Metro-North Railroad unveiled its seventh heritage unit on Friday, paying homage to the silver and blue “M-Central” scheme that made its debut in 1979 and lasted into the mid-1980s. Unlike the previous six heritage units that were wrapped, P32AC-DM 203 was painted in the historic scheme by employees at the paint shop in North White Plains, N.Y. 

In 1979, Conrail operated commuter service on the Hudson, Harlem, and New Haven Lines originating from Grand Central Terminal under contract with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The MTA sent seven dual-mode EMD FL9s to be rebuilt by General Electric at their shop in Hornell, N.Y. The first unit to return from the rebuild was 5043 (ex-New Haven 2043, built in October 1960), which was also the first to receive the new MTA paint scheme of a silver body with a wide blue stripe in August 1979. The two-tone blue MTA logo featured the word “CENTRAL” underneath to indicate equipment designated for use only on the Hudson and Harlem Lines, which were formerly New York Central territory. The seven rebuilt units retained this paint scheme until they were eventually repainted into red, blue, and silver by Metro-North after 1983. (CR/MTA 5043 would later be rebuilt with AC traction as Metro-North 2045 in the 1990s, and later scrapped).

The “CENTRAL” logo indicated equipment assigned to the former New York Central territory. —Courtesy Metro-North

This latest heritage tribute from Metro-North is the seventh in a series commemorating the commuter railroad’s 40th anniversary in 2023. The first tribute unit (MN 208) was released in May 2023, honoring Metro-North’s red, blue, and silver image from the 1980s and 1990s. This was followed by a tribute to the Conrail era of operation from 1976 to 1983, released in November 2023. The third unit showcased the distinctive “lightning stripe” design, paying tribute to predecessor New York Central, the original owner of the Hudson and Harlem lines until 1968. The fourth unit debuted in March 2024 and honored the MTA/Penn Central partnership of 1970, paving the way for enhanced commuter rail services. An Employee Tribute unit (MN 214) was released in July 2024. Earlier this year, the sixth specially wrapped unit (MN 222) paid tribute to the New Haven and its iconic green and yellow livery. —Railfan & Railroad Staff

Metro-North employees pose with MN 203 after painting the locomotive at North White Plains shop. —Courtesy Metro-North

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