Railnews from Railfan & Railroad Magazine

On January 1, 2026, Genesee & Wyoming’s Connecticut Southern Railroad assumed control of the state-owned Armory Branch. The 14 miles of track were formerly operated by short line Central New England Railroad. 

Central New England (CNZR) was established in 1995 to operate a pair of former New Haven/Conrail lines around Hartford. One of those lines, the Griffins Secondary, has been inactive since its last customer moved in 2021, and service was only sporadic on the Armory Branch. CNZR had an eclectic fleet of locomotives, including Alcos and EMDs. Its last unit in regular service was a former Southern Pacific/New Brunswick Southern GP9 still in NBSR green and yellow. 

CSOR is expected to operate the Armory Branch as needed. The branch connects with CSOR at East Windsor. 

—Justin Franz 

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by David Zeman/photos by the author

For many railfan photographers, a large part of the motivation for taking photos of trains is documenting a subject before it is gone forever and lost to history. However, when the stars align, it is possible to bring history back to reality. Bringing back to life the late 1950s and early 1960s on Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad was the main objective for myself, Ralph Durham, James Keats Jr., and the Illinois Railway Museum Diesel Department, when we hosted the “Nebraska Zephyr Night Photo Shoot” in October 2025.

For the last handful of years, Ralph and I, plus a handful of other dedicated IRM volunteers, have coordinated several special night photo shoots with a variety of equipment, having mostly focused on highlighting the museum’s steam locomotive, Frisco 2-10-0 1630. This year, as 1630 undergoes a mandatory 1472-day inspection, we shifted our focus ahead to the diesel era with the 1935-built Nebraska Zephyr for an all-CB&Q evening featuring other miscellaneous pieces of Burlington Route equipment. Our main goal for the event was to take our guest photographers back to the golden age of passenger rail travel on one of America’s most famous streamlined trains by incorporating actors and crew members in period dress plus appropriately placed memorabilia items and props into our photo setups.

Because I started visiting IRM when I was young, I have always been mesmerized by anything related to CB&Q, the railroad referred to by us diehard Burlington fans as “God’s railroad.” Seeing the Zephyr and EMD E5 9911A pull out of Barn 9 in the morning and rushing to the museum’s East Union depot for a ride in observation car Juno was always top priority on any day the train was running. SD24 504 was also a favorite locomotive in its vibrant “Chinese Red” paint scheme, and SW7 9255 is a treat to see operate as well. As I started to do my own research about the Burlington, I learned that the railroad’s employees had an unparalleled amount of pride in the company. IRM has kept this tradition alive with its group of dedicated Zephyr crew members, all sharply dressed in their blue suits and stovepipe-style hats each day the train operates. I am proud to have joined this crew in the last few years and help carry on the Burlington Route tradition for future generations to enjoy.

After leading several successful past photo shoots with the IRM Steam and Electric Car departments, fellow museum volunteers and I had high hopes of putting together an exclusive Nebraska Zephyr or all-CB&Q night shoot for a long time. In the middle of the summer, a group of us put our heads together and talked loosely about what we wanted to do and which pieces we wanted to incorporate. We concluded that the main focus of the event would be the Zephyr itself, and any other CB&Q equipment would be considered an added bonus. It was mutually agreed that we wanted to have as many era-dressed models as possible, plus plenty of appropriately placed Burlington memorabilia items for smaller setups, and a few “large” scenes featuring multiple trains and/or locomotives.

Bringing It Together
Once we had solidified our date for the event, we pursued inviting models to act as Zephyr passengers. Over the years, Ralph has built a significant network of actors who have agreed to be on our call list in case of events like this. Some of the models are regular IRM visitors, and some became acquaintances through other social avenues, but all simply enjoy dressing up and posing for photographers for special events. Luckily, I was able to twist a couple of my friends’ arms as well, and convinced them to dress for the part. We were absolutely thrilled to have recruited a total of 12 wonderful models for the event.

In addition to passengers, we needed to align a sufficient crew dressed properly for the Nebraska Zephyr. Thankfully, many of us IRM volunteers are collectors of all types of CB&Q memorabilia, and several of us have been lucky enough to acquire Zephyr uniforms, hats, badges, and appropriate jewelry. Not all the Zephyr crew members own uniforms with all the matching badges and buttons, so it was a team effort to mix and match bits of our own collections to ensure our crew of Nebraska Zephyr trainmen and conductors wore the prototypically correct paraphernalia. It would have been difficult for me to lead the event, pose for Zephyr crew photos, and take my own photos at the same time, so I lent my conductor’s outfit to one of our other IRM conductors. All in all, the train crew consisted of three conductors (identifiable with gold buttons and hat badges) plus four trainmen (silver buttons and hat badges).

In addition to all of the necessary uniform paraphernalia, we CB&Q enthusiasts dug deep through our drawers and closets to find anything relevant to the Burlington, or specifically the Nebraska Zephyr, to help add an extra layer of authenticity to the photographs. In observation car Juno, era-appropriate timetables, matchbooks, playing cards, ticket books, seat checks, ashtrays, coffee cups, and other assorted pieces were carefully distributed as both subject pieces and background items to accompany our well-dressed models. On a table in the dining car Ceres, an assortment of surplus Burlington Route artifacts was set for an additional small photo opportunity as well…

Read the rest of this article in the February 2026 issue of Railfan & Railroad. Subscribe Today!

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This month, Andrew Nelson leads us on a fond look back at the Lake States Division of Soo Line. Our story is set in the mid-1980s, when the Soo began preparations to “spin off” a portion of its original main line as a condition of absorbing the remnants of the bankrupt Milwaukee Road.

The names “Milwaukee Road” and “Soo Line,” though, are old ones in railroading, and crucially, both are nicknames. Like many railways founded in the 19th century, both companies went through multiple re-incorporations and mergers, their identities an unstable litany of place-names joined by an ampersand. A shorter “handle” became a favored marketing tool. The origin of the Milwaukee’s is self-evident, as “Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific” indicated the Upper Midwest cities linked with the Pacific Coast. Focusing on the largest city in Wisconsin as the epicenter, it becomes “The Milwaukee Road.” Soo Line requires a bit more explanation. Originally founded as Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie & Atlantic in the 1880s, the railway’s middle place-name referred to a Quebecois-founded town on Michigan’s upper peninsula, with the French word “Sault” pronounced “Soo.” While the “Soo Line” nickname came early, it wasn’t until 1961 that the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railroad adopted it as its legal moniker.

Beyond the nicknames, the Milwaukee and the Soo are both railways that grew up with what was called — a century ago — the “Old Northwest,” a region that stretches from the Great Lakes to the plains of the Dakotas. For much of the 19th century, numerous railways criss-crossed this space, fighting to control traffic in the region’s rich grain-growing lands. The Milwaukee traces its founding to the 1840s in an attempt to connect Great Lakes and Mississippi River shipping, cutting out business that might otherwise have gone via Chicago. The Soo, founded more than a generation later, had similar designs; its St. Paul backers planned the new line running due east toward Great Lakes ships at its namesake town on the passage between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. It was so successful that the transcontinental Canadian Pacific picked up a majority stake in the company in the 1890s.

The Old Northwest, then, is a region that is intimately tied up not merely in its grain-rich landscape, but also in its proximity to Great Lakes ships and (through them) to the Atlantic Seaboard. Today, we are apt to see the hills and dales of Wisconsin or the lake-studded woods of Minnesota and think them insulated from the wider world, but in fact the Old Northwest was, thanks to lake steamers and railways, one of the most connected parts of North America. It is little wonder that, for much of the 19th century, immigrants from Germany, Sweden, and Finland saw this region as a place to start over and make good. The fact that they, like the railways they rode, largely succeeded is part of why today the idea of this region as a northwestern edge of anything is difficult to perceive. Every railway line, every new small town, every growing downtown office tower in Chicago and Milwaukee and St. Paul made it all the harder to see this as anything other than a contiguous part of the wider Midwest.

Likewise went the Milwaukee and the Soo. The former suffered bankruptcy after bankruptcy in the latter half of last century. It was not, perhaps, so much a marker of failure as it was a symptom of having grown too far, too fast, connecting too much of the Northwest — both “old” and “new” — at the expense of making a sustainable profit. The Soo acquired it in 1986, but just four years later, Canadian Pacific bought out the remainder and converted it into a subsidiary that exists only on paper. Just as the Old Northwest had grown into the larger Midwest, the region’s flag carriers disappeared into the larger railway network.

—Alexander Benjamin Craghead is a transportation historian, photographer, artist, and author.

This article appeared in the February 2026 issue of Railfan & Railroad. Subscribe Today!

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A Northern Pacific 4-6-0 was fired up on New Year’s Day for the first time in over 70 years, following an extensive restoration. NP 1364 has been the marquee restoration project of the Northern Pacific Railway Museum in Toppenish, Wash., for over a decade. 

In spring 2025, volunteers installed a new steam dome, laying the groundwork for a hydrostatic test in September. Afterward, volunteers kept reassembling the locomotive for a successful steam-up on January 1. 

“The recent steam-up test was an important step, not the finish line,” the group wrote on social media. “It allowed us to see how systems performed under steam and helped identify what adjustments and fine-tuning are still needed.”

Locomotive 1364 was one of 40 S-4 class 4-6-0s that the NP purchased in 1902 from Baldwin. NP 1364 was assigned to the Tacoma Division and spent most of its operating life in Washington State. It was retired in 1954 but was set aside for preservation and donated to the City of Tacoma. It was on display for several years before being moved to Nallys Valley for an ultimately unsuccessful restoration. Later, it was relocated to the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad. In 1994, it was moved to the Northern Pacific Railway Museum in Toppenish, and volunteers have been gradually working on it ever since. For more information, visit nprymuseum.org.

—Justin Franz 

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The fate of Yakima, Washington’s famed interurban railroad will be the subject of a city council meeting on January 20. The meeting comes a month after the city council decided not to offer the non-profit that operates the city-owned electric railroad, Yakima Valley Trolleys, an operating agreement for the new year. 

During the December 9 meeting, the council considered offering the non-profit a five-year agreement starting January 1, as it has done for many years. However, the council decided to delay that discussion until this month as it evaluates its financial situation amid increasingly tight budgets. A week earlier, the council approved a 2026 budget that requires cutting $9 million from its current budget. 

The actual operation of the trolley is fairly minimal for the city. According to Community Development Director Bill Preston, the proposed agreement called for the city to cover basic costs, such as heating and maintaining the city-owned trolley barn, and to set aside about $10,000 for any maintenance issues that might arise with the track or other city-owned property. But the bigger issue — and cost — is a major road construction project along the trolley route connecting the trolley barn with the rest of the line to the town of Selah. That street needs to be rebuilt, and for a time, the city considered paying the approximately $7 million it would cost to reinstall the rails and the catenary above. But with a budget crisis looming, some on the city council are questioning if that’s a wise financial decision. Because of that, the city council decided to wait on approving or denying an operating agreement until a decision was made on the road project. The road project is also expected to be discussed during the January 20 meeting. 

Yakima Valley Transportation Company 298 made a rare appearance during what could be the railroad’s final day of operation on December 31. It was followed by line car A. Photo by David Honan. 

Yakima Valley Trolleys is encouraging the public to attend the January 20 meeting to support the continued operation of the historic railroad. The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m.

Yakima Valley Transportation Company was founded in 1907. Starting as a streetcar line serving downtown Yakima, the company was acquired by Union Pacific predecessor Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company in 1909 with a goal of tapping the fertile agricultural resources of the region. Eventually, the system comprised over 40 route-miles radiating into surrounding communities, providing interurban passenger service and feeding freight traffic to the national rail network.  Regular passenger service ended in 1947, and the remaining streetcars were scrapped or sold.  Freight service continued until Union Pacific filed for abandonment in 1985 due to depleted traffic. The railroad was later acquired by the city. 

With the future of the operation uncertain, on December 31, Yakima Valley Trolleys decided to roll out all the stops on the final day of its operating agreement. On New Year’s Eve, the railroad utilized all of its active equipment, including freight motor 298, which wears a UP-inspired livery as it has since the railroad’s heyday.

See more about what could have been the railroad’s final day of operation in the March 2026 edition of Railfan & Railroad.

—Justin Franz, with additional reporting by David Honan. 

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BALTIMORE — On January 12, the B&O Railroad Museum held a ribbon-cutting to mark the conclusion of the cosmetic restoration of American Freedom Train No. 1 (formerly Reading 4-8-4 2101). A ceremony was held for museum board members and donors in the morning, followed by a public viewing in the afternoon.

The ribbon cutting was the culmination of 1,300 hours of labor to return the Northern to its AFT livery. Speakers at the event included former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and Amtrak Vice President of Government Affairs and Corporate Communications Bruno Maestri (who also serves on the museum’s board). Also on hand were four members of the original Freedom Train crew from 1975-1976 including Louis and Valerie Arcuri, Harold Weisinger, and Steve Wickersham (who, along with the late Ross Rowland, was the engineer on the 1 during its AFT stint). The 2101 was one of three locomotives to power the Freedom Train on its coast-to-coast tour, primarily handling the train in the Northeast. Texas & Pacific 2-10-4 610 led the train in Texas, while Southern Pacific 4-8-4 4449 powered the train through most of the rest of the country. Members of the Freedom Train crew from 1975-1976 were on hand, including (left to right) Louis Arcuri, Valerie Arcuri, Harold Weisinger, and Steve Wickersham. Built by Reading in its home shop in Reading, Pa., from a smaller 2-8-0, the 2101 was set aside as protection power for the famed Iron Horse Rambles in the late 1950s, although it never powered those trips. Sent to Streigel’s scrap yard in Baltimore after the Rambles came to a close, it was rescued by Ross Rowland for the AFT. It later powered the Chessie Steam Special in 1977 and 1978, but was damaged by a roundhouse fire in Silver Grove, Ky., in early 1979. Chessie System traded Chesapeake & Ohio 4-8-4 614 to Rowland for the damaged locomotive; the 2101 was returned to its AFT identity and placed in the B&O Railroad Museum. Outdoor display took its toll on the AFT paint job, and in recent years the locomotive looked somewhat neglected. The refurbished AFT 1 will spend a little time displayed outdoors, but will spend most of its time displayed indoors in the museum’s North Car Shop. According to the museum, “The locomotive’s restoration and interpretation connect two milestone anniversaries: the 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026 and the 200th anniversary of American railroading in 2027.” —Steve Barry Missing or damaged exterior elements were restored or accurately recreated, including the number boards and eagle on the headlight. The lights were wired to run off standard current for display purposes. In all, the restoration required more than 1,300 hours of labor, all performed at the museum.

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Story and Photos by Dave Zeman

For many railfan photographers, a large part of the motivation for taking photos of trains is documenting a subject before it is gone forever and lost to history. However, when the stars align, it is possible to bring history back to reality. Bringing the late-1950s and early 1960s on the Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad back to life was the main objective for myself, Ralph Durham, James Keats Jr., and the Illinois Railway Museum Diesel Department, when we hosted the “Nebraska Zephyr Night Photo Shoot” in October 2025.

For the last handful of years, Ralph and I, plus a handful of other dedicated IRM volunteers, have coordinated several special night photo shoots with a diverse variety of equipment, having mostly focused on highlighting the Museum’s steam locomotive, Frisco 2-10-0 1630. Last year, as 1630 underwent a mandatory 1472-day inspection, we shifted our focus ahead to the diesel era with the 1935-built Nebraska Zephyr for an all-CB&Q evening featuring other miscellaneous pieces of Burlington Route equipment. Our main goal for the event was to take our guest photographers back to the golden age of passenger rail travel on one of America’s most famous streamlined trains by incorporating actors and crew members in period dress plus appropriately placed memorabilia items and props into our photo setups…

Read more about this night photo session in the February 2026 edition of Railfan & Railroad…

A sharp-dressed crew was one of the highlights of a Chicago, Burlington & Quincy-themed photoshoot at the Illinois Railway Museum in October 2025. 

Timetables, rule books, tickets, luggage tags, maps, conductor hats and more all served as props for the CB&Q photoshoot at IRM.

Here one of those timetable props is put to use in a scene with a conductor helping a pair of passengers. The moon is rising in the distance on a beautiful October evening in the Heartland. 

Scenes inside the Nebraska Zephyr were also part of the photoshoot. Old magazines, coffee cups and cigarettes were all props used to bring the 1960s on the Q back to life for one night only. 

Two passengers play cards aboard the Nebraska Zephyr at the Illinois Railway Museum. These interior shots were set up ahead of the shoot’s highlight later that evening. 

A real Chicago, Burlington & Quincy E5 leads the Nebraska Zephyr past the East Union Depot during a night photo session at the Illinois Railway Museum in October 2025. 

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North America’s four Class I railroads not named Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern took aim at the proposed UP-NS merger in January, a combination that, if approved, would create the largest railroad in U.S. history and the first single transcontinental. UP and NS submitted their historic merger application in December, and since then, their rivals have been taking potshots at the proposal. Most notably, all four railroads have filed comments with the U.S Surface Transportation Board — the independent regulator that will approve or deny the merger — claiming they believe the application is incomplete. 

Canadian National, through its American subsidiary Grand Trunk Western, perhaps summed up the opposition best when it wrote: “(The) Applicants seek approval from the Board for a proposed transaction they assert is an ‘unprecedented opportunity for our country’ because it will purportedly ‘create America’s first transcontinental railroad’ and ‘transform the nation’s supply chain.’ Applicants are correct that their Application is unprecedented in at least one respect: They seek the Board’s approval to undertake the first major transaction under the Board’s new rules, which require Applicants to show that the proposed transaction would not only preserve, but also enhance competition. Yet they fail to provide the Board, or interested parties, the information that is required.”

Among the rival railroads’ complaints is that while UP-NS has said their merger would remove 2 million trucks from America’s highways, it doesn’t provide proof of that claim. It also provides little evidence of how it would enhance competition, a requirement of the STB’s “new” merger rules established in 2001 (but exempted any merger with the smallest Class I railroad, Kansas City Southern, which was acquired by Canadian Pacific in 2023). 

For their part, UP has said the other Class I railroads are simply trying to delay the merger because it will force them to work harder against the competition. 

—Justin Franz 

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KC Streetcar ridership has surged to record-breaking levels following the October 24, opening of the Main Street Extension. Even with rainy weather and cool temperatures dampening Kansas City, streetcar ridership drew nearly 35,000 passenger trips during the three-day opening weekend. 

Following the late-October service start, November 2025 has seen the highest monthly ridership in system history, demonstrating that the expanded 5.7-mile rail route from the River Market to UMKC is attracting unprecedented demand for fare-free, frequent, and reliable public transit. November ridership was 341,922 passenger trips, bringing the 2025 year-to-date total to 1,799,708 trips. November system ridership is 2.5 times above November 2024 levels and November 22 saw the single highest ridership of 2025 with 19,761 trips. During November, the KC Streetcar carried an average of 11,397 daily riders, accounting for approximately 30% of all transit trips in the Kansas City region.

—Bob Gallegos 

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Mario Péloquin, president of VIA Rail Canada since 2023, will retire on January 15 after more than four decades in rail and transportation. 

Péloquin began his career as a train dispatcher for Canadian National in the 1980s before moving to Transport Canada. He later worked on Ottawa’s light rail system and at Siemens. In 2020, he briefly served as chief operating officer for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 

“It has been a privilege to serve as President and CEO of VIA Rail Canada and to work alongside dedicated colleagues across the country,” Péloquin said. “Together, we advanced important initiatives, from modernizing key systems to progressing fleet renewal projects that will support passenger rail in Canada for decades.”

A search for his replacement is presently underway. 

—Justin Franz 

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Northeast Rail Heritage, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to preserving equipment in the northeast that previously saved an Amtrak AEM-7, announced in January that it has acquired the only remaining Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority Silverliner III car.

St. Louis Car Company built 20 Silverliner III cars for the Pennsylvania Railroad, which entered service in 1967. These cars later operated for Penn Central, Conrail, and finally SEPTA. The Silverliner IIIs served for 45 years and were synonymous with daily commuter operations around Philadelphia. The last one was retired from service in 2012. Car 238 was set aside for preservation, but it sat forgotten for more than a decade. In 2023, it was moved to Morrisville, Pa., for scrapping. However, logistical challenges prevented its immediate destruction, giving Northeast Rail Heritage the chance to save it. In July 2025, Sullivan’s Scrap Metals donated the car to NRH, which plans to restore it to its 1990s “Yellowbird” appearance. That livery helped promote SEPTA’s Airport Line service. 

“This car represents an era of railroading that millions of Philadelphia-area riders experienced firsthand,” said Mike Huhn, NRH President. “Preserving 238 ensures that an important chapter of Philadelphia-area transportation history is not lost. Our goal is to stabilize, cosmetically restore, and interpret the car for public education and potential display.”

In December, 238 was moved from the yard in Morrisville, where it had been stored, to an SMS Rail-owned facility. SMS has agreed to store both the Silverliner and the AEM-7 until NRH can acquire its own property (as of this writing, the AEM-7 has not yet been moved to SMS). 

For more information and to learn how you can help, visit northeastrailheritage.org. 

—Justin Franz 

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The slow trickle of locomotives being painted to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence will likely turn into a flood as July 4, 2026, approaches. The first Semiquincentennial units appeared in 2023, and more arrived in 2025. Just before the New Year, two more joined the fleet, one from New Jersey Transit and another from North Shore Railroad.

The North Shore locomotive might be one of the most complex. Instead of the red, white, and blue that’s graced the dozen or so locomotives revealed so far on other shortline and regional railroads, North Shore chose murals that depict scenes from the Revolutionary War and American iconography. On one side, there’s George Washington crossing the Delaware River, the Declaration of Independence, and the Liberty Bell. On the other side, there are amber waves of grain, purple mountains, a flag, and the Statue of Liberty.

NJ Transit 4526 was released in December 2025. Courtesy Photo. 

The locomotive chosen was North Shore SW1500 2238, built in 1966 as EMD demonstrator 106. It later went to Conrail and Norfolk Southern. 

The murals are the vision of railroad employees Diana Williams and Loni Martz Briner, and they were hand-painted by Sunbury, Pa., artist Pedro Reyes. Reyes said he started working on the locomotive in early October and finished just before the dedication on December 22, putting in about 1,500 hours of work.

The locomotive was not renumbered during the repaint. On the cab door, there is a depiction of The Mayham Tower in Augusta, Ga., a turning point in the Revolution that occurred 2,238 days into the conflict, the railroad said.

In 2026, the 2238 will be showcased at towns where North Shore railroads operate, both on display and pulling excursions. —M.T. Burkhart

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Minnesota’s Northstar Commuter rail made its last run on January 4, bringing to an end 16 years of commuter rail service in the Twin Cities.

Launched in 2009 to operate between Minneapolis and Big Lake, Minn., the decision to end the service came this past summer as the trains never recovered post-pandemic ridership and expenses outpaced subsidies. A restrictive contract with host BNSF also prevented service expansion. A new express bus route was put in place on January 5. It’s unclear what will happen to the equipment, a fleet of MP36s and double-decker cars. 

—Otto M. Vondrak

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Norfolk Southern has completed physical restoration activities at the site of the February 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Now that the primary cleanup work is over, any further work will likely involve site maintenance, along with water monitoring programs established with various government agencies. Village manager Antonio Diaz-Guy stated to local press that “I think our water is probably cleaner now than it was 100 years ago, given our industrial past, especially mining.”

NS has also submitted a final assessment report regarding two local waterways to the Environmental Protection Agency, which will determine if NS and its contractors have indeed met the required remediation goals. This filing outlines completed cleanup work and results from recent sediment sampling. It notes that crews did not find any derailment-related oily sheens in either creek during the final inspection. Since early 2025, crews have focused cleanup efforts on the removal of contaminated sediment from the streambeds in the village. 

—Scott Lindsey

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