Harlan and Hollingsworth

Harlan & Hollingsworth was a Wilmington, Delaware, firm that constructed ships and railroad cars during the 19th century and into the 20th century.
Founding.
Mahlon Betts, a carpenter, arrived in Wilmington in 1812. After helping construct many prominent buildings in the city, Betts branched out into foundry work in 1821. In 1836, Betts partnered with Samuel Pusey (a machinist) and began manufacturing railcars at a plant on West and Water Streets in Wilmington. The next year, cabinetmaker Samuel Harlan joined the firm, then known as Betts, Pusey & Harlan. By 1839, the company claimed to have manufactured 39 passenger and 28 freight cars over the previous two years. The next year, they hired Jacob F. Sharp, a former house carpenter, to build railroad cars. He would rise to become foreman at the plant, and eventually co-founded the rival firm of Jackson and Sharp.
In 1841, Elijah Hollingsworth, brother-in-law of Harlan, bought out Pusey, and the firm became known as Betts, Harlan & Hollingsworth. Pusey later formed competing Pusey and Jones. In 1849 Mahlon Betts withdrew from the firm, which became simply Harlan & Hollingsworth; J. Taylor Gause was admitted as a partner in 1858, and the company became known as Harlan, Hollingsworth & Co..
Shipbuilding.
Harlan & Hollingsworth's experience with railcars and other ironwork led them to become early experimenters in iron shipbuilding. In 1842 the company hired Alexander Kelly to supervise all the millwright work. In 1843, under the encouragement of Samual Harlan, the company started engaging in marine engine building and repair. Their first ship-related project was repairing the cylinder and other machine parts of the steamboat "Sun". This small step was the beginning of what would become one of the first iron shipyards in the United States.
Harlan & Hollingsworth's expanded slowly but steadily into iron shipbuilding. Only nine ships were built between 1841 and 1851, with most of the company time taken with railroad car building and general repair work. In 1843 the company leased a launching berth on the banks of the Christiana River. The facilities at this property were limited, so all the work forming iron plates, bars, and fasteners was done at their main shop on Front and West Streets. The launch slipway was 200 feet long and could only accommodate vessels of 600 tons maximum, but this was deemed adequate for the needs of the time.
The first two hulls built by the company, the "Ashland" and "Ocean", were two of the earliest iron steamboats to be constructed in the United States. They were delivered to George Aspinwall of Philadelphia in 1844. That same year the company built the "Bangor", which is credited with being the first seagoing iron propellor steamship built in the United States. In 1897, the company designed the first steam pilot boat in the New York harbor, the "New York".
By the early 1850s the company began to rely less on wood ship or railcar building for its income. Machine shops, office buildings, wharves, carpenter sheds, boiler shops, blacksmith shops and cranes were added in the first five years of the decade. As the firm's reputation grew, more orders for steamboats came in from across the country. Charles Morgan, a New York shipping magnate, purchased his first ship from Harlan in 1856. Morgan would eventually become one of the largest customers for Harlan & Hollingsworth, ordering over 31 vessels by 1878.
Business growth.
This chart give an indication of the economic progress of the company from 1836 to 1860:
Civil War.
Harlan and Hollingsworth was, by the time of the American Civil War, the dominant iron shipbuilder in Wilmington, and the most prolific iron shipbuilder in the United States. By 1860 the company had built 75 iron hulls, mostly steamships along with a handful of barges. (Brown, 1951) During the Civil War the company won contracts for the construction of three monitors for the government ("Patapsco", "Saugus", and "Napa"). The Navy, however, ordered many last-minute design changes to these vessels resulting in delays while the changes were incorporated into the construction. The extra expenses incurred reduced profits, and as a result the company became reluctant to bid on government contracts. In 1863, Jacob Sharp left their employ to form Jackson & Sharp, another car-building firm, with Job Jackson.
Postwar.
In 1866 Elijah Hollingsworth died in a shipyard accident. His death greatly affected Samuel Harlan, so that shortly thereafter the partnership was dissolved and the enterprise incorporated as The Harlan & Hollingsworth Company. Harlan & Hollingsworth thrived despite competition from Jackson & Sharp and other Wilmington yards, in part because of their diversified production of railroad car building and shipbuilding. However, the Panic of 1873 and the death of Charles Morgan (their largest customer) induced the company to undertake government contracts again. These included the construction of the sloop "Ranger" and the long (16 year) construction of the "New Navy" monitor "USS Amphitrite (BM-2)". Despite this experience Harlan & Hollingsworth constructed three more torpedo boat destroyers for the Navy, the "Stringham", "Hull", and "Hopkins".
Other notable vessels built by Harlan & Hollingsworth include "Mischief", winner of the fourth America's Cup in 1881. Another notable vessel they built in 1887 was the "Yampa", which lead to other ships built for the German Emperor William II.
The company followed Jackson & Sharp into narrow gauge car building, but were not in the forefront of steel car construction. In the 1880s orders for ferries and coastal steamships started picking up again, so much that by the end of the 19th century, the company was the largest employer in Wilmington. In 1896-1897 they built the "Catawissa"; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. Also on the National Register is the "Rosinco", built by Harlan and Hollingsworth in 1916.
Bethlehem Steel era.
On December 10, 1904, the company was acquired by Bethlehem Steel and operated as part of their shipbuilding division. The name changed from Harlan & Hollingsworth to the Harlan Plant of Bethlehem Steel. The shipyard closed in 1926, although it was reopened for a time during the Second World War and part of the shipyard was used by the Dravo Corporation until 1964. Railcars were built on the site until 1940, and parts for railroad cars until 1944. Most of the company's buildings have been demolished for new development, but the office building survives and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.


Railway Mail Service

The United States Postal Service's Railway Mail Service was a significant mail transportation service in the US from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th century. The RMS, or its successor the Postal Transportation Service (PTS), carried the vast majority of letters and packages mailed in the United States from the 1890s until the 1960s.
History.
George B. Armstrong, manager of the Chicago Post Office, is generally credited with being the founder of the concept of en route mail sorting aboard trains which became the Railway Mail Service. Mail had been carried in locked pouches aboard trains prior to Armstrong's involvement with the system, but there had been no organized system of sorting mail en route, to have mail prepared for delivery when the mail pouches reached their destination city.
In response to Armstrong's request to experiment with the concept, the first railway post office (RPO) began operating on the Chicago and North Western Railway between Chicago and Clinton, Iowa, on August 28, 1864. The concept was successful, and was expanded to other railroads operating from Chicago, including the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, Chicago and Rock Island, Pennsylvania and the Erie.
By 1869 when the Railway Mail Service was officially inaugurated, the system had expanded to virtually all of the major railroads of the United States, and the country was divided into six operating divisions. A superintendent was over each division, all under the direction of George B. Armstrong, who had been summoned from Chicago to Washington, D.C. to become general superintendent of the postal railway service. Armstrong served only two years as general superintendent before resigning because of failing health. He died in Chicago on May 5, 1871, two days after his resignation.
Armstrong's successor in Chicago, George Bangs, was appointed as the second general superintendent of the postal railway service. Bangs encouraged the use of fast mail trains, trains made up entirely of mail cars, traveling on expedited schedules designed to accommodate the needs of the Post Office rather than the needs of the traveling public.
In 1890, 5,800 postal railway clerks provided service over of railroad. By 1907, over 14,000 clerks were providing service over of railroad. When the post office began handling parcel post in 1913, terminal Railway Post Office operations were established in major cities by the RMS to handle the large increase in mail volume. The Railway Mail Service reached its peak in the 1920s, then began a gradual decline with the discontinuance of RPO service on branchlines and secondary routes. After 1942, Highway Post Office (HPO) service was utilized to continue en route sorting after discontinuance of some railway post office operations. As highway mail transportation became more prevalent, the Railway Mail Service was redesignated as the Postal Transportation Service.
Abandonment of routes accelerated in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and many of the remaining lines were discontinued in 1967. On June 30, 1974, the Cleveland and Cincinnati highway post office, the last HPO route, was discontinued. The last railway post office operated between New York and Washington, D.C. on June 30, 1977.
A large bust and monument to Armstrong is displayed in the north side of Chicago's Loop Station Post Office.
Preserved and restored RPO railway cars.
A restored RPO car is displayed as part of the "Pioneer Zephyr" at the Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.
The restored 1927 AT&SF Railway #74 RPO car is displayed at the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum in Campo (San Diego County), CA.
For the permanent exhibition, Mail by Rail, the Smithsonian National Postal Museum re-created a railway mail train in its Atrium. The interior fixtures are from a de-commissioned mail car. The exterior portion of the Railway Post Office train was created by Smithsonian artisans.
Operating divisions – 1950.
Effective August 15, 1955, the fifteen divisions of the Postal Transportation Service were eliminated and the mail routes divided among the same Postal Regions into which Post Offices were classified.


Mark Hopkins Jr.

Mark Hopkins (September 1, 1813 – March 29, 1878) was an American railroad executive. He was one of four principal investors that funded Theodore D. Judah's idea of building a railway over the Sierra Nevada from Sacramento, California to Promontory, Utah. They formed the Central Pacific Railroad along with Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, and Collis Huntington in 1861.
Early years.
Hopkins was born in Henderson, Jefferson County, New York to Mark Hopkins and Anastasia Lukens Kellogg, who were first cousins. Because his father died when he was a boy, he was never known as "Junior". The family moved to St. Clair, Michigan in 1824. His father, Mark Hopkins (1779–1828), served as Postmaster, first in Henderson, NY, then in St. Clair, MI (known then as Palmer), where he was also Judge of Probate.
The elder Hopkins died in 1828, and his son left school to work as a clerk. In 1837, he studied law with his brother Henry, but moved on through several business ventures. He was a partner in a firm called "Hopkins and Hughes", then a bookkeeper and later manager for "James Rowland and Company".
California.
When the California Gold Rush began, Hopkins created the "New England Mining and Trading Company", a group of 26 men each of whom invested $500 to purchase goods and ship them to California for sale. On January 22, 1849 Hopkins left New York City on the ship "Pacific". After rounding Cape Horn, the ship arrived in San Francisco on August 5, 1849.
Hopkins opened a store in Placerville, California, but it did not succeed and he relocated to Sacramento where he opened a wholesale grocery in 1850 with his friend Edward H. Miller. Miller would later be secretary of the Central Pacific Railroad.
On September 22, 1854 in New York City, Hopkins married his first cousin, Mary Frances Sherwood. Though his background was Congregationalist, the wedding was at a Presbyterian Church.
In 1855, Hopkins and Collis P. Huntington formed "Huntington Hopkins and Company" to operate a hardware and iron business in Sacramento.
In 1861, as part of The Big Four, he founded the Central Pacific Railroad. Sometimes called "Uncle Mark", he was the eldest of the four partners and was well known for his thriftiness (it was said that he knew how to "squeeze 106 cents out of every dollar", a reputation that gained him the post of company treasurer. Noted American historian Hubert Howe Bancroft quotes Collis Huntington as saying, "I never thought anything finished until Hopkins looked at it". Bancroft described Hopkins as the "balance-wheel of the Associates and one of the truest and best men that ever lived." A Whig and later associated with the Free Soil Party, Hopkins was an abolitionist and an organizer of the Republican Party in California.
Later years and death.
Mary and Mark Hopkins had no children of their own. Mary adopted Timothy Nolan, the adult son of her housekeeper, who took the Hopkins name and was given an administrative position at the Union Pacific Railroad. Despite Hopkins' thriftiness, his wife managed eventually to persuade him to build an ornate mansion at the top of Nob Hill in San Francisco, California, close to the mansions of other Central Pacific founders. The construction commenced in 1875. The architects were the prominent San Francisco firm of Wright and Sanders and the project manager was architectural engineer William Wallace Barbour Sheldon, who worked for Hopkins under the Southern Pacific Improvement Company.
By then, Hopkins was having health problems and in 1878 died aboard a company train near Yuma, Arizona. At the time of his death, the house was not complete and was eventually finished and occupied by Mary. The structure later burned to the ground in a fire caused by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. In 1926, the Mark Hopkins Hotel (currently InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco) was built on the site.
Hopkins is buried in Sacramento Historic City Cemetery (aka Old City Cemetery) in Sacramento, California.
Estate controversy.
Hopkins died without leaving a will, though his fortune estimated at $20–$40 million was inherited by his wife. Faced with the task of completing their new estate alone, Mary retained Herter Brothers, a prominent furniture and interior decorating firm in New York to finish furnishing and decorating the estate.
Edward Francis Searles was dispatched by Herter Brothers to manage the completion of Mary's project. Despite being 22 years her junior they developed a close relationship. The unseemly courtship raised eyebrows and questions about the motives of the decorator in the wealthy social circles of San Francisco, but they married in 1887 to begin a six-month grand tour of Europe.
Shortly after their return, Mary executed a new will that explicitly excluded her adopted son Timothy Nolan Hopkins, explaining; "The omission to provide in this will for my adopted son, Timothy Hopkins, is intentional, and not occasioned by accident or mistake", and left her fortunes to her new husband, Edward.
Mr. and Mrs. Searles moved to Edward's home town of Methuen, Massachusetts, where Edward embarked on building a series of grand homes designed by English architect Henry Vaughan. Vaughan was best known for his Gothic Revival ecclesiastical architecture including; the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., three chapels at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, and Christ Church in New Haven, Connecticut.
Mary died in 1891, less than four years after her marriage and the estate went into probate to reconcile a series of legal challenges by Timothy Hopkins (Mary's adopted son) that lasted for several years, to reclaim his lost inheritance.
The controversy made good fodder for the press, California papers published stories suggesting that Edward had exploited Mary's interest in spiritualism and falsified records to wrest the estate from her adopted son and defraud business partners. Under oath, Edward testified that he had married Mary "…partly out of affection and partly for her money." Timothy lost his appeals; however, Edward later settled on Timothy a "token" amount of several million dollars. Timothy got the contents of the mansion in San Francisco, and the art institute got the building. (It was rumored at the time that Edward Searles had a friend/lover living with him after Mary's death and that Timothy Hopkins used this information to blackmail Edward after losing the court case.)
General Thomas Hubbard had been named the executor of Mary Frances Searle's will, and had been embroiled in the controversy as a witness with detailed knowledge of the Hopkins and Searles estates. When the probate case closed in Edward's favor, Hubbard declined any personal compensation, but suggested an endowment to his alma mater Bowdoin College might make an enduring symbol of Edward's love for Mary. Edward agreed to build them the modern science building, still in service as Searles Hall.
For the remainder of his life, Edward, increasingly reclusive, continued building castles and estates designed by Henry Vaughan, including Searles Castle in Windham, N.H., (a ¼ replica of Stanton Harcourt Manor in Oxon, England) and Pine Lodge in his home town of Methuen. Eventually Edward Searles' lover inherited the Hopkins estate. He died several years later living modestly, as though he had never inherited a thing.


Tennessee Pass (Colorado)

Tennessee Pass elevation is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States. The pass was named after Tennessee, the native state of a group of early prospectors.
Route.
The pass traverses the Continental Divide north of Leadville in a gap between the northern end of the Sawatch Range to the west and the northern end of the Mosquito Range to the east. It connects the headwaters of the Arkansas River to the south with the upper valley of the Eagle River (in the watershed of the Colorado River) to the north. The pass is traversed by U.S. Highway 24, allowing access between Leadville and Interstate 70 in the Eagle Valley. The pass has a gentle approach on both sides with few steep gradients and no major hairpin curves. The summit of the pass is nearly level. The road over the pass is generally open all year round, easily negotiable by most vehicles, and closes only during severe winter storms.
The summit of the pass is the location of Ski Cooper, a ski area in the San Isabel National Forest operated by permit from the United States Forest Service. Most of the area is above the tree line, providing a panoramic view of the peaks of the Sawatch Range to visitors. The area was formerly a World War II training ground for United States Army troops of the 10th Mountain Division from nearby Camp Hale. A memorial to troops of the division is located at the summit of the pass.
Railroad line.
The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad constructed a narrow gauge railroad over Tennessee Pass in 1881 as part of their extension to the Aspen area in order to beat the Colorado Midland's standard gauge route to the rich mining area. In 1890, a new standard gauge line was built from Pueblo, to Grand Junction, and jointly with the Colorado Midland Railway, a tunnel was constructed about below the summit. In 1945, the old Tennessee Pass Tunnel was replaced by a newer tunnel. In recent times, the Rio Grande's Tennessee Pass line was the highest active mainline railroad mountain pass in the United States. The line, now owned by the Union Pacific Railroad, is currently embargoed (the tracks are out of service but still in place).
Once the Moffat Tunnel and Dotsero Cutoff were constructed, the line through Tennessee Pass became a secondary route. The Moffat Tunnel route had a maximum grade of 2%. The west side of the Tennessee Pass route has grades up to 3%. However, the east side of the Tennessee Pass has a maximum grade of only 1.4%.
The Denver & Rio Grande's acquisition and merger to Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) in 1988 made Tennessee Pass once again the preferred transcontinental route. SP had a central route from California through to Kansas via Donner Pass, Tennessee Pass and trackage rights on the former Missouri Pacific route from Pueblo, Colorado into Kansas. The Moffat Tunnel route was kept in use.
In 1996, Union Pacific Railroad (UP) bought Southern Pacific. UP preferred the Moffat Tunnel for routing traffic. The last revenue train went over the Tennessee Pass on August 23, 1997. Soon after Union Pacific ran this last train, they applied to the Surface Transportation Board for permission to abandon the line.
Currently, the line is not of much use as the former Missouri Pacific line to Pueblo has been partially abandoned so trains would have to travel from Denver, Colorado south to Pueblo, Colorado before heading west.
The of the Tennessee Pass line through the Royal Gorge is currently operated by the Royal Gorge Route Railroad, who operates excursion trains out of Cañon City.
On July 10, 2012, part of the old tunnel collapsed, creating a sinkhole that damaged U.S. Highway 24 and forced its temporary closure between Redcliff, Colorado and Leadville, Colorado. The newer tunnel was not damaged.
A report released by the Colorado Department of Transportation on September 4, 2014 stated the following about the line:
""...The Tennessee Pass line has been identified as significant to CDOT because of its potential to carry both passengers and
freight, and because it is the only existing trans-mountain alternative in Colorado to the
Moffat Tunnel line, which often runs near capacity. The Tennessee Pass Line may be
able to be used as an alternate route as trans-mountain rail demand grows due to
increased development on the Western Slope or if the Moffat Tunnel were damaged or
closed for any reason. Such an event would have a significant impact on Colorado,
particularly on the Western Slope, since the railroads would be forced to move freight
through Wyoming. The Royal Gorge Route Railroad currently offers scenic, tourist rail
trips on 12 miles of the Tennessee Pass Line west of Cañon City. No freight has been
shipped on the Tennessee Pass Line since 1997.
Union Pacific began actively discussing the sale of the line to Colorado Pacific in 2019, for an amount of 10 million dollars. However, Colorado Pacific wanted to pay only the 8.8 million dollars that the line was valued at. After a long battle in court, the ICC declared that they would not force a sale, but if other evidence was found, Colorado Pacific could re-file the report. , Colorado Pacific attempted another forced sale, this time saying they’ll run passenger/excursion service over the route. Union Pacific responded by stating they were in active negotiations for Rio Grande Pacific to operate the line and were opposed to Colorado Pacific's bid. On December 31, 2020 Rio Grande Pacific under its subsidiary Colorado, Midland & Pacific Railway Company, announced they had entered in an agreement with Union Pacific to explore reopening, leasing and operating the line for both potential commuter and freight services.
Water diversion.
Tennessee Pass is the location of the first transbasin diversion project to move water from the Colorado River Basin over the continental divide to the Arkansas River. The Ewing Placer Ditch (or just Ewing Ditch) was constructed in 1880 and remains in use. It transfers water from Piney Creek east of the pass, a tributary of the Eagle River over the pass to the head of Tennessee Creek. The ditch may have originally been used to provide water for placer mining, but the Otero Canal Company used the water for irrigation before selling the ditch to the Pueblo Board of Water Works in 1955. The ditch has a capacity of and in an average year diverts approximately .
A second ditch was constructed at Tennessee pass in 1929, the Wurts Ditch. This was built by William Wurts to provide irrigation water, but Pueblo purchased this ditch in 1938, and in 1953, they extended the ditch another westward along the south flank of the Eagle River valley. After extension, the ditch has a capacity of and diverts an average of about of water.


A. B. Rogers

Albert Bowman Rogers (28 May 1829 – 4 May 1889), commonly known as Major A.B. Rogers, was an American surveyor now best remembered for his discovery of the Rogers Pass in British Columbia, Canada. He also has the distinction of having Rogers Pass in the U.S. state of Montana named after him, following his description of the pass in 1887.
Early life.
Born in Orleans, Massachusetts in 1829, he attended Brown University, but transferred after one year to Yale University, where he obtained a degree in Engineering. Rogers served with the U.S. Cavalry during the Indian Wars, attaining the rank of major during the 1862 Dakota Sioux uprising.
CPR surveys.
His initial engineering experience was primarily on the American prairies surveying for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. Nevertheless, James Jerome Hill of the Canadian Pacific Railway hired Rogers in April 1881 to find a rail route through the Selkirk and Rocky Mountains. Rogers carefully studied the reports of earlier surveyors, particularly those of Walter Moberly from 1865. Moberly's assistant Albert Perry had previously described the approach to a potential pass from the Columbia River along the Illecillewaet River. In later years, Moberly claimed the pass should have been named Perry's Pass.
Rogers was a tough task master and was disliked by many of those who worked under him. They suffered under basic and meagre food supplies while being driven to continue on. One party avoided starvation by sheer luck when they were able to quickly canoe downstream. On May 28, 1881, his birthday, Rogers found a pass through the mountains. He approached from the west up the Illecillewaet River but he failed to reach the pass by a mere because of the lack of food supplies and was forced to turn back west.
It was not until the following year that he was able to approach the pass from the east, along the Beaver River. On July 24, 1882, he managed to reach the same pass that he had only observed in the distance the previous year.
In gratitude, the Canadian Pacific named the pass for him and presented Rogers with a cheque for $5,000. Rogers initially refused to cash the cheque, preferring rather to display it in a frame. It was not until Van Horne promised him a gold watch as a souvenir that he consented to cash the cheque.
Post Rogers Pass.
In 1887, while surveying again for James J. Hill, but this time for the Great Northern Railway, he was searching for a pass over the continental divide and located Rogers Pass in Montana. Though the Great Northern eventually selected Marias Pass, to the north of Rogers Pass, as the continental divide pass for their transcontinental rail route, the Great Northern named Rogers Pass in Montana for the surveyor. Rogers Pass in Montana became the route of Montana Highway 200, the highway route between Great Falls and Missoula, Montana.
His surveying career was curtailed after he was badly injured falling from his horse while surveying the right-of-way for the Great Northern Railway near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. He died 4 May 1889 at Waterville, Minnesota, where he spent retirement at the home of his brother. Although some sources report that he died as a result of his injuries, others indicate that he suffered from cancer of the stomach.


Alpine Tunnel

Alpine Tunnel is a narrow gauge railroad tunnel located east of Pitkin, Colorado on the former Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad route from Denver to Gunnison. At an elevation of , it was the first tunnel constructed through the Continental Divide in Colorado, and according to the U.S. Forest Service "remains the highest railroad tunnel and the longest narrow gauge tunnel in North America." However, it did not last long in service. Construction began in January 1880 and was scheduled to last for six months but instead dragged on until July 1882, and the line was abandoned in 1910 due to minor damage in the tunnel. Now the tunnel is sealed shut and the remaining trackbed serves as a trail for hikers and bicyclists.
History.
Location of the tunnel portals and establishing a center line of the bore were completed in December 1879. Construction took place from 1880–1881, by Cummings & Co. Construction company, and the tunnel was "holed through" on July 26, 1881. This was the highest and most expensive tunnel built up until that time. It is more than two miles (3 km) above sea level, with its highest point at 11,523.7 feet (3,512.4 m). It is 500 feet (150 m) under Altman Pass, later to be renamed Alpine Pass to prevent confusion, with a 1,825-foot (556 m) bore. It took 18 months to complete, with most of the construction done during the winter months.
The DSP & P had anticipated boring the Alpine tunnel through solid rock, taking about 6 months to complete. In the event, the line of the tunnel was found to run primarily through loose rock and clay; this very unstable ground required substantial timbering. The additional work necessitated by the unexpected ground conditions was a major contributor to the 18 month construction time.
The tunnel was abandoned in 1910 by the Colorado & Southern due to minor damage in the interior. This was not considered to be worth repairing due to a lack of traffic, as the line failed to get much beyond Gunnison on the west side. The Gunnison Division of the Colorado & Southern was abandoned from St. Elmo on the east side of the pass to Quartz on the west side. The line from Quartz to Baldwin was given to the Denver & Rio Grande Western in exchange for some little used lines around Leadville.
Present day.
The east portal of the tunnel has collapsed and the west portal has been covered by landslides. The former railbed is now a hiking trail on the east side, and a rough road over the former railbed on the west side leads to a restored train station.
Little remains of the station complex built by the railroad to service its trains and workers at this remote and inhospitable location. Volunteers have restored the railroad's 1883 Alpine Tunnel telegraph office and reconstructed the station platform, of rail track, a turntable and an outhouse. Only ruins remain of the section house and engine house, and other buildings and railroad infrastructure have disappeared. Volunteers work on restoration of the complex at least once a year.
The Alpine Tunnel Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in April 1996. It is typically open from July to September.


American Flyer (railcar)

The American Flyer was an early streamlined American passenger railcar built by Pullman-Standard in the 1930s. They were the first streamlined equipment operated in New England and acquired their name from the model trains that their design inspired.
American Flyer railcars weighed about 55 tons and were built out of light-weight steel alloys such as Cor-Ten that made them about 15 tons lighter than earlier designs and allowed for the use of two-axle General Steel Castings trucks instead of the previously standard three-axle designs. They were designed by Walter Dorwin Teague, and the first order for 50 coaches, with an 84 passenger capacity, was placed by the New Haven Railroad with Pullman-Standard in March 1934. Built at the former Osgood Bradley Car Company facility in Worcester, Massachusetts, these cars were delivered starting in December 1934, and were followed by 20 more in 1936 and 30 in 1938 in an identical configuration. In 1937 and 1938, 100 more coaches in a 92 passenger configuration for commuter service were delivered.
In 1935, the Boston and Maine Railroad ordered ten 84-seat and twenty-one 98-seat coaches, followed in 1937 by twenty 92-seat coaches. The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad acquired nine cars of the American Flyer design in 1937 and 1938—four combination mail and baggage cars, three combination food service and coach cars, and two 84-seat coaches. Outside New England, ten American Standard cars were purchased by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, ten by the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, ten by the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and four by the Kansas City Southern Railway. Production ceased by the end of the 1930s. Two examples of the type, both New Haven Railroad coaches, were purchased by the Railroad Museum of New England for preservation.


Deepwater Terminal Railroad

The Deepwater Terminal Railroad was a 4.5 mile terminal railroad off the Seaboard Air Line Railroad in Richmond, Virginia. The line was used to service Port of Richmond. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers oversaw and operated the Deepwater Terminal Railroad. There were many industries along the line including Peck Recycling, some storage facilities, and the Port of Richmond or "Deepwater Terminal". Today the line is still in use by CSX Transportation to access the port and Sims Metals.


Asheville and Spartanburg Railroad

The Asheville and Spartanburg Railroad was a Southern United States railroad that served South Carolina and North Carolina in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
The line was chartered as the Spartanburg and Asheville Railroad in 1873 and the following year it was consolidated with the Greenville and French Broad Railroad, a North Carolina line.
The line between Spartanburg, South Carolina, and Hendersonville, North Carolina, opened in 1879. It was sold under foreclosure in 1881 and reorganized under the Asheville and Spartanburg Railroad that same year.
The 21-mile distance between Hendersonville and Asheville, North Carolina, was completed in 1886. By that point, the line was operated as part of the Richmond and Danville Railroad until 1894 and controlled by the Southern Railway afterward.


Transfer Office

From the 1880s until well into the 1950s, virtually all long-distance transportation of United States Mail was performed by the railroads. Specially equipped Railway Post Office (RPO) cars were a part of most passenger trains, the cars staffed by highly trained railway postal clerks who sorted mail as the train sped along its route. The growth of this mail distribution network paralleled the expansion of the railroads, allowing mail to be exchanged between routes at junction points where two railroads crossed or shared passenger terminals.
Shortly before W.W.I, the Post Office Department began assigning railway mail clerks to new Transfer Office positions which were established at many of the larger railroad junction points as well as passenger terminals in larger cities. These transfer clerks supervised mail exchanges between trains, served as the local liaison between the Railway Mail Service and the host railroad, and maintained detailed statistical records which were used to audit railroad charges for mail transportation and car usage. This latter task involved determining the amount of mail in baggage cars or storage mail cars, a unique process of estimating the car area occupied by mail sacks rather than counting individual sacks. Other duties included sorting letters which had been mailed at depot letter boxes and providing a hand-to-hand receipt for registered mail transferred between connecting railway post office routes. Many of the transfer offices had a unique postmark to cancel the mail which was sorted by the office, and these cancellations are still collected by philatelists and postal historians.
Transfer offices were used by RPO clerks as a point to read job bulletins (order books maintained by the Chief Clerk) before starting on a run, and as a location to finish paperwork at the end of a run. In 1951, almost 200 transfer offices were maintained across the country. Larger cities with multiple railroad stations often had several different transfer offices, one at each station. As mail transportation by rail declined in the 1950s, smaller transfer offices were closed. With the continued erosion of rail mail operations, and particularly after the demise of the railway post office network in the late 1960s, the need for transfer offices diminished and most were closed or merged with other positions by the early 1970s.


Greens Cut, Georgia

Greens Cut is an unincorporated community in Burke County, in the U.S. state of Georgia.
History.
A post office called Greens Cut was established in 1854, and remained in operation until 1926. The community took its name from a nearby railway cut, which in turn bears the name of Moses P. Green, original owner of the site.


Railroad Development Corporation

The Railroad Development Corporation is an American railroad holding company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It operates several short line railroads outside the United States and acts as an investor, with management and institutional investors as partners. It was founded in 1987 by former Conrail employee Henry Posner III.
Americas.
Argentina.
RDC participated in the ownership of two rail lines in Argentina:
Colombia.
In August 2012 Ferrocarril del Pacífico that RDC has a shareholding in, resumed operations on the Buenaventura to Yumbo section of the Pacific line.
Guatemala.
RDC managed the previously closed gauge Ferrovias Guatemala (FVG) under a 50-year concession from 1997. In August 2006, the government of Guatemala invalidated a 2003 contract for the usufruct of rolling stock and other equipment.
Due to the continuing uncertainty leading to losses, FVG suspended all operations on October 1, 2007 while continuing with legal actions against the Guatemalan government. The legal action was settled in RDC's favor in December 2013.
Peru.
In July 1999 the Peruvian government awarded a consortium led by RDC a 30-year concession to operate the former Ferrocarril del Centro. Investors in Ferrocarril Central Andino (FCCA) included RDC, Juan Olaechea & Company, Minas Buenaventura, Cementos Andino, Mitsui and the Commonwealth Development Corporation.. It was agreed in June 2006 by the Peruvian government that FCCA should go ahead with converting the Ferrocarril Huancayo - Huancavelica from to (standard gauge). Estimated to take 16 months, the US$33m project was to be funded jointly by the government and the Development Bank of Latin America.This project was finished by October 2010..
United States.
RDC operates the Iowa Interstate Railroad. RDC first invested in the railroad in 1991, exercising an option to purchase in January 2004.
In November 2008, RDC entered a joint venture with LeGrand America to operate a business class road coach service from Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. It ceased in July 2009.
Europe.
Belgium.
In January 2015, RDC purchased a 25% shareholding in Eurorail.
Estonia.
RDC purchased a 5% shareholding in Eesti Raudtee on August 31, 2001, selling it on January 9, 2007.
France.
In 2009 Réseau Ferré de France, Caisse des dépôts et consignations and RDC formed a joint venture to promote local freight.
Germany.
Hamburg-Köln-Express (HKX) was founded as a joint venture in November 2009 between RDC (75%), Locomore (17.5%) and railway investor Michael Schabas (7.5%). Services were initially planned to start in August 2010 but this was postponed after the paths it had identified for its services were claimed by Keolis for a proposed Mulhouse to Hamburg open-access service. Keolis later abandoned its plans and HKX was able to reapply for the paths. Operations commenced on July 23, 2012.
In December 2015, RDC-owned HKX stopped operating the "Hamburg-Köln-Express", the operation was then carried out by the independent rail tourism company "BahnTouristikExpress" (BTE). Following 2016 reports that the German motorail operator DB Fernverkehr was about to terminate all motorail services in Germany by October 2016, RDC purchased a 50% share in BTE as the company had a number of car-carrier wagons in stock. Following the purchase, on 18 October 2016, RDC commenced operating "RDC Autozug Sylt" car shuttle services from Niebüll to Westerland after securing a 10-year access agreement. Services were initially hauled by a Transdev Class 251 while using BTE car-carrier wagons. BTE in December 2016 started operating the "BTE AutoReiseZug" motorail service between Hamburg and Lörrach.
In October 2017, BTE and therefore RDC terminated the Hamburg-Köln-Express service without further notice. The service of the former Hamburg-Köln-Express was then restarted in March 2018 on the same route by the company Flixmobility under the brand name Flixtrain, but again with BTE as the train operator. The brand name HKX was replaced by the green Flixtrain label. In November 2017, RDC bought two Siemens Vectron diesel locomotives for its "RDC Autozug Sylt" car shuttle operations.
In 2018 and 2019, BTE is also offering the seasonal night train "Alpen Express" (winter) between the Netherlands and Austria in cooperation with the Dutch agency "Treinreiswinkel". In 2020, RDC started operating the seasonal night train "Alpen-Sylt Nachtexpress" between the island of Sylt and Salzburg, Austria. In 2021, its operation will also include southwestern Germany with Konstanz as destination by dividing southbound trains in Gemünden.
In January 2021, "RDC Autozug Sylt GmbH" was awarded the contract to operate the "Akkunetz Nord" regional train network in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, beginning in December 2023. The rolling stock, battery-electric Stadler Flirt Akku trains, will be provided by the tendering authority. The network will comprise the following train services:
United Kingdom.
RDC is a shareholder in Vivarail that is converting London Underground D78 Stock electric multiple units into Class 230 diesel multiple units.
Africa.
Malawi.
Through the Central East African Railways consortium, RDC operated the Malawi Railways network which connects with the Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique line in Mozambique from December 1999. The operation was sold in 2008.


Northern Plains Railroad

The Northern Plains Railroad is a short line railroad that operates over of track in the northern U.S. state of Minnesota and the northern U.S. state of North Dakota.
The railroad interchanges with the Canadian Pacific Railway in Kenmare, North Dakota and Thief River Falls, Minnesota; the Minnesota Northern Railroad in Thief River Falls, Minnesota; and the BNSF Railway in Ardoch, North Dakota.
The railroad has its headquarters in Fordville, North Dakota, where it operates its largest yard facility, and also has a field office located in Lansford, North Dakota, where it operates another large yard and roundhouse.
As of 2006, the Northern Plains Railroad employed 43 people and handled approximately 17,000 carloads per year. The primary commodities hauled included wheat, barley, durum, and soybeans.
History.
Formation.
The Northern Plains Railroad was formed in January 1997 after the Soo Line Railroad, under control as a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway, decided to lease of branch line trackage in Minnesota and North Dakota.
The track originally leased to the railroad consisted of the Devils Lake Subdivision between Thief River Falls, Minnesota, and Harlow, North Dakota, and the Bisbee Subdivision between Fordville, North Dakota, and Kenmare, North Dakota. The two lines formed the Soo Line Railroad's so-called "wheatline" that served as a connection between its main line from Glenwood, Minnesota, to Noyes, Minnesota, (and on to Winnipeg, Manitoba, via the Canadian Pacific) and its main line from Glenwood, Minnesota, to Portal, North Dakota, (and on to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, via the Canadian Pacific).
Before coming under control of the BNSF Railway, the Sarles Subdivision had been owned by the Burlington Northern Railroad and, before that, by the Great Northern Railway. The line was one of the latter railroad's many branch lines built in the early twentieth century to serve communities in northern North Dakota
Merger.
In 2000 and 2001 the Mohall Central Railroad and the Northern Plains Railroad teamed up to begin operating track sold by the BNSF Railway. The Mohall Central Railroad agreed to purchase and then let the Northern Plains Railroad operate over both a portion of the Drayton Subdivision between Honeyford, North Dakota, and Voss, North Dakota, and a portion of the Granville Subdivision between milepost 5.25 (north of Granville, North Dakota) and Mohall, North Dakota.
In the fall of 2005, the Northern Plains Railroad and the Mohall Central Railroad came together once more to begin operations over a portion of the BNSF Railway’s Sarles Subdivision between milepost 3.75 (north of Lakota, North Dakota) and Sarles, North Dakota. The BNSF Railway agreed to sell its track to the Mohall Central Railroad. In turn, the Mohall Central Railroad agreed to let the Northern Plains Railroad begin operating over the line. Connecting track near Munich, North Dakota, where the Sarles Subdivision crosses the Bisbee Subdivision, was also put in place. On October 29, 2007, the Mohall Central Railroad filed a notice of exemption to abandon a portion of the line between milepost 3.75 north of Lakota, North Dakota, and milepost 48.19 at Alsen Junction, North Dakota, approximately south of Munich, North Dakota.
Cutbacks.
After the Mohall Central Railroad purchased the Granville Subdivision, it quickly abandoned a portion of it between milepost 5.25 and milepost 35.00 (at Forfar siding south of Lansford, North Dakota). The part of the subdivision still in service, , was then renamed the Mohall Subdivision. Likewise, the portion of the Drayton Subdivision that the Mohall Central Railroad had also acquired was renamed the Gilby Subdivision. The portion of the line between Forest River, North Dakota and Voss, North Dakota would later be abandoned.
Both portions of track purchased by the Mohall Central Railroad had been owned by the Burlington Northern Railroad before coming under ownership of the BNSF Railway. Before that, the Mohall Subdivision had formed a branch line on the Great Northern Railway that stretched from Granville, North Dakota to Sherwood, North Dakota. The Gilby Subdivision, on the other hand, had formed the Northern Pacific Railway’s main line from Manitoba Junction, Minnesota (near Hawley, Minnesota) to Winnipeg, Manitoba.
In October 2004, the Northern Plains Railroad—acting through its parent, the Soo Line Railroad—abandoned a portion of the Devils Lake Subdivision between Harlow, North Dakota and Devils Lake, North Dakota. Part of the roadbed had become submerged in the steadily increasing water level of Devils Lake.
In December 2009, the Northern Plains Railroad—again acting through the Soo Line Railroad—abandoned of the Bisbee Subdivision between Bisbee, North Dakota and Kramer, North Dakota.
Locomotive and freight car fleet.
The Northern Plains Railroad operates around 25 locomotives, mostly largely rebuilt EMD GP35s of various heritages.
The railroad’s official paint scheme contains yellow and navy blue colors arranged in much the same way as the colors on the "yellowbonnets" that once operated on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway were arranged. The words "Northern Plains" are spelled out on both the nose and the long hood. Many of the locomotives operating on the Northern Plains Railroad continue to wear the colors of their former owners. This includes at least four former Union Pacific Railroad EMD SD40T-2 locomotives.
Most of the freight cars that the Northern Plains Railroad uses are provided by the Canadian Pacific Railway, while the rest are provided by the BNSF Railway and Minnesota Northern Railroad.
Northern Plains rail services.
The Northern Plains Railroad also operates a railcar repair and locomotive repainting facility in Fordville, North Dakota under the name Northern Plains Rail Services. The facility contracts with other railroads, shippers, industries, processors, owners, and lessors to make either small-scale or large-scale repairs to freight cars or provide new paint to locomotives. Some of the past locomotive repainting customers have included the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Belt Railway of Chicago.


Russel Wheel and Foundry Company

Russel Wheel and Foundry Company manufactured railroad cars, rail car wheels, logging equipment and structural steel, Tall Skeletal Lighthouses in Detroit, Michigan between 1876 and 1916. In 1916, the company name was changed to Russel Steel Construction Company. Russel Wheel & Foundry supplied and erected the iron and structural steel for the Hammond Building in Detroit. When the Great Depression hit, they closed their doors and never reopened.
Russell Car and Snow Plow Company of Ridgeway, Pennsylvania and the Russel Wheel and Foundry Company of Detroit, MI have no relation.
Walter S. Russel of the Russel Wheel and Foundry Company purchased the K-R-I-T Motor Car Company in 1911


Manassas Line

The Manassas Line is a Virginia Railway Express commuter line that extends from Washington, D.C. to Bristow, Virginia. The first of VRE's two lines, with service beginning on June 22, 1992, the line operates on tracks owned by CSX Transportation (the RF&P Subdivision) and Norfolk Southern Railway (the Washington District).
History.
The line south of Alexandria, Virginia, was once owned by Southern Railway, whose "Crescent" train stopped at the line's Alexandria and stations. When U.S. intercity passenger service was taken over by Amtrak, the new railroad continued the service between and New York City.
In 1984, planning began for a commuter rail service for the area. Eight years later, after many new stations were constructed, Virginia Railway Express began operating trains on the line on June 22, 1992.
In 2009, Amtrak extended its service south to Lynchburg, bringing more trains to Manassas and .
In 2017, VRE began a $2.8 million study of expansion to the Broad Run station and layover facility that would allow additional Manassas Line service.


Hogwarts Express (Universal Orlando Resort)

The Hogwarts Express is an broad gauge cable railway, people mover, and attraction within the Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida, United States.
The route runs between Hogsmeade station in the Islands of Adventure theme park and King's Cross station in the London area of the Universal Studios Florida theme park. It provides a connection between the Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade areas which, together, form the Harry Potter-themed Wizarding World area, based on the "Harry Potter" film series.
The system, which was manufactured by the Doppelmayr Garaventa Group, is operated with two replicas of the fictional Hogwarts Express. The two directions of travel show two different videos. Because the trains transport guests between stations in two separate theme parks, riders must have an admission pass valid for both theme parks, with ticket inspectors checking prior to boarding.
The Hogwarts Express soft-opened to the public on July 1, 2014, before officially opening seven days later along with the rest of the . The service was immediately popular and within one month of opening, one million journeys had been made.
History.
The idea of creating a Hogwarts Express-related element came from Mark Woodbury, the president of Universal Creative. After the opening of the Hogsmeade attraction at the Islands of Adventure theme park in 2010, Universal began considering how to keep attendance balanced between the adjacent parks. At first, the creative team considered putting Diagon Alley within Islands of Adventure. Eventually they decided that the London and Hogsmeade environments should not be visible from each other. As a result, Woodbury proposed building Diagon Alley in Universal Studios Florida and then connecting the two Harry Potter-themed lands. Several means of transport were proposed for the connector before planners settled on the idea of the Hogwarts Express train.
In early 2011, construction surveying was spotted in the Lost Continent section of Islands of Adventure, and the resort had begun surveying visitors about a possible expansion. This led to rumors that Universal Orlando was planning to expand The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. At the end of the year, the resort announced the Jaws: The Ride would close on January 2, 2012, to make way for Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts. Almost two and a half years later, WESH-TV, the local NBC affiliate for the Orlando/Central Florida area, reported that an elevated track system had been installed at Universal Orlando and that the track ran between Hogsmeade in Islands of Adventure and a construction area in Universal Studios Florida.
In May 2013, Universal Orlando announced the expansion of Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Diagon Alley, along with the Hogwarts Express train, to be located on the former site of the Jaws attraction. By the end of August 2013, all six passenger cars and both tenders were ready to be assembled on the track. The first of the two trains was installed on the track on October 24, 2013. The second train was placed on the track in early December 2013. On December 2, 2013, "Orlando Attractions Magazine", an amusement park website, spotted one of the trains being tested.
The resort previewed the interior of the Hogwarts Express in January 2014 through a live cast. In mid-March 2014, Universal Orlando Resort released further information about the ride, including concept animations. The resort announced in June 2014 that the Diagon Alley expansion, including the Hogwarts Express, would officially open to the public on July 8, 2014. A week later, Universal Orlando soft-opened the Hogwarts Express, without any announcement. Within a month of the Hogwarts Express' opening, one million riders had ridden the Hogwarts Express. It had taken approximately two and a half years to develop by a team of 150 people.
Characteristics.
It is only possible to ride the Hogwarts Express after having already entered either theme park and presenting a ticket that allows admission to both of them on the same day. The train carries 30,000 passengers per day, and operates 365 days per year.
Track.
Hogwarts Express is a single-track elevated cable railway running over the backlot between the two theme parks, with a two-track passing loop at the midpoint. It is long and has a track gauge of . On the track, there is a haul rope and a counter rope, each with a diameter of . The cable winding motor is at King's Cross station and has a rated load of and a peak power rating of .
Trains.
The Hogwarts Express uses two trains that can transport 168 passengers each, giving a total of 336 passengers per cycle. Each train is an articulated cable car formed of five sections: a replica of a steam locomotive and its tender plus a set of three passenger coaches each with seven passenger compartments. Each compartment holds up to eight seated passengers and has its own projection system instead of windows. Originally each train was planned to have two passenger coaches; the number was increased following a survey that suggested potential passengers saw the Hogwarts Express as an attraction rather than a means of transportation between the parks. The locomotive on the trains weigh , the tenders weigh , and each passenger carriage weighs . Because movement of the trains is controlled by cable from a one engine house, they depart and arrive at the end stations at the same time, and always reach the halfway point at the same time. The cable moves at the speed of .
On both trains, the locomotive faces towards Hogsmeade station; it is not possible for the trains to face King's Cross. As a result, the Hogwarts Express departs from Hogsmeade and enters King's Cross in reverse. At each station, the platforms are located on the left side of the trains. The trains are therefore only designed to be seen from one side; the other lacks the locomotives' false driving wheels and specific detailing. Over 70 percent of the cabling in the trains are for the show effects and physically animated components.
The trains were built in Goldau, Switzerland. CWA Constructions designed both the exterior and interior of the trains to make them look as similar as possible to the Hogwarts Express seen in the Harry Potter film franchise. They are based on the steam locomotive GWR "Hall" class 5972 "Olton Hall" (as 5972 "Hogwarts Castle") and were built from aluminum and glass-reinforced plastics. Afterwards, an artificial weathering process was applied to give the appearance of a historic train.
Frey AG was responsible for wiring the trains for the video and sound components. The company also installed other technical equipment that allows the trains to be controlled by a computer system.
Media.
Each compartment has a curved screen where the window would be. There are two different videos, depending on the destination of the train. The special effects in both videos were by Double Negative.
The London Symphony Orchestra recorded the music played throughout the journey at Abbey Road Studios on March 25, 2014. The music for the northbound journey is called "Connector Train – Hogsmeade to London".
Journey.
Theme park guests may use the Hogwarts Express to travel between Hogsmeade and King's Cross in London, close to Diagon Alley. They can travel in either direction as long as the guest has purchased a Park-to-Park ticket, Annual Pass, or Seasonal Pass, which gives guests access to both of Universal Orlando's theme parks within the same day. Two different videos are provided depending on the destination of the train, both of which are approximately four minutes long.
King's Cross to Hogsmeade.
The King's Cross station is built on a site that previously held the Jaws attraction. The entrance to the station, which is a quarter-scale replica of London King's Cross railway station, is located in the London area, close to Diagon Alley. Passengers enter the station building and have their admission ticket checked. They then enter a queue which takes them farther into the station building, under a split-flap departure board, and past London-related advertisements, several stacks of suitcases and a shop selling British brands of food and drink. After ascending a flight of stairs, passengers find themselves between signs for King's Cross Platform 9 and Platform 10. They can see those ahead of them walking through the "wall" forming the entrance to Platform 9¾. This effect uses the Pepper's ghost illusion. After continuing around several corners, guests arrive on Platform 9¾ to wait for the next train. After the Hogwarts Express has reversed into Platform 9¾ and the arriving passengers have disembarked, the next passengers enter one of the twenty-one compartments in the three passenger coaches.
As the train departs King's Cross, the video sequence in the compartments starts with Hedwig the owl flying alongside while passing through the outskirts of London. Hedwig flies away and Dementors arrive from over the nearby buildings. At the same time Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger pass along the corridor side of the coach looking for food. The journey enters a tunnel; upon its exit, it passes by Malfoy Manor during a stormy night. Next, the train passes through a second tunnel and the lights in the compartments go out as a Dementor enters the train and passes along the corridor; Harry Potter uses his magic to defeat the Dementor. After exiting the tunnel, riders are greeted by Rubeus Hagrid flying on a motorbike with Hogwarts in the background. As the train enters a forest, the flying Ford Anglia appears and starts driving through the terrain. The car crashes soon after and the train leaves the forest, passing by Hogwarts once again before arriving at Hogsmeade Station with Hagrid greeting passengers.
Passengers then disembark from the train, walk down a ramp past the front of the Hogwarts Express and follow a path leading to Hogsmeade.
Hogsmeade to King's Cross.
At the entrance of the queue, ticket inspectors check passengers' tickets for Universal Studios. The line then leads into a forested area which leads into the Hogsmeade station building. Upon climbing a flight of steps, travelers reach the Hogsmeade station platform. Once the arriving passengers on the Hogwarts Express have left the platform, passengers waiting may then board the train and enter one of the twenty-one passenger compartments within the train.
As the train departs towards King's Cross, the video sequence in the compartments begins with Hagrid waving goodbye outside of the window. Shadows of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger can also been seen walking down the train corridor, looking for an empty compartment. Following this, Buckbeak flies outside the window, while Hogwarts can be seen in the background. Shortly after, the train enters a forest where centaurs are running. Upon exiting the forest, Hogwarts can be seen once again in the background. Fred and George Weasley appear, flying broomsticks and playing with fireworks. The Hogwarts Express then enters a tunnel, after which riders find themselves in the middle of a storm and pass Malfoy Manor. The journey then enters a second tunnel; Harry, Ron, and Hermione appear again in the train corridor. As a spider crawls up the compartment door, Ron eats it and the trio continue to walk on down the corridor. After the tunnel the journey continues into London passing by an industrial factory and then a residential area. The Knight Bus then appears; squeezing between buildings and shrinking to pass under a bridge. As the bus drives away, the train enters King's Cross station, where Alastor Moody greets passengers.
Passengers then disembark onto Platform 9¾ of King's Cross and proceed down some stairs into a 2010-era King's Cross station, before arriving at the London waterfront area, adjacent to Diagon Alley.
Reception.
Robert Niles from "Theme Park Insider" mentioned how the attraction "broke walls". Examples included the separation of the Wizarding and Muggle worlds; how Universal made the audience the performers (in the part of the King's Cross queue where guests walk through the wall leading to Platform 9¾). He wrote: "It's become convention for theme park attractions to drop you off at or very near the same point where you boarded the ride, so it's a bit disorienting when you exit the Hogwarts Express and find that you're not only in a different train station — you're in a different theme park."
Arthur Levine from "About.com" was disappointed that Universal had not tried to re-create the magical aspect of guests entering Platform 9¾: "When it's time to make their own way to the platform, however, it appears to would-be wizards that they are merely entering a darkened corridor. Aside from an audible "whoosh" sound, there is, regrettably, no attempt to reproduce the magical, molecule-shifting phenomenon." He also found it awkward that the Hogwarts Express reverses into Platform 9¾ at King's Cross—although in Hogsmeade the train arrives facing forwards. Overall Levine said that the attraction does more than just making it a ride: "By making it an integral and compelling part of The Wizarding World, most guests would want to ride it to get the complete Potter experience. By making it an inter-park ride and requiring a two-park ticket to board it, Universal will surely help up-sell a lot more customers to higher-priced passes, encourage multi-day visits, increase demand for its on-property hotels, and drive business at its CityWalk dining/shopping/entertainment district".
In 2014, attendance at Universal Studios Florida increased to 8.3 million visitors, compared to 7.1 million in the previous year. Attendance at Islands of Adventure did not change. According to vice president of AECOM's economics, Brian Sands, the attendance increase at the Studios was likely due to the Diagon Alley expansion. Sands also mentioned attendance at Islands of Adventure remained the same since "visitors go to the new thing", though the Hogwarts Express likely prevented attendance from decreasing at the park.
External links.


Washington Terminal Company

The Washington Terminal Company is a corporation created in Washington, D.C., United States, to provide support to railroads using Washington's Union Station. It is now a nearly wholly owned subsidiary of Amtrak.
It was established in 1901 by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad-controlled Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad.
The Washington Terminal Company owned and operated Union Station (opened in 1907) and about of track in the Washington area, providing switching services for passenger trains using the station or passing through the area:
In 1981, Amtrak took over the terminal company's operations. It currently owns a 99.7% interest in WTC, with the balance held by Amtrak employees. All of WTC's officers are Amtrak employees, as are most of its directors. Through WTC, Amtrak presently shares ownership of Union Station with the United States Department of Transportation. While the DOT owns the station building itself and the surrounding parking lots, WTC owns the platforms and tracks.
Despite being nearly wholly owned by Amtrak, the Washington Terminal Company is legally a separate entity, and unlike Amtrak, it is not exempt from the Interstate Commerce Act. This allowed Virginia Railway Express to threaten a filing to the Surface Transportation Board to enforce its right to access when Amtrak tried to oust VRE from Union Station after VRE said they would not automatically re-hire Amtrak as its operating contractor. Faced with this action, Amtrak backed down.


Altamont Corridor Express

The Altamont Corridor Express (also known as ACE, formerly Altamont Commuter Express) is a commuter rail service in California, connecting Stockton and San Jose during peak hours only. ACE is named for the Altamont Pass, through which it runs. Service is managed by the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission, and operations are contracted to Herzog Transit Services, using AAR assigned reporting mark ACEX. The route includes ten stops, with travel time about 2 hours and 12 minutes end-to-end. The tracks are owned by Union Pacific Railroad, previously built along the Western Pacific Railroad main line. ACE uses Bombardier BiLevel Coaches, MPI F40PH-3C locomotives, and Siemens Charger locomotives.
Service began on October 19, 1998, with two weekday round trips. A third round trip was added in May 2001, followed by a fourth round trip in October 2012. Saturday service commenced in September 2019. , average weekday ridership is 5,900. Under the ACE"forward" program, a number of improvements to the service are being considered. These include a rerouted line through Tracy, an extension to Modesto and Merced, and connections to BART at Union City and Tri-Valley.
History and funding.
Planning.
By the 1980s, three rapidly growing areas in California - Silicon Valley, the Tri-Valley, and the middle part of the Central Valley - were poorly connected by public transit, even as Interstate 580 and Interstate 680 became more congested. The three areas had connections to San Francisco and Oakland via Caltrain and the Amtrak "San Joaquin" (and later BART and "Capitol Corridor" trains), but commuting from the Central Valley and Tri-Valley to Silicon Valley required using a car or limited bus service. In 1989, the San Joaquin Council of Governments, Stockton Chamber of Commerce, and the Building Industry Association of the Delta started work on a 20-year transportation plan for their section of the Central Valley. In November 1990, San Joaquin County voters passed Measure K, a half-cent sales tax to fund a variety of transportation improvements. The highest-priority project was the establishment of passenger rail service to San Jose.
In 1995, San Joaquin County and seven cities along the route formed the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission (SJRRC) to oversee the creation of the service. In May 1997, the Altamont Commuter Express Joint Powers Authority (ACE JPA) was formed by the SJRRC, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), and Alameda Congestion Management Agency (ACMA). That agreement formalized financial support, administrative processes, and governance for the rail service. The operation is funded by a variety of state and federal sources, largely sales tax revenue collected by the three JPA signatories; farebox revenues account for about one-third of costs.
Cost sharing for capital projects, excluding stations, during the initial 36 months of service was determined by the JPA on a case-by-case basis and approved by each of the member agencies. The initial purchase of rolling stock, construction of stations, and other start-up costs, amounting to some $48 million, were covered primarily by Measure K funds. Station improvements are the responsibility of the county in which the station is located. ACE pays the owner of the right of way, Union Pacific Railroad, about $1.5 million per year; it also uses about of Caltrain track in San Jose. Service began on October 19, 1998, with two daily round trips running to San Jose in the morning and Stockton in the evening.
Service expansion.
The original service used two trainsets, each with 4 bilevel coach cars, for a total seated capacity of 1120 passengers in each direction daily. In September 1999, the service reached 1000 daily riders per direction, resulting in many trains running at capacity. On February 21, 2000, a morning short turn between San Jose and Pleasanton was added using an existing trainset, giving Pleasanton and Fremont a third inbound train to alleviate the crowding on the two earlier trains. The trip was added after ACE funded $3 million in track improvements to reduce conflicts with Union Pacific freight trains and Amtrak "Capitol Corridor" trains.
By early 2001, ACE regularly carried more than 700 daily standees. After additional equipment was bought, the "Turn-back Train" was replaced by a nearly-full-length trip originating at Lathrop-Manteca on March 5, 2001; trains also began stopping at Santa Clara station. Although the third train added 560 seats in each direction, it brought an immediate increase in 380 daily riders. ACE then planned to add a fourth round trip later in the year, with fifth and sixth round trips by 2006. However, by late 2001, the deepening dot-com recession was severely hurting ridership, and expansion plans were put on hold. On June 30, 2003, the ACE JPA was dissolved in favor of a Cooperative Services Agreement between the three member agencies.
On January 6, 2003, ACE introduced the Stockton Solution Shuttle, allowing Stockton passengers to use the ACE trip which terminated at Lathrop/Manteca. The trip was extended to Stockton on August 1, 2005. At that time, service to Santa Clara was suspended to allow for the construction of a second platform and pedestrian tunnel at the station. At this time, three Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach trips connecting to the "San Joaquin" - one to San Jose and two to Stockton - were open to ACE riders.
On August 28, 2006, ACE added a fourth round trip, which operated midday using one of the existing trainsets. On November 7, 2006, San Joaquin County voters approved a 20-year extension of Measure K. Suffering from reducing funding due to the Great Recession, ACE cut the lightly-used midday trip on November 2, 2009.
Altamont Corridor Express.
In May 2012, ACE restored service to Santa Clara station. On October 1, 2012, a fourth rush-hour round trip was added, running approximately one hour after existing trips. In December 2012, the service was rebranded from Altamont Commuter Express to Altamont Corridor Express to reflect plans for a broader scope of service.
In March 2014, ACE opened a $65 million, maintenance facility in Stockton. On July 1, 2015, management and governance of the "San Joaquin" passed from Caltrans to the new San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority. The SJJPA has nominal control over the SJRRC, but delegates all responsibility over ACE to the SJRRC.
On March 7, 2016, an ACE train was derailed by a mudslide in Niles Canyon near Sunol. The front car plunged into the rain-swollen Alameda Creek. Fourteen passengers were injured, but there were no fatalities.
ACE received Road Repair and Accountability Act funds in order to initiate Saturday service in January 2018, with two Saturday round trips added in September 2019.
Future plans.
In association with the California High-Speed Rail (CAHSR) project, the ACE system had been planned to be dramatically upgraded and expanded. Beginning around 2008, initial plans called for the Altamont Corridor Rail Project to produce a high speed rail "Super ACE" capable of halving the travel time between the endpoints.
As the CAHSR project was scaled back and rerouted to Pacheco Pass several years later, these plans were replaced with the more modest ACE"forward" program. The San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission issued a notice of intent to proceed with an Environmental Impact Statement in June 2013; this was released in 2017 and prioritized goals as either long term or short term. Short term goals included track improvements, a possible reroute through downtown Tracy including new stations, a West Tracy station, and a new extension to Modesto in addition to additional daily round trips. Long term goals included upgrades to the existing corridor to allow as many as 10 daily round trips, extension to Merced, tunnels under Altamont Pass, and electrification of the line from Stockton to San Jose.
Also to be studied were possible connections with BART at Union City or Livermore via traditional ACE rail, diesel multiple units, or bus bridges. This connection is likely to be facilitated by the Tri-Valley-San Joaquin Valley Regional Rail Authority.
Altamont Corridor Vision.
The state senate allocated $400 million in revenue from a gas tax increase to ACE"forward" expansion. ACE was awarded $500.5 million in April 2018 for expanded service to Ceres and Sacramento to provide more rail service and connections within the Central Valley. Service is expected to begin from Ceres by 2023 with interim bus bridge service to Merced until that segment of Union Pacific right-of-way is upgraded. Four trains will depart Ceres in the mornings, and one train may make the complete run to San Jose with others transferring passengers at North Lathrop.
By 2019, the plan had come to be called the Altamont Corridor Vision, with an expected price of $9.7 billion, allowing ACE to run up to six weekday round trips in 2023 with the goal of ten weekday round trips once additional track infrastructure is completed. ACE and the Tri-Valley-San Joaquin Valley Regional Rail Authority sought funding to construct a shared tunnel under Altamont pass in order to speed service and increase reliability. The Union Pacific right of way between Ceres and Lathrop will be double tracked to facilitate passenger service. platforms are being extended to accommodate longer trains.
Valley Rail.
Valley Rail is the project to route ACE and Amtrak "San Joaquins" along the little-used Sacramento Subdivision between Stockton and Sacramento. Six new stations would be constructed along the line with a layover facility at Natomas. Trains would run the length of the line from Natomas to San Jose or Ceres with a midday short turn to Stockton. A Draft Environmental Impact Statement was released in 2020, with services expected begin no later than 2023.
Service.
, ACE operates four round trips per weekday in the peak rush hour directions – westbound (to San Jose) in the morning and eastbound (to Stockton) in the evening. Trains are scheduled to make the one-way trip in 2 hours 12 minutes, an average speed of .
ACE did not operate on weekends or major holidays until September 7, 2019, when two Saturday round trips were added.
Route.
From San Jose to just north of Santa Clara, ACE uses the Caltrain main line (Peninsula Subdivision), shared with Caltrain and Amtrak service. From Santa Clara to Stockton - the majority of the route - ACE runs on Union Pacific Railroad freight lines. From Santa Clara to Newark, ACE uses the Coast Subdivision, then the Niles Subdivision to Niles. From Niles to Lathrop, the line uses the Oakland Subdivision. From Lathrop to Stockton, the line uses the Fresno Subdivision.
The route runs through Niles Canyon, parallel to the Niles Canyon Railway, Highway 84, and the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct. The line passes through a long tunnel which cuts off one of the canyon's horseshoes. This tunnel was modified from its original configuration to accommodate intermodal double-stack freight trains. However, this left the track in poor condition, reducing speeds from to in the summer and as low as during the rainy season. The San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission plans to rehabilitate the tunnel.
East of Pleasanton and Livermore, the line runs through the Altamont Pass on the original Feather River Route. After crossing the California Aqueduct and the Delta-Mendota Canal into the Central Valley, skirting the southern edge of Tracy. It then turns north between Lathrop and Manteca and runs to Robert J. Cabral Station in Stockton.
Tickets and fares.
ACE tickets are available at select stations and on ACE's web site. Distance-based fares are available in one way, round trip, 20 trip, and monthly passes.
Rolling stock.
ACE operates push-pull trains with one to two diesel locomotives and four to eight bilevel coach cars. Trains typically operate with the locomotive(s) leading westbound and the cab car leading eastbound.
ACE has ordered 5 new Bombardier BiLevel Series IX Cab Cars along with 12 Coach Cars. Deliveries are expected to begin sometime in 2021. The entire fleet of coach cars and F40PH locomotives will be rebuilt, overhauled, and repainted to have a matching paint scheme, except for two that were retired in May 2020. They will then continue to operate along with the newer Siemens Charger locomotives.


Front Range Commuter Rail

The Front Range Commuter Rail is an inactive non-profit corporation whose goal was to bring a high-speed commuter rail corridor to the Front Range of Colorado, United States, with extensions to neighboring Wyoming and New Mexico. The group is affiliated with an intergovernmental agreement called the Rocky Mountain Rail Authority (RMRA). The stated goal of the organization is to have commuter rail up and running at the same time as the Denver Regional Transportation District's FasTracks mass transit comes on-line in 2014.
History.
Front Range Commuter Rail was founded on December 2, 2004, by Bob Briggs in Westminster, Colorado. The proposed line was dubbed the "Ranger Express" and received high-profile support from Colorado senator Ken Salazar. New Mexico governor Bill Richardson's upcoming Rail Runner commuter rail system in New Mexico also provided impetus for the project. New Mexico's purchase of BNSF rail lines between Albuquerque and Raton, NM provided some speculation that the purchase was made to help facilitate Front Range Commuter Rail and Ranger Express, but no evidence of any formal agreement exists today.
On September 20, 2006, the Transportation Commission of the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) approved $1,246,000 for the 11th Rocky Mountain Corridor for High Speed Rail Feasibility Study. The study area includes the I-25 corridor from Wyoming to New Mexico and the I-70 corridor from Utah to Denver International Airport (DIA). This enabled the RMRA to begin acquiring governmental members.
As of May 2007, the RMRA has raised over $415,000 in matching funds, exceeding the required 20% match on the CDOT grant. On April 26, 2007, RMRA members signed a commitment letter to CDOT with a total dollar amount of $325,000, allowing the feasibility study to commence. Study activities began in June 2008.
The Colorado Secretary of State changed the legal name of the organization to "Front Range Commuter Rail, Delinquent June 1, 2010" on July 6, 2011.
Goals.
Front Range Commuter Rail seeks the following goals to bring commuter rail to the Rocky Mountain Region.


Americus and Atlantic Railroad

The Americus and Atlantic Railroad was founded in 1917 and operated from Mata to Methvins, Georgia. It provided only freight service through a connection with the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railroad and was eventually abandoned in 1926.


Gulf and Ohio Railways

Gulf & Ohio Railways is a holding company for four different short-line railroads in the Southern United States, as well as a tourist-oriented passenger train, and locomotive leasing and repair service through Knoxville Locomotive Works. Gulf & Ohio maintains its corporate headquarters in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The company owns railroads carrying a wide variety of commodities, generating around 40,000 annual carloads over approximately 225 miles of track.
History.
Gulf & Ohio Railways was founded by Pete Claussen concurrent with the start up of the first G&O shortline, the Mississippi Delta Railroad in 1985. The Alabama & Florida and Wiregrass Central soon followed as the next additions to the Gulf & Ohio network, beginning operations in 1986 and 1987 respectively.
Expansion.
The company continued modest expansion throughout the 1990s, acquiring new railroads in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. These new additions included the Atlantic & Gulf in 1991, the H&S in 1992, the Nash County Railroad in 1994, and the Georgia & Florida in 1995. Also in 1994, Gulf & Ohio would further expand its presence in North Carolina by acquiring both the Yadkin Valley Railroad and Laurinburg & Southern. Growth continued with the acquisition in 1996 of the Lexington & Ohio in Kentucky and expansion into Tennessee with the Knoxville & Holston River Railroad in 1998.
The 1990s also saw the sale and transfer of some G&O lines to other operators, including the Alabama & Florida railroad on November 23, 1992 to Pioneer Railcorp, and on April 30, 1999, Gulf & Ohio sold two of its railroads to North American RailNet, which combined both — the Atlantic & Gulf and the Georgia & Florida — into a single entity, Georgia & Florida Railnet. This sale effectively ended the G&O presence in Florida, as well as ending their presence in Georgia until 2003.
Continuing Changes.
In June 2001 Gulf & Ohio terminated operations on the Mississippi Delta railroad as the line was turned over to local interests - ending the G&O presence in Mississippi. During the same period, the Three Notch Railroad began operations over part of the Alabama & Florida regained by Gulf & Ohio after being sold in 1992. Also in 2001, the Southern Alabama Railroad was acquired and renamed the Conecuh Valley Railroad.
2003 brought additional changes to Gulf & Ohio, including the creation of the Chattahoochee & Gulf Railroad from former Norfolk Southern tracks in March concurrent with the sale of the Lexington & Ohio to R.J. Corman Railroad Company. In 2005, Gulf & Ohio began operating the Morehead & South Fork at the port of Morehead City, North Carolina.
Recent History.
In 2006 Gulf & Ohio sold the H&S and the Chattahoochee & Gulf railroads to shortline operator Genesee & Wyoming Inc.. Both divisions were subsequently consolidated into a single operation, the Chattahoochee Bay Railroad. On February 1, 2010 the lease on the Morehead & South Fork was acquired by the Carolina Coastal Railway and was no longer operated by Gulf & Ohio.
Knoxville became the center of Gulf & Ohio operations, with a locomotive shop, corporate headquarters, and special tourist excursions all based in the city. The company's corporate headquarters are located in the restored James Park House in the city's downtown area. The company continued to acquire and sell subsidiary railroads, with its presence eventually contained to three states; Alabama, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
Gulf & Ohio extended its presence into South Carolina in November 2010 with the acquisition of the Lancaster and Chester Railway, an independent railroad. In April 2011, RailAmerica announced its plans to purchase three Gulf & Ohio subsidiaries in Alabama for $12.7 million. If successful, it would end the Gulf & Ohio presence in the state.
That sale was completed in 2011, and the Nash County Railroad was sold to the CLNA in 2011 as well, and continues operations under the CLNA mark.
Livery.
Initially each subsidiary railroad had its own stylized herald for the cab section and short hood. However the early railroads shared a bright red paint scheme and distinctive large white unit numbers applied near the end of the long hood. Further development of the paint scheme brought about a common logo in the form of a simple black circular herald with a yellow border. The new logo was placed below the cab windows and featured a stylized version of the railroad name and initials within.
Concurrent with the 1995 acquisition of the Georgia & Florida railroad, the company changed its color scheme from bright red with road specific stylized logos to a flat black color featuring the corporate logo. The iconic large white numbers on the long hood remained, although they were now placed closer to the center as opposed to the end. With the influx of flat black GP10 locomotives from the Illinois Central and GP38s from Norfolk Southern, it became uneconomical to repaint all of the new additions red. Furthermore, due to the frequent transfer of locomotives between different subsidiaries the corporate logo appeared with the railroad name in plain text featured either above or below the logo to simplify the process of re-lettering locomotives as they moved to a different property.


Shenandoah Junction, West Virginia

Shenandoah Junction is a census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson County in the U.S. state of West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. As of the 2010 census, Shenandoah Junction had a population of 703. It is located between Kearneysville and Charles Town off WV 9. Shenandoah Junction is home to Jefferson High School and West Virginia's oldest surviving wood frame structure, the Peter Burr House, built around 1751. The land where Shenandoah Junction was built was part of the granted by Lord Fairfax to Lewis Neil. The town was originally called Neil's, but the name was changed to Shenandoah Junction in 1881.
The town owes much of its early growth to the coming of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the 1830s, and the name refers to the junction of the B&O and Norfolk and Western Railway at the center of the community.
Climate.
The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Shenandoah Junction has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.


Augusta and Florida Railway

The Augusta and Florida Railway (A&F) was incorporated in 1904 and operated a line between Keysville and Midville, Georgia, USA. The railway company was chartered on November 16, 1904, with an initial capital stock of $1 million to build about of line from Augusta to Midville. Construction began soon after incorporation with of track completed by December 1904. The A&F was sold in pieces to the Georgia and Florida Railway in 1907 and 1910. Several lines in and around Augusta made connections to the line in 1907 in association with the Georgia & Florida purchase.


Anaheim Rapid Connection

Anaheim Rapid Connection (ARC) was a proposed streetcar line in Anaheim, California. It would have been located in the Anaheim Resort and Platinum Triangle, with stops at the Disneyland Resort, the Anaheim Convention Center, and the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC), among others. It has been the subject of much political controversy, which lead to the project being cancelled by OCTA in 2018. Councilmembers from the cities of Anaheim and Fullerton stated opposition to the streetcar mode citing concerns about traffic impacts, safety, capital costs, and recent declining transit ridership. These cities also shared concerns about how implementation of dedicated transit lanes would impact automobile traffic.


Slateford Junction

Slateford Junction was a railway junction in the small town of Slateford, Pennsylvania, built to connect the existing mainline of the Lackawanna Railroad — the so-called Old Road — with the new Lackawanna Cut-Off. It operated from 1911 until 1979.
The junction sat west of Port Morris Junction, where the Cut-Off connects with what is today New Jersey Transit's Montclair-Boonton Line. When operations began on December 24, 1911, the junction merged four tracks (two main tracks and two sidings) from the Cut-Off with two from the Old Road.
An interlocking tower at the junction opened four days before the Cut-Off itself. The junction also included a small turntable, but this saw limited use; it was dismantled in the 1930s and its pit filled in shortly thereafter. The tower closed on January 11, 1951; its operations were shifted to the tower at East Stroudsburg.
As of 2021, there are plans to restore service along the Cut-Off. The junction is where the "golden spike" would be located.


North Carolina and Virginia Railroad

The North Carolina and Virginia Railroad is a short-line railroad that operates of track.
History.
The NCVA began operations in 1987 of former Seaboard Coast Line Railroad trackage between Boykins, Virginia and Tunis in Cofield, North Carolina. The headquarters are in Ahoskie, North Carolina. The NCVA is a subsidiary of the Genesee & Wyoming and was previously owned by RailAmerica. It also operates the Chesapeake and Albemarle Railroad (CA).
The railroad's traffic comes mainly from steel products, as well as grain and chemical products. The NCVA hauled around 25,500 carloads in 2008.


Texas and Northern Railway

The Texas and Northern Railway is an eight-mile (13 km) railroad connecting Lone Star, Texas, to the former Louisiana and Arkansas Railway at Veals Switch between Daingerfield and Hughes Springs.
A number of branches have been removed over the years as mining of ore is no longer done. The blast furnace was shut down in the 1980s as well as the ore smelter. Only the electric blast furnace and the pipe rolling mill are still in operation along with warehouse facilities.
Operations have been cut back, and since Lone Star was purchased by U.S. Steel, the railroad is managed under that company's railroad division, Transtar, Inc.
Traffic consists of outbound pipe, and inbound scrap steel and alloy steel ingots.
For years the railroad bought secondhand ALCO diesel locomotives and heavily modified them for their and the steel mill railroad operations.


4 (Los Angeles Railway)

4 was the number assigned to two distinct streetcar lines operated by the Los Angeles Railway in Los Angeles, California.
History.
1931 alignment.
4 was first assigned to a short turn service of the 3 Line. This operated from 1931 to 1935 when all operations along the route reverted to 3 Line service.
1939 alignment.
The number was later assigned to the Boyle Street Shuttle (previously line 31) beginning May 19, 1939. This service was short lived and ceased in October 1941.


Calumet River Railway (Illinois)

The Calumet River Railway built a rail line in Chicago, serving industries on the east side of the Calumet River. The company was incorporated on March 5, 1883, and completed the line on September 16, 1895. From opening, it was operated by the Pennsylvania Company, which also operated the lines to which it connected - the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway near 100th Street in South Chicago and the South Chicago and Southern Railroad near 132nd Street in Hegewisch. On February 5, 1901, the Calumet River Railway was merged into the South Chicago and Southern Railroad. The lease was transferred from the Pennsylvania Company to parent Pennsylvania Railroad on January 1, 1918, and to the Penn Central Transportation Company in 1968. In 1954 the South Chicago and Southern Railroad was merged into the Penndel Company, and in 1976 ownership and operation of the line was acquired by the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail).
In 1999, with the split on Conrail, the line was transferred to the Norfolk Southern Railway, which calls it the Calumet River Industrial Track. The South Chicago and Indiana Harbor Railway has trackage rights over the north half of the line, which predecessor Chicago Short Line Railway acquired to reach the old Republic Steel coke works near 110th Street.


Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum

The Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum located at 300 South Burhans Boulevard, Hagerstown, Maryland, USA, has exhibits relating to local railroad history and model railroads.
The Hagerstown Roundhouse Complex was built in 1939. The 25 stall roundhouse and shops were the major facility for maintenance and repairs of locomotives and cars in Western Maryland. The railroads were the largest employers in Washington County for more than 50 years. The Roundhouse facility was demolished on March 13, 1999.
The Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum is located adjacent to the CSX Railroad in Hagerstown, Maryland. The volunteer-run museum features many exhibits relating to local railroad history, several model railroads in operation, and an outdoor collection of locomotives, passenger cars, and rolling stock. The roundhouse facility was demolished in 1999, but the museum inhabits some of the smaller adjacent buildings and sits in proximity to CSX Transportation's Hagerstown Terminal yard and locomotive servicing area.


Metro-North Railroad rolling stock

The Metro-North Railroad is a commuter railroad serving northern suburbs of New York City. It principally uses a fleet of electric railcars for its services; diesel locomotives and push-pull coaches are in use as well for non-electrified portions of the system.
History.
When the Metropolitan Transportation Authority began to subsidize commuter rail systems of Penn Central Railroad and Erie Lackawanna Railway in the early-1970s, they inherited equipment of the former New York Central Railroad, Pennsylvania Railroad, New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad and Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, some of which dated back to the early 20th Century. However, they also began to operate variations of the new M1 railcar which was designated as the "M1A." The next new fleet of EMUs came with the M2s, which replaced Pullman 4400-series cars dating back to the early 1920s to 1954 from 1973 to 1977. With the expansion of electrified territory, 142 M3As were ordered, arriving between 1984 and 1986. Two additional small orders would supplement the existing fleet; 54 M4s arrived in late 1987, and in 1994 48 M6s arrived. Many diesel locomotives inherited from those railroads, however, were used as recently as the early 21st Century. The M1As were replaced between 2004 and 2007 with the arrival of the 336 M7As. In order to replace the M2, M4, and M6s on the New Haven Line and to respond to increasing ridership on that line 405 M8s were ordered. In 2016, in response to ridership higher than initially expected on the New Haven Line, up to 94 additional M8s will be built to meet that line's needs.
Active rolling stock.
Locomotives.
Future locomotives.
In July 2018, Metro-North Rail Commuter Council Vice Chairman Orrin Getz announced the agency's intention to purchase 15 new Siemens Charger SC-44 locomotives to replace the current locomotive fleet for the Port Jervis Line.
In December 2020, Metro-North board approved a Federal Transit Administration funded $334.9 Million contract for Siemens to manufacture and test 19 Dual-Mode locomotives with an option for an additional 8 more. 19 of the 27 Dual-Mode Locomotives ordered have already been fully approved for $231.6 Million with the other 8 costing $82.1 Million. In addition the contract also includes capital spare parts for $12.9 Million, a training simulator for $1.5 Million, Branch test Equipment for $3.0 Million, and extended warranty for 3.6 Million. This contract includes 144 in total option locomotives with 66 additional locomotives for Long Island Railroad in an alternate configuration, 32 additional locomotives for Metro-North, 20 for the Connecticut Department of Transportation, and 26 locomotives in an alternate configuration for Amtrak/NYSDOT. These dual modes would be able to work on both Amtrak and Metro-North signal systems and will be able to sustain 110 miles per hour in service. These units do not have a specific variation name yet but will be a variant of the SC-44 Charger.
Push-pull coaches.
These cars are non-powered.
Electric multiple units.
M3A and M7A cars draw power from 650 V DC third rail with under-running contact shoes. M8 draw power from third rail, both over- and under-running, or 12.5 kV 60 Hz and 25 kV 60 Hz AC catenary.
Possible future electric multiple units.
MTA originally planned to order 188 M9A cars for Metro-North as part of the 2015-2019 Capital Program. In June 2018, Metro-North announced that they would elect to not exercise their options for the M9 order, instead overhauling their M3A units to extend their lifespan.<ref name="Metro-North/LIRR Committee Meeting June 2018"></ref> However, that November, Metro-North stated that they "are working with LIRR to procure 170 new M9A cars in the next Capital Program to provide additional capacity and replace M3As."
Retired rolling stock.
Roster rolling stock manufactured from 1946 to the present.
Bar cars.
Metro-North Railroad was the last commuter railroad in the United States to operate bar cars, electric MUs equipped with bars that served alcohol. The M2 bar cars were delivered in 1974, and Metro-North has not ordered new ones. The last train which included a bar car left Grand Central for New Haven at 7:34PM on Friday, May 9, 2014. While there is talk of retrofitting M8 cars with bars, no decision has been reached and no money allocated. On September 13, 2016, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy announced that the state would be buying another 60 M8 cars, 10 of which will be "bar cars". However, the bar cars were later dropped, due to cost and train capacity concerns, as well as Metro-North not being willing to handle the bar themselves, wishing for an outside company to run the operation itself.


Bombay and Moira Railroad

The Bombay and Moira Railroad is a historic railroad in New York.
The Saratoga and St. Lawrence Railroad began operations on December 27, 1888 on a line running from Moira to Bombay. The S&SL was reincorporated on March 31, 1898 as the Bombay and Moira Railroad.
The B&M was abandoned in 1900 after being purchased by the Grand Trunk Railway and torn up for scrap.
The right-of-way is still visible due to lack of property development and encroaching vegetation.