Railnews from Railfan & Railroad Magazine

The National Railway Historical Society recently awarded $187,000 in grants to 34 railroad preservation organizations across the United States. The grand program was established by the NRHS to help railway history efforts and this year received 46 applications requesting more $330,000 in funding. 

“On behalf of the NRHS, the Board of Directors, and myself, I extend sincere appreciation to the Heritage Grants Committee for its steadfast commitment to the mission of the NRHS and to preserving railroad history,” White said. “We also gratefully acknowledge our members, whose donations help sustain this important program. We encourage all applicants to continue their efforts to preserve and share our nation’s rail heritage.”

The winners include…

Center for Railroad Photography & Art, Madison, WI: $10,000 towards digital preservation program. This award is in honor of George Hickok, long-term member of the NRHS Heritage Grants Committee and IT professional.

Virginia Museum of Transportation, Roanoke, VA: $10,000 towards N&W Class J #611 stoker repairs.  This award is in memory of Carl Jensen, a long-term member of the NRHS Heritage Grants Committee

Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, Albuquerque, NM: $10,000 towards restoration of Denver & Rio Grande narrow gauge Baggage Express Car 163

Burkburnett Historical Society, Burkburnett, TX: $8,000 towards repair of Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad depot

Harrisburg Chapter., NRHS, Harrisburg, PA: $7,500 towards repair and/or historic replacement of windows at Harris Tower

Forney Museum of Transportation, Denver, CO: $7,500 towards restoration interior, electric and lighting of Pullman Moffat Coach #1906

Moffat Road Railroad Museum Assoc., Granby, CO: $7,500 towards restoration of Dumont Depot

Galloping Goose Historical Society, Delores, CO: $7,500 towards restoration of Denver, Rio Grande &Western refrigerator Car #45

DeLeon Area Historical Society, DeLeon, TX: $7,000 toward the restoration of the DeLeon Depot windows.

Mt. Airy Museum of Regional History, Mt. Airy, NC: $6,000 towards outdoor exhibit for NC Granite Corp locomotive “Captain Jack” at their museum

Niagara Frontier Chpt., NRHS, Tonawanda, NY: $5,000 towards repairs of GE 25T Standard Elevator locomotive #1

West Jersey Chpt., NRHS, Palmyra, NJ: $5,000 towards creation of Camden & Amboy Railroad  Historical District in Bordentown NJ

Baltimore Streetcar Museum Inc., Baltimore, MD: $5,000 towards fence around Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad Freight Depot

Wichita Falls Railroad Museum, Wichita Falls, TX: $5,000 towards renovation of Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad power coach number 7203

TOYX Inc., Dingmans Ferry, NY: $5,000 towards restoration of Erie cabooses in Port Jervis, NY

Lewes Junction Railroad & Bridge Assoc., Lewes DE, $5,000 towards refurbishment and placement of Pennsylvania Railroad locomotive B6sa # 60

Conrail Historical Society, Inc.,  Wallington, PA: $5,000 towards renovation of Conrail caboose # 21292

Oregon Depot Museum, Oregon, IL: $5,000 towards restoration and reupholstering of Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad  Silver View dome car

Colorado Model Railroad Museum, Greeley, CO: $5,000 towards restoration of Rock Island Railroad caboose 17017

Mid-Continent Railway Museum, North Freedom, WI: $5,000 towards restoration of Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad coach 64

Western American Railroad Museum Systems, Barstow, CA: $5,000 towards security enhancements

Minnesota Transportation Museum, St. Paul, MN: $5,000 towards restoration of the James J. Hill Manitoba Car

Major County Historical Society, Fairview, OK: $5,000 towards repair of Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railway Depot

Museum Inc, dba The Heritage Museum, Libby, MT: $5,000 towards costs to move Shay 4 locomotive

Yakima Valley Trolleys, Yakima, WA: $4,900 towards restoration of YVT Brill Master Unit 12

Gordon – Westcott Historical Society, Gordon, WI: $4,000 towards moving Soo Line caboose 82

Mineral Point Historical Society, Mineral Point, WI: $4,000 towards restoration of railroad baggage and freight carts

North Carolina Railway Museum, New Hill, NC: $4,000 towards creation of Pullman history exhibit

Wayne Historical Preservation Society, Wayne, IL: $4,000 towards new windows in the Wayne Depot 

Wilson Brewer Park Depot and Museum, Webster City, IA: $4,000 towards restoration of Illinois Central caboose

Friends of the New York Central Railroad Museum, Elkhart, IN: $3,600 towards restoration of  NYC caboose #19211

Museum of Western Colorado, Grand Junction, CO: $2,500 towards restoration of Whiskey Creek Trestle

National Museum of Transportation, St. Louis, MO: $2,500 towards restoration of Monsanto tank car 117

Denver South Park & Pacific Historical Society, Denver CO: $2,500 towards recreation of South Park Zephyr rail car

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After a year-long absence, steam has returned to the summit of the Northeast’s tallest peak. 

Earlier this summer, New Hampshire’s Mt. Washington Cog Railway completed a rebuild of 0-2-2-0 No. 9, and after a series of test runs in early July, it entered regular service on July 10. The biggest aspect of the recent overhaul was a brand-new boiler built by Maine Locomotive & Machine Works in Alna, Maine. 

Mt. Washington Cog Railway 9 is seen pushing the second regular steam run of the 2026 season up the Northeast’s tallest peak on July 11. Photo by John House. 

Constructed in the 1860s, the Mt. Washington Cog Railway was the world’s first mountain-climbing cog railroad. From 1869 until 2008, steam ruled the west slope of Mt. Washington. However, in the late 2000s, diesel locomotives began to replace most steam locomotives. Presently, there are two steam engines on the active roster: Locomotive 2, the  Ammonoosuc, built in 1875, and locomotive 9, the Waumbek, built in 1908. Both locomotives were constructed by the Manchester Locomotive Works, which later became part of the American Locomotive Company.

In recent years, the steam engines have generally been used on the first train of the day during the summer and fall. But last year, during pre-season preparations, it was determined that neither locomotive could be operated at full pressure until additional repairs were made. In August, locomotive 9 was put back in service, but only for runs halfway up the mountain. Over the winter, the Cog received two new boilers from Maine Locomotive & Machine and installed the first atop 9’s frame earlier this year. With the locomotive back in service, the railroad plans on operating steam on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 9 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. through the summer and fall. Locomotive 2 is expected to be restored soon as well, ensuring that steam will continue to push trains up Mt. Washington for decades to come. 

—Justin Franz 

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Delaware tourist carrier Wilmington & Western Railroad rolled out its Semiquincentennial locomotive – SW-1 1776 – on July 4, for one of the largest fireworks displays in the region. It’s perhaps the oldest diesel to wear an “America 250” livery.

Built by EMC in 1940 as Lehigh Valley Railroad 114, it served the Maryland Port Authority and short-lived tourist operator Ocean City Western Railroad before coming to the W&W (also as number 114) in the 1980s. It works alongside former Baltimore & Ohio SW-1 8408.

Locomotive 1776 debuted on the annual and popular “Fireworks Express” to Hockessin, Del. on the evening of July 4. It ran in regular service out of Greenbank, Del. on July 5, but a mechanical issue sidelined it late in the day.

The W&W was established in 1966 to operate excursions on 10 miles of former Baltimore & Ohio trackage between Greenbank and Hockessin, Del.

—Michael T. Burkhart

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Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern would try to sell some of their ownership stakes in the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis, Kansas City Terminal Railway and TTX Company if their merger is approved, according to new filings with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.

In May, the federal regulator tentatively accepted UP’s application to acquire NS, but requested additional information about a number of topics. On July 7, UP and NS filed the first portion of that request with information about how they would handle companies that they jointly own with other Class Is. The primary railroads in question include TRRA in St. Louis, which they jointly own with BNSF Railway, CSX and Canadian National, and KCT, which is owned with BNSF and CPKC.

In the revised filing, UP and NS officials accused the other Class Is of using the terminal railroads as pawns in their effort to delay the proposed merger, one that would create a 50,000-mile rail system across 43 states. For example, UP called a meeting of the TRRA board to discuss how the joint ownership of the railroad would be handled following a UP-NS merger. But none of the other Class Is showed up to the meeting. UP owns 42.84 percent of TRRA, and NS, BNSF, CSX and CN each own 14.29 percent of the railroad. One solution proposed by UP-NS is to split up NS’s shares among the other railroads so UP would not own more than 50 percent of TRRA. Another suggestion calls for handing over NS’s shares to a new railroad altogether. Similar solutions were suggested for KCT and TTX. TTX, the freight car provider and manager, is jointly owned by the six American Class Is plus Ferromex.

UP and NS said they intend to provide more information about their merger to the STB before a July 27 deadline.

—Justin Franz 

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Norwood & St. Lawrence 2-6-0 210 has been acquired by the St. Lawrence Power & Equipment Museum in Madrid, N.Y. The engine was previously part of the Steamtown National Historic Site collection but was recently deemed surplus, allowing it to return home to upstate New York.

Built by the American Locomotive Company in 1923, locomotive 210 pulled freight and mixed trains on the Norwood & St. Lawrence Railroad, a subsidiary of the St. Regis Paper Co. The engine was sold to a Watertown, N.Y., scrap yard in 1957, before being purchased by F. Nelson Blount in 1965 for his Steamtown collection in Vermont. Eventually, 210 and the rest of the Steamtown collection moved south to Scranton, Pa., in the late 1980s, becoming the property of the National Park Service. The engine has been stored in the Steamtown yard for years, mostly out of sight.

The locomotive will be cosmetically restored and displayed at the St. Lawrence Power & Equipment Museum. Since 2006, the museum has helped tell the story of the people and industry of New York’s North Country.

—Justin Franz 

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The Colebrookdale Railroad in Pennsylvania has acquired a historic Pullman car built in 1909 that, since the 1960s, has been part of a restaurant in New Jersey.

The car was built for Utah mining executive Daniel Cowan Jackling and was named “Cyprus” for a number of years. The car later ended up on the Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railway. In 1967, it was sold to a New Jersey family and for decades was part of The Essex House restaurant in West Orange. The restaurant closed in 2020, and the car was recently put up for sale. The car was moved from New Jersey to the Colebrookdale in June. The Markouris family, who previously owned the car, said they are excited about its future.

“Others reached out to us about this car,” said Tony Markouris, son of the owners, “but it was The Colebrookdale that gave us the confidence that it would be restored and put back in service. We’re proud of the fact that we could preserve it well enough that this will be its end; that we could be the bridge in preserving it between its past and future.”

Railroad officials have said the full restoration could take a few years, but they are confident the car will roll again.

“Passengers will once again be able to ride in this beautiful Victorian car, enjoying a meal just as they would have in days gone by. It’s a reconnection to not only Cyprus’ past, but to our own,” said Nathaniel Guest, founder of the Colebrookdale Railroad Preservation Trust.

The car is unique because it marks the transition from building Pullman cars with wood to building them with steel; the car has a steel frame but the body itself is made of wood.

The Colebrookdale Railroad was established in 2014 and operates excursions on a former Reading Company branch line in southeastern Pennsylvania.

—Justin Franz

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A bridge on the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad caught fire on June 28. It was the second time in just over a year that one of the railroad’s bridges had caught fire. 

The most recent incident occurred at the Boxcar Canyon Trestle. Firefighters were able to douse the flames before any major damage was done, and railroad officials have said it will not impact its operations. The cause of the fire is under investigation. 

In April 2025, another bridge on the railroad was destroyed in an apparent arson. Law enforcement continues to investigate that fire, but no arrests have been made. The railroad has encouraged people with information about either fire to reach out to them or law enforcement. That bridge was not on track used by MRSR’s current excursion operation. 

MRSR operates on a section of the former Milwaukee Road in western Washington. It was established in 1980. After shutting down in 2020, the railroad was transferred to a non-profit organization that has been running it since 2023. 

—Justin Franz 

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The Midwest Overland Rail Preservation Society has restored Milwaukee Road SD40-2 156 to its Bicentennial appearance. The locomotive was completed this week and is slated to make its public debut at Kansas City Union Station on July 5. 

Built as Milwaukee Road 3026 in 1972, the locomotive was one of 90 SD40-2s on the MILW roster, outnumbering all other diesel models. Later renumbered as MILW 156, it was painted red, white and blue in 1975. It wore that paint job for just a few years before being covered again in MILW orange and black. In the 2010s, the engine ended up on Pan Am Railways. 

California-based Dieselmotive saved the locomotive from being scrapped in 2019, and it was later stored at the Oklahoma Railway Museum. The engine was later traded to the Midwest Overland Rail Preservation Society in 2025. 

Milwaukee 156 was painted by Railway Service Contractors in Fairfax, Kan. The engine is expected to return there after the display at Union Station for additional work. For more information, visit the Midwest Overland Rail Preservation Society Facebook page or mopxrr.org.

—Railfan & Railroad Staff

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South Shore Line riders are having to take the bus between Hammond Gateway and East Chicago, Ind., after a freight train derailment on June 24 knocked out part of the catenary.

The derailment occurred on the Grand Calumet River Bridge between East Chicago and Hammond, and involved 13 empty coal cars. While there was no damage to the bridge itself, it resulted in heavy damage to the catenary supports. Because the derailment happened on the bridge, repairs have taken longer than anticipated. South Shore has not given a timeline for when regular service will resume. In the meantime, passengers are having to take buses between the Hammond Gateway and East Chicago stations. Passengers who purchased a monthly pass in June will also have their pass honored in July due to delays caused by the derailment. 

The South Shore Line is operated by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District and is considered by many to be America’s last interurban railroad. The Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad began operations in 1903. In the 1970s, passenger operations were spun off to the State of Indiana. The freight railroad is now part of Anacostia Rail Holdings Company.

—Justin Franz 

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The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum became the latest museum to celebrate America’s 250th birthday with the debut of a red, white and blue PCC car. 

The paint scheme is reminiscent of one Pittsburgh Port Authority Transit applied to a streetcar back in 1976, to celebrate the bicentennial. Car 1776 ran in its “Spirit of 1776” livery until it was involved in a crash in August 1982. The car was later scrapped. 

Since the original car was lost, the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum decided to paint another car in its collection, PAT 1799, into the patriotic paint scheme. That car was built by St. Louis Car Company in 1945, and operated in Pittsburgh on the South Hills routes until 1986. It was acquired by PTM in 1990. The car is not operational, but will be on display throughout the July 4th celebration. 

—Justin Franz

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The EBT Foundation and the Rockhill Trolley Museum are at odds over the introduction of rail bike rides on the standard gauge track that is used by the streetcar museum but is owned by the narrow gauge railroad. 

The EBT Foundation is the owner of the East Broad Top Railroad, a national historic landmark and the oldest narrow gauge railroad in the East. The trolley museum was founded in 1960 and has leased track from the EBT for decades. 

In early June, the trolley museum announced that beginning July 1, it would only be operating on Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons, because of new rail bike rides being offered by the EBT on the tracks used by the streetcars. The announcement set off a firestorm of rumors online that the EBT was about to evict the trolley museum. 

On June 12, the EBT Foundation issued a three-page press release giving its side of the story. According to the foundation, the EBT has been renewing the trolley museum’s lease annually since 2022 and has been negotiating a new, long-term lease to benefit both parties. But those negotiations have been fruitless, EBT officials wrote. As a result, the EBT has said it would not renew the current lease and that if a new one were not negotiated, the trolley museum would have to vacate EBT-owned property by December 2027, per the current lease. EBT officials put the blame for the impasse on the trolley museum’s management. 

“The current situation has reached this point due to the failure of their management, which failed to negotiate in good faith, and their lawyer, who has never responded to any of our letters and has failed to try to find common ground to reach a new lease,” EBT officials wrote.

EBT officials added that it was their responsibility to provide visitors with a robust and diverse experience, and the rail bike tours would be a part of that. The tours are expected to begin later this summer.

In a follow-up email with Railfan & Railroad, EBT Foundation General Manager Brad Esposito wrote, “We are still hoping for a positive long-term solution to the ongoing negotiations with RTY. A diverse visitor experience in Rockhill Furnace has always been a goal for the EBT Foundation, and I am convinced a solution that will benefit all will be achieved.”

Officials with the Rockhill Trolley Museum have rejected the EBT Foundation’s claims, but also said that they hoped to find a resolution that would benefit both parties.

In response to the EBT’s press release, the trolley museum provided the following statement to Railfan & Railroad: “In response to the Rockhill Trolley Museum’s announcement of curtailed operating hours, due to the operation of East Broad Top Foundation railbikes along RTM’s leased standard-gauge line, it was the decision of EBTF to air the details of the disputes between RTM and EBTF. While EBTF’s response contains inaccuracies and misrepresentations, RTM management does not believe it would be appropriate to post a detailed rebuttal in a public forum, and we do not intend to engage in an exchange of personal insults. The management of the Rockhill Trolley Museum stands behind its decisions and continues to believe that all issues between RTM and EBTF can be resolved to the reasonable satisfaction of both parties through good faith negotiations.”

—Justin Franz 

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Reading & Northern Railroad released its second semiquincentennial locomotive in late June – GP38-2 2026. It joins patriotic SD40-2 1776, which has been out for more than six months.

Built by EMD in October 1974 as Southern Railway 5139, Reading & Northern acquired it in 2017 from Norfolk Southern and initially it 2010.

R&N graphic artist Jamie Makin created the new design, borrowing heavily from the scheme adorning 40th anniversary GP38-2 2023. It was painted in-house at West Cresona, Pa., and will be paired with 1776 on a July 2 round trip from Nesquehoning to Reading, Pa., the railroad said.

—Michael T. Burkhart

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