1. Home
›
2. Short Lines
›
3. Lake Superior & Ishpeming

Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad: Map, Roster, History

Last revised: October 25, 2026

By: Adam Burns

The Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad, reporting mark LSI, still takes iron ore from the Marquette Range down to a concrete dock at Presque Isle, in Marquette, and into the lake boats. Cleveland-Cliffs built the line, with the Pittsburgh & Lake Angeline Iron Company, after a rate quarrel with the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic. Ishpeming attorney George W. Hayden was one of the promoters. Around Marquette the project was Hayden’s Scheme. It was also Little Sally and Imogene, for two daughters of H. R. Harris, the first general manager, and Lazy, Slow, and Independent when a mixed train was hours late in the woods. Chicago & North Western men had another name for it: the Hook and Eye.

A pair of Lake Superior & Ishpeming U25Cs with a cut of ore jennies at the yard in Eagle Mills, Michigan, on May 1, 1970. Jim Jeffery photograph. American-Rails.com collection.

On this page: Hayden and Cleveland-Cliffs · The ore dock · Munising and the 1924 railroad · At a glance · Ore trains · Steam · Diesels · The dock job

Hayden and Cleveland-Cliffs

Steve Glischinski, in Trains for September 1999, traces the idea to Hayden: a local road from the mines at Ishpeming to a dock of its own, in competition with the South Shore, the Chicago & North Western, and, farther off, the Milwaukee Road. A February 1893 newspaper reported that the articles had been filed. The incorporators were James M. Barnett, John C. Holt, Anton G. Hodenpyl, and John H. K. Burgwin, of Grand Rapids, and Hayden, of Ishpeming. The lake terminal was to be Presque Isle, a short distance north of Marquette, and the business was iron ore.

Cleveland-Cliffs and the Pittsburgh & Lake Angeline Iron Company built the railroad. Aurele A. Durocher, writing in the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society’s Bulletin No. 98 (April 1958), names the first board. William G. Mather of Cleveland was president. James Laughlin, Jr., of Pittsburgh was vice president. Hayden sat with them. H. R. Harris was general manager, and J. F. Deimling, of Marquette, was engineer of maintenance of way. Construction began on December 1, 1895. The main line was to run 19.94 miles west from Presque Isle to Ishpeming.

On August 12, 1896, the Ishpeming extension and 3.99 miles of mine branches were still unfinished, so the Chicago & North Western loaded the new railroad’s cars and delivered them to the finished main line. That day engine No. 9, a Pittsburgh 0-6-0 of 1896, took forty wooden hoppers of 30-ton capacity, half loaded, from Negaunee down to Presque Isle. The ruling grade was 1.63 percent. Regular trains followed, one engine and thirty cars. The short 1896 season shipped 290,813 tons. The first full year, 1897, shipped 1,035,783 tons.

The railroad opened with eleven Pittsburgh locomotives, 400 wooden ore hoppers, and 24 other cars. In 1898 it bought two coaches from Pullman and began excursion service between Ishpeming and Presque Isle. Marquette riders reached the depot on the streetcar. The same year the first all-steel ore hoppers arrived, rated at 50 tons and later cut back to 40. A steel bridge carried the line over the Dead River about seven miles west of Presque Isle, 135 feet above the water.

The ore dock

By the summer of 1896 a wooden dock was going up in Presque Isle harbor: 1,200 feet long, 54 feet high, 49 feet wide, with four tracks and 200 pockets. A merchandise dock half that length stood just north of it. The federal government was building a 1,200-foot breakwater for the boats.

In 1911 and 1912 the wooden dock gave way to reinforced concrete and steel. The new dock is 1,200 feet long, 54 feet wide, and 75 feet above the water, with four tracks on top and 200 pockets of 250 tons, 50,000 tons in all. It was laid out for 3,000,000 tons a year. R. C. Young, the railroad’s chief engineer, designed the concrete. J. F. Jackson, of the Wisconsin Bridge and Iron Company in Milwaukee, designed the steel. The approach is about a mile of sand fill on a 1.5 percent grade, some 600,000 cubic yards, and then a four-track steel trestle 600 feet long and 70 feet high. The dock is still the railroad’s front door on Lake Superior.

RSD-12s 1804 and 1803, and another RSD-12, ready for the day’s work at the shops in Eagle Mills, Michigan, on July 14, 1983. Author’s collection.

Munising and the 1924 railroad

While the ore line was going in, the Munising Railway was pushing into the timber east of Marquette. It was organized on July 3, 1895, by the Munising Company and the Lac LaBelle Company, with Timothy Nester as the promoter. Construction began that August and the road was finished in December 1896: 38 miles of main line, a South Shore connection at Munising Junction, five miles from Munising, and a Chicago & North Western connection at Little Lake. A seven-mile branch left the main about ten miles from Munising and ran into the woods. The survey had pointed on to Little Bay de Noc. The track stopped at Princeton.

Cleveland-Cliffs took the Munising Railway in 1900, with the timber the land companies held. The main line then reached Gwinn, 43 miles from Munising, and Princeton, 45 miles, in 1903 and 1905, where the company was opening iron mines. An East Branch left Stillman, nine miles from Munising, and by 1905 had run 20 miles to Doty and a connection with the Manistique & Lake Superior, an Ann Arbor subsidiary. The next year it went 12 miles farther, to Cusino.

On October 3, 1900, Cleveland-Cliffs organized the Marquette & Southeastern to close the gap. The new line left West Yard, the ore yard near Presque Isle, and was built in 1901 and 1902 through to the Munising Railway at Lawson, then north along the shore toward the timber at Big Bay. In 1911 the Munising Railway and the Marquette & Southeastern became the Munising, Marquette & Southeastern. The two companies, that road and the Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railway, already ran as one operation and filed separate reports. In 1924 the consolidation was made legal, and the name became the Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad. The locomotives were renumbered the same year.

By then the ore line had a concrete dock, a landscaped roundhouse and shops built in 1919 and 1922, and a North Lake extension of 1910, four miles west of Ishpeming. Shipments had climbed from the first season’s 290,813 tons to just under three million tons in 1924. The 1940 system map, below, is the railroad at its widest: Munising through Stillman, Lawson, and Marquette to Ishpeming and Barnes; the Big Bay line; the timber branches toward Cusino; and Lawson to Princeton.

An official, 1940 system map of the Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad. Author’s collection.

At a glance

Ore trains

August Syverson came over from the Ann Arbor in April 1920 as superintendent, with headquarters in Marquette. On August 19, 1939, President William G. Mather made him vice president and general manager. He succeeded H. R. Harris, who had died on June 5.

Jim Scribbins, in Trains for December 1954, put the main shops at Presque Isle and described the ore move the way the crews ran it. Loaded cuts stopped at the small yards along the line to pick up more. At the mines a cut was 10 to 12 cars, usually behind a Consolidation. Durocher’s account of the same jobs is more particular. The 1916 Baldwin “hogs,” the later SC-1s, could take 60 cars up to Negaunee. The three 2-10-2s that arrived in 1930 walked 85 empty hoppers up the 1.63 percent grade and shoved 25 loads onto the dock, in 50-ton and 70-ton cars. Ore moved from about April to December. In the winter the railroad used steam to thaw soft ore in the hoppers and in the dock pockets. There is no shipping off the dock in those months.

Mixed trains carried the passengers, the mail, and whatever the timber country shipped. In the years Durocher rode them, a Marquette–Princeton mixed reached the Gwinn district about 10:30 in the morning and started back about 2:30, with time between to switch the mines and to push hoppers up the crusher incline. A 1946 timetable shows a daily-except-Sunday mixed leaving Marquette at 5:05 a.m., Lawson at 6:50, and Munising at 9:00, and the return leaving Munising at 3:30 p.m. Passenger service between Marquette and Big Bay ended after an uncontested Michigan Public Service Commission hearing on August 14, 1953. The Big Bay branch itself was abandoned in 1958 and sold in 1963 to the Marquette & Huron Mountain, which ran excursions into the 1980s. The track then came up.

In the 1950s the ore business was running past 3.5 million tons a year, and the railroad was already cutting the map back. Princeton to Gwinn came out in 1965, and with it the logging lines east of Munising, including a Cousino–Sunrise Landing branch that was only about seven years old. The same year the Lake Superior & Ishpeming, the South Shore, and the Chicago & North Western consolidated their mains along US-41 from Eagle Mills west to Euclid Yard in Ishpeming. That let the second Negaunee main go, and the mains that had run through downtown Ishpeming. Much of what was left of the east end came out in 1979. In 1990 the Wisconsin Central bought the piece from Munising Junction to Munising. That segment later went to Canadian National, and then to the Grand Elk.

A 1950s plan to reach a new dock on Little Bay de Noc, in Sterling Harbor opposite Gladstone, was never built. The idea was to use the line to Eben Junction, buy the Soo Line branch from there to Rapid River, and build a short new railroad south to Lake Michigan so Cleveland-Cliffs could load the fragile low-grade ore somewhere other than the Chicago & North Western dock at Escanaba. The Soo would not sell. The boats kept leaving Presque Isle.

Steam

The 1954 list is the steam roster below. Earlier power is a different story: eleven Pittsburgh engines in 1896, three small secondhand switchers in 1897, and a Shay that left in the 1924 trades. Those engines are off this list. What remained in 1954 were Consolidations for the mines and the road, two pairs of Mikados, and three Santa Fe types that had been the heaviest engines in the Upper Peninsula when they arrived in 1930.

Nos. 6 and 7 are the Baldwin Consolidations of 1907 that came from the Munising, Marquette & Southeastern as 36 and 37. On the Lake Superior & Ishpeming they were 16 and 17 until 1930, and they drew the Marquette–Princeton mixed. No. 16 carried the name Patrick McCarthy on the cab for a time. The number then moved to SC-4 No. 18. Nos. 10, 11, and 12 are 1896 Pittsburgh Consolidations, scrapped in 1953. The boilers of 11 and 12 were kept to make steam for the ore dock.

Mikados 14 and 15 are the Duluth & Northern Minnesota engines, Baldwin of 1913, bought in 1919 for $17,000 each after that Knife River logging road shut down. They had been 21 and 22 before the 1924 renumbering, and they were reclassed MK-2 in 1930. Cylinders were 20 by 28 inches, drivers 44 inches, engine weight 178,000 pounds, tractive effort 35,224 pounds. They spotted cars at the mines, pinched in on log trains, and occasionally drew a mixed. No. 14 is at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth. Nos. 16 and 17 are the Cambria & Indiana Mikados, 5 and 6, bought in 1930 from the Peckham Engineering Company. Baldwin built one in 1913 and the other in 1915. Engine weight, without the tender, was 231,900 pounds. They worked only in the Ishpeming–Negaunee area. No. 17 was scrapped in 1954 and No. 16 in 1955.

The eight Pittsburgh Consolidations of 1910, numbered 18–25 in 1924, are the engines Durocher remembered as the look of the railroad. Five had been Lake Superior & Ishpeming 9–13. Three had been Munising, Marquette & Southeastern 38–40. Between 1928 and 1934 the Presque Isle shops rebuilt every one of them except No. 25: wider fireboxes, superheated cylinders, boilers raised, feedwater heaters, thermic syphons. They came out as class SC-4, and in the mid-1950s they were still the ore-season engines at Ishpeming and Negaunee, with one or two borrowed at the end of the year to steam ore on the dock. No. 18 was rebuilt in 1930, No. 19 in 1934, No. 20 in 1929, No. 21 in 1930, No. 22 in 1929, No. 23 in 1928, and No. 24 in 1930. No. 22 carried George O’Neill. No. 23 was offered Philip Smith. No. 25, class SC-5, received a superheater and 21-inch cylinders and was scrapped in 1956.

No. 26 is off the 1954 list. Alco-Brooks of 1902, it had been Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh 251. It arrived in the 1924 trades, drew the Munising–Ishpeming mixed, and was scrapped in 1951, the first engine to go after the diesels.

Nos. 27 and 28 are the Baldwin Consolidations of 1905 that had been 15 and 16, the hill engines of their day, later cut back to mine switching, log trains, and the plow. Both were scrapped in 1956. No. 29, Alco-Pittsburgh 1906, had been No. 14. Rebuilt in 1925 as an SC-3, it drew the Marquette–Munising local and, in 1935, received the tender booster that had been on No. 32. With the booster cut in, tractive effort was 59,825 pounds. The cab wore Charles Young. Nos. 30 and 31, Alco-Schenectady of 1913, came in 1925 from the General Equipment Company. They had been Chicago River & Indiana 1 and 2, and their work was pushing hoppers onto the dock and switching West Yard. No. 30 was scrapped in 1956.

The four SC-1s, 32–35, are the Baldwin “hogs” of 1916. Three were built for this railroad as 18, 19, and 20. The fourth was Munising, Marquette & Southeastern 44, which became 33. Cylinders were 26 by 30 inches, drivers 50 inches, engine weight 270,000 pounds, boiler pressure 200 pounds, and tractive effort 55,900 pounds as built. They were laid out for the clearances and the turntables the railroad already had. Between 1925 and 1927, Nos. 32, 33, and 35 received tender boosters and new tenders, which took tractive effort to 67,725 pounds. A later rise in each engine’s own tractive effort, to 60,484 pounds, brought the figure with the booster to 72,309 pounds. No. 32’s booster went to No. 29. The frames that became 34 and 35 wore 30 and 31 until 1925, when the Chicago River & Indiana engines took those numbers. No. 33 is at the Age of Steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek, Ohio.

The last steam bought for the ore trains, and the largest, were three Baldwin 2-10-2s of 1919 that arrived in 1930 from the Hocking Valley, a Chesapeake & Ohio road. They had been built for the Lehigh Valley as 4070, 4072, and 4074, and on the Hocking Valley they were 140, 142, and 144. On this railroad they were 36, 37, and 38, class SF-1. Cylinders were 29 by 32 inches, drivers 63 inches, engine weight 374,000 pounds, pressure 205 pounds, tractive effort 74,435 pounds. They broke drawbars and were too much for the Ishpeming wye on an early trip. They were seldom sent east of Marquette until curves were eased and heavier rail went in. Through the Second World War they moved the ore. No. 37 was cut up at the shops in 1953. No. 38, sold in 1954, would not stay on the scrap-yard rail and was cut up on the spot. No. 36 went in 1955.

RSD-12s 1851 and 1852 at the engine terminal in Eagle Mills, Michigan, in April 1985. Rob Kitchen photograph.

Diesels

The diesels the railroad owned are the table below. Durocher, writing in 1958, already found fourteen of them doing most of the work, with more on order. Those fourteen are the three RS-1s, the four RS-2s, and the seven RS-3s. The RS-2s of April 1949, 1,500 horsepower, and the RS-3s of 1950–1955, 1,600 horsepower, took the road ore jobs the Consolidations had held: the 10- and 12-car mine cuts, and the pickups at the small yards on the way to Presque Isle. RS-2 1611 was the outsider, Rock Island 450, built in September 1948. The three RS-1s, 1,000 horsepower, arrived at the end of 1951 for the lighter work and the branches.

The six-motor RSD-12s, 1,800 horsepower, were the ore-grade Alcos. Nos. 1801 and 1802 came in April 1956, 1803 in November 1959, and 1804 in April 1963. Six more were Chesapeake & Ohio 6700–6703, 6707, and 6709, built in the same April and May of 1956. The first four were renumbered 1850–1853 after a turn as 1800 and 1805–1807. The other two kept the Baltimore & Ohio numbers 2014 and 2016. The Eagle Mills photographs on this page are these engines, between trips to the mines and the dock.

Six RSD-15s, the low-nose Alligators, came secondhand from the Santa Fe. At 2,400 horsepower and 66 feet 7 inches they were the longest Alco hoods on the property, and they drew the heavy ore trains out of Eagle Mills into the late 1980s.

General Electric’s Universal series replaced that Alco fleet on the same grades. U25Cs 2500 and 2501, 2,500 horsepower, arrived in May and July 1964. They are the pair in the photograph at the top of this page, with ore jennies at Eagle Mills on May 1, 1970. No. 2501 is displayed at the Presque Isle ore dock. U23Cs 2300 and 2301, March and April 1968, were the first of that 2,250-horsepower model. No. 2302 followed in September 1969, and 2303 and 2304 in September 1970. No. 2300 is at the Arkansas Railroad Museum, still in its Lake Superior & Ishpeming number.

The high-horsepower secondhand power was the U30C and the C30-7, both 3,000 horsepower. Twelve U30Cs, 3000–3011, and four more, 3050–3053, came from the Burlington Northern. Five, 3012–3016, had been Detroit Edison 018–022, built in 1975 for that company’s coal trains. Four C30-7s, 3071–3074, also came from the Burlington Northern, built in 1977. These were the ore engines after the Alcos. Leased six-axle power has also moved the pellets in later years. Those leases stay outside the owned list.

Three RSD-15 Alligators, former Santa Fe units, about to leave the yard at Eagle Mills, Michigan, on September 26, 1987. Doug Kroll photograph.

The dock job

The railroad has come back to the work it was built for. Pellets from the mines south of Ishpeming, Empire and Tilden among them, move through Eagle Mills to the Presque Isle dock. Yards that carried the old system included Humboldt, Euclid in Ishpeming, Harris in Negaunee, Eagle Mills, and Presque Isle. The parent company resumed the name Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. on August 15, 2017, the 170th anniversary of the firm, and kept the New York Stock Exchange ticker CLF. The Lake Superior & Ishpeming remains that company’s railroad, and the concrete dock of 1912 is still loading boats.

Related reading

• Escanaba & Lake Superior
• Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic
• Chicago & North Western
• Soo Line
• Milwaukee Road
• Chesapeake & Ohio
• GE U-boats
• Steam locomotives
• Diesel locomotives
• Railroads in Michigan
• Short lines

Sources

• Aurele A. Durocher, “The Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad Company,” Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin No. 98 (April 1958). Nicknames. Construction began December 1, 1895. Main line 19.94 miles. Directors, with William G. Mather as president and H. R. Harris as general manager. August 12, 1896 test train, Pittsburgh 0-6-0 No. 9, forty hoppers half loaded, Negaunee to Presque Isle, grade 1.63 percent. Ore shipped, 290,813 tons in 1896 and 1,035,783 tons in 1897. Wooden dock, 1,200 feet by 54 feet high by 49 feet wide, four tracks, 200 pockets. Dead River bridge, 135 feet above the water. Concrete dock of 1911–1912, 1,200 feet, 75 feet high, 54 feet wide, four tracks, stated capacity 50,000 tons, annual capacity 3,000,000 tons. Approach, about a mile at 1.5 percent and a 600-foot trestle. Munising Railway organized July 3, 1895, finished December 1896, 38 miles. Marquette & Southeastern organized October 3, 1900. Munising, Marquette & Southeastern in 1911. Legal consolidation in 1924. Locomotive classes, serials, earlier numbers, rebuilds, and dispositions in Table V, “Lake Superior & Ishpeming R. R. Locomotives, 1924–1956,” and the notes under it. Fourteen diesels on the property when he wrote, with more to come.
• Jim Scribbins, “Ore Hauler,” Trains, December 1954. Main shops at Presque Isle. Loaded ore trains picked up at the small yards. Mine cuts of 10 to 12 cars, usually Consolidations. The 1954 steam list on this page is that era’s roster.
• Steve Glischinski, “U-boats in the U.P.,” Trains, September 1999. George Hayden’s plan for a Marquette–Ishpeming railroad beside the South Shore, the Chicago & North Western, and the Milwaukee Road.
• Kathryn Bishop Eckert, “Lake Superior and Ishpeming Ore Dock and Approach,” SAH Archipedia. Designed 1911–1912 by R. C. Young, chief engineer, and J. F. Jackson of the Wisconsin Bridge and Iron Company. Reinforced concrete and steel, 1,200 feet, 75 feet above the water, 200 pockets of 250 tons, 50,000 tons. Approach, a mile-long embankment at 1.5 percent and a steel trestle 600 feet long and 70 feet high.
• Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., news release, August 15, 2017. Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. renamed itself Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., effective immediately, in the company’s 170th year. Ticker CLF unchanged.
• Michigan Public Service Commission hearing, August 14, 1953, F. M. Pierce granting an uncontested petition to discontinue passenger service between Marquette and Big Bay. Big Bay branch abandoned in 1958 and sold to the Marquette & Huron Mountain in 1963. Princeton–Gwinn and the east-end logging lines abandoned in 1965. A 1946 timetable: mixed train, Marquette 5:05 a.m. daily except Sunday, Munising 9:00 a.m., return from Munising 3:30 p.m. These operating notes are the ones transcribed at michiganrailroads.com from the local record.
• Age of Steam Roundhouse, Lake Superior & Ishpeming 2-8-0 No. 33. Baldwin 43108, built in 1916 as Munising, Marquette & Southeastern 44, class SC-1, 50-inch drivers, 26-by-30-inch cylinders, 200 pounds pressure, tractive effort 60,484 pounds and 72,309 with the tender booster.
• American-Rails.com production rosters. RS-1: 1001–1003, serials 79576–79578, November–December 1951. RS-2: 1501–1503, serials 76802–76804, April 1949. Rock Island 450–454, serials 75952–75956, September–October 1948. RS-3: 1604–1605, 78301–78302, September 1950; 1606–1607, 80478–80479, May 1953; 1608, 80737, May 1954; 1609, 81350, August 1955; 1610, 81365, September 1955. RSD-12: Chesapeake & Ohio 6700–6709, serials 81943–81952, April–May 1956; 1801–1802, 81953–81954, April 1956; 1803, 83547, November 1959; 1804, 84293, April 1963. U23C: 2300–2301, serials 36706–36707, order 2500, March–April 1968; 2302, 37138, order 2509, September 1969; 2303–2304, 37572–37573, order 2509, September 1970. U25C: 2500, serial 35062, order 1823, May 1964; 2501, serial 35063, order 1825, July 1964. U30C: Detroit Edison 018–022, serials 40737–40741, order 1803, 1975.

FacebookXPinterestTumblrRedditWhatsAppMessenger

Recent Articles

• 
• 
• 

1. Conway Scenic Lists the Winter Mountaineer

   Nov 13, 26 12:37 AM

   
   Conway Scenic Railroad lists Winter Mountaineer trips from North Conway on select dates from November 28, 2026, through March 2027.

   Read More

2. Burlington Northern Railroad: Map, Logo, History

   Nov 12, 26 05:29 PM

   
   Burlington Northern, formed at 12:01 a.m. on March 2, 1970 from the Hill Lines. Powder River coal, the Frisco merger of November 21, 1980, and the Santa Fe combination of 1995–96. The diesel ros…

   Read More

3. Age of Steam Roundhouse Receives Chesapeake & Ohio 1308

   Nov 12, 26 04:05 PM

   
   Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-2 No. 1308 has arrived at the Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum in Sugarcreek, Ohio, from Huntington, West Virginia.

   Read More

4. Hoosier Valley Santa Trains Begin November 21

   Nov 12, 26 03:59 PM

   
   The Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum lists Santa trains on five Saturdays from November 21 through December 19, 2026, leaving North Judson, Indiana.

   Read More

5. Strasburg Rail Road Closes for Track Replacement

   Nov 12, 26 12:44 PM

   
   The Strasburg Rail Road homepage says the railroad is closed for track replacement until November 21, 2026.

   Read More

6. Union Pacific Diesel Roster (All-Time)

   Nov 12, 26 12:22 PM

   
   Union Pacific diesel roster with builder serials and order numbers. Alco, Baldwin, Fairbanks-Morse, Electro-Motive, and General Electric. Merger partners keep their own roster pages.

   Read More

7. Escanaba & Lake Superior Weighs a Trail on the Wells Grade

   Nov 12, 26 12:15 PM

   
   Michigan and the Escanaba & Lake Superior Railroad are discussing a sale of 60 miles of inactive grade between Wells and Channing for a trail, with the grade kept for possible rail use.

   Read More

8. Oklahoma Railway Museum Repaints Santa Fe FP45 90

   Nov 12, 26 11:58 AM

   
   The Oklahoma Railway Museum is repainting Santa Fe FP45 90 in the blue-and-yellow Freight Bonnet it wore as 5990. The museum does not plan to operate the locomotive.

   Read More

9. Pullmans Move Toward a Chicago Home With a Norfolk Southern Switch

   Nov 12, 26 11:49 AM

   
   Friends of the Pullman National Historical Park held a spike-setting on November 9, 2026. Norfolk Southern has installed a switch and committed $250,000 toward a future rail connection.

   Read More

10. Sloss Furnaces Entrance Gets a Norfolk Southern Grant

    Nov 12, 26 11:44 AM

    
    Norfolk Southern awarded a $146,460 Thriving Communities grant to the Sloss Furnaces Foundation for the 32nd Street entrance in Birmingham.

    Read More

11. Union Pacific 2-10-2 5511 Passes Its First Steam Test

    Nov 12, 26 12:12 AM

    
    Union Pacific 2-10-2 5511 passed a steam test at Silvis, Illinois. Railfan and Railroad reports a summer 2027 target. A November 6 Trains report had no immediate operating plan.

    Read More

12. Union Pacific Steam Roster

    Nov 12, 26 12:03 AM

    
    Union Pacific steam locomotives built since 1900. Oregon Short Line, Los Angeles and Salt Lake, and Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company numbers, with the 4-12-2s, Challengers, Big Boys…

    Read More

13. Union Pacific Railroad: Map, History, Logo

    Nov 11, 26 11:56 PM

    
    The Union Pacific, from the Pacific Railway Act of July 1, 1862, and Promontory Summit on May 10, 1869, through E. H. Harriman and the mergers that built the modern railroad. Steam and diesel rosters…

    Read More

14. Texas and Pacific Railway: Map, History, Timetables

    Nov 10, 26 10:33 PM

    
    The Texas & Pacific Railway, the federally chartered southern transcontinental that stopped at Sierra Blanca and became the Missouri Pacific's Texas and Louisiana main line. Merged October 15, 1976.

    Read More

15. Texas and Pacific Steam Locomotives: Texas Types and Mountains

    Nov 10, 26 10:30 PM

    
    Texas & Pacific steam: 70 Lima 2-10-4 Texas types, 600-669, classes I-1 through I-1d, and 10 Mountains, 900-909. No. 610 is at Palestine.

    Read More

16. Texas and Pacific Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Nov 10, 26 10:29 PM

    
    All-time diesel roster of locomotives built for the Texas & Pacific. 246 units: E7s, E8s, 83 F7A and 35 F7B, NW2s, SW7s, SW8s, SW9s, GP7s, GP9s, GP18s, and GP35s. Serials and order numbers.

    Read More

17. Santa Fe-Southern Pacific Railroad: Merger, History, Paint Scheme

    Nov 10, 26 10:07 PM

    
    The proposed Santa Fe-Southern Pacific merger, from the 1980 attempt and the 1983 holding company through the ICC denial, the Kodachrome paint, and the sale of the Southern Pacific.

    Read More

18. CSX Santa Train Will Feature Locomotives 250 and 2026

    Nov 10, 26 01:51 PM

    
    The CSX Santa Train will feature locomotives 250 and 2026 on November 21, 2026. The 84th running covers 110 miles from Shelbiana, Kentucky, to Kingsport, Tennessee.

    Read More

19. Denton County Asks to Extend Stadler Car Relief

    Nov 10, 26 01:05 PM

    Denton County Transit Authority has asked the FRA to extend a waiver for its Stadler diesel multiple-unit cars. Comments run to January 11, 2027.

    Read More

20. FreightCar America Reports Third-Quarter Results

    Nov 10, 26 01:02 PM

    
    FreightCar America reported third-quarter revenue of $76.5 million and 662 railcar deliveries. Backlog stood at 2,660 cars valued at $284.5 million.

    Read More

21. Amtrak Has Filed a Train Control Amendment

    Nov 10, 26 12:53 PM

    
    Amtrak asked the FRA on October 26, 2026, to amend the safety plan for its Interoperable Electronic Train Management System. Comments are due November 30, 2026.

    Read More

22. SunRail Signal Waiver Is Open for Comment

    Nov 10, 26 12:25 PM

    
    FRA has asked for comment on a petition to extend signal-testing relief on the Central Florida Rail Corridor. The notice names both the corridor and CSXT. Comments run to January 11, 2027.

    Read More

23. Cars and Units Rose With BNSF Third-Quarter Earnings

    Nov 10, 26 12:18 PM

    
    Berkshire Hathaway reports that after-tax BNSF earnings increased 19.3 percent in the third quarter of 2026, with car and unit volumes up 3.9 percent.

    Read More

24. Amtrak Chicago Platforms Are Moving Toward Level Boarding

    Nov 10, 26 12:13 PM

    
    Amtrak says construction is underway soon on the first level boarding platforms at Chicago Union Station, a 112 million dollar, 30-month project.

    Read More

25. Maryland Has New Penn Line Times on November 16

    Nov 10, 26 12:07 PM

    
    MARC Penn Line schedules change on November 16, 2026, after Amtrak trains return to regular schedules. Weekend southbound trains are unchanged.

    Read More

26. Building Contract for Metrolink Sidings Goes to Granite

    Nov 10, 26 12:00 PM

    
    Granite says Metrolink awarded a 51.5 million dollar SCORE contract for sidings near downtown Los Angeles and in Rancho Cucamonga.

    Read More

27. EMD "F2" Locomotives: Specs, Roster, History

    Nov 10, 26 12:22 AM

    
    EMD F2, the 1,350-horsepower bridge between the FT and the F3. 104 locomotives, July through November 1946. Spotting features, specifications, and the production roster.

    Read More

28. Southern Pacific Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Nov 10, 26 12:08 AM

    
    Southern Pacific diesel roster with builder serials, order numbers, Texas and New Orleans numbers, and the 1965 renumbering. Alco, Baldwin, Fairbanks-Morse, Electro-Motive, General Electric, Krauss-Ma…

    Read More

29. Southern Pacific Steam Roster: Post 1900

    Nov 09, 26 11:56 PM

    
    Southern Pacific steam locomotives built since 1900. Pacific Lines, Texas and Louisiana Lines, cab-forwards, the GS 4-8-4s, and five narrow-gauge Ten-Wheelers. The quantity column counts the rows as p…

    Read More

30. Canal Street Yard Assessment Stays Open Through December 7

    Nov 09, 26 01:07 PM

    The FRA signed the Canal Street Yard environmental assessment on November 6, 2026. Public inspection runs through December 7, and meeting dates are not confirmed.

    Read More

31. NS Legacy Cab-Signal Comments Are Due November 9

    Nov 09, 26 01:05 PM

    
    The FRA must receive comments by November 9, 2026, on a Norfolk Southern plan to drop legacy cab signals on 14 line segments and rely on positive train control.

    Read More

32. Elimination Grant of $27.8 Million Reaches Scott Road in Allen County

    Nov 09, 26 12:53 PM

    Allen County received $27,878,116, also stated as $27.8 million, to design and build a grade separation where Scott Road crosses Norfolk Southern.

    Read More

33. Vermont Receives $60.3 Million for the Western Corridor

    Nov 09, 26 12:45 PM

    
    Vermont will receive $60.3 million to rehabilitate about 60 miles of the Western Corridor. The delegation quote also calls the sum $60 million.

    Read More

34. Burlingame Grade Separation Wins a Federal Grant

    Nov 09, 26 10:42 AM

    
    Rep. Kevin Mullin said on November 5, 2026 that the FRA awarded $90.4 million for the Caltrain Broadway grade separation in Burlingame. Early work is expected in May 2027.

    Read More

35. Orange County Rail Line Gets a Coastal Permit

    Nov 09, 26 10:18 AM

    The California Coastal Commission on November 5, 2026 approved a 10-year permit for the San Clemente rail line, including about 690,000 cubic yards of sand.

    Read More

36. Railroad Quiet Zones Are Reinstated in St. Louis

    Nov 09, 26 10:14 AM

    
    St. Louis said on November 6, 2026 that the FRA reinstated the city quiet zones. Horns are to stop after railroad systems are updated.

    Read More

37. Southern Pacific Railroad: Map, History, Logo

    Nov 08, 26 01:58 PM

    
    The Southern Pacific, from the December 2, 1865 charter and the Big Four to Sprint, the Rio Grande Industries purchase of 1988, and the Union Pacific merger of February 1, 1997.

    Read More

38. California Awards Flexible Rail Aid to Nine Projects

    Nov 08, 26 01:15 PM

    
    CalSTA on November 5, 2026 awarded $66.58 million in flexible State Rail Assistance to nine California projects. Each amount in the summary is a cap, printed as up to.

    Read More

39. CSX Leaves Three Days Out of the Weekly Reports

    Nov 08, 26 12:02 PM

    
    CSX told the Surface Transportation Board it cannot recover October 27-29 data for the EP 724 and EP 787 reports covering the week ending October 30, 2026.

    Read More

40. NJ Transit Advances Three Station Housing Projects

    Nov 08, 26 11:56 AM

    
    NJ Transit on November 5, 2026 advanced station projects in Jersey City, Bound Brook, and Morristown. The three are projected to add more than 1,000 homes.

    Read More

41. River Fox Train Wraps a Locomotive for America 250

    Nov 08, 26 11:06 AM

    
    The River Fox Train in West Sacramento wrapped a locomotive with America 250 markings, the American flag, and the Sacramento skyline. The wrap is expected to stay through 2027.

    Read More

42. California Keeps Metrolink Service in the 2027 Budget

    Nov 07, 26 11:35 PM

    
    Metrolink says a California State Transportation Agency grant lets the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget keep service at current levels. The board hearing is November 13, 2026.

    Read More

43. WM's 4-6-6-4 Locomotives (M-2): Specs, Roster, History

    Nov 07, 26 04:37 PM

    
    Western Maryland class M-2, twelve Baldwin 4-6-6-4s numbered 1201-1212, built in 1940 and 1941 for Hagerstown-Connellsville fast freight. Roster, specifications, and retirement in 1952-1953.

    Read More

44. Missouri Pacific Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Nov 07, 26 04:26 PM

    
    Missouri Pacific diesel roster with builder serials, order numbers, subsidiary lettering, and renumberings. Alco, Baldwin, Electro-Motive, and General Electric. Texas and Pacific locomotives are on th…

    Read More

45. Missouri Pacific Steam Roster (Built Since 1900)

    Nov 07, 26 04:21 PM

    
    Missouri Pacific steam locomotives built since 1900. Drury quantity column 1,439. Sedalia rebuilds counted once, 1,407 frames. Last steam was 0-6-0 9301 in November 1955.

    Read More

46. Missouri Pacific Railroad: Map, Locomotives, Logo, History

    Nov 07, 26 04:19 PM

    
    The Missouri Pacific was a large Midwestern that carried a long history of financial difficulty until later years.

    Read More

47. LIRR Service Changes Start on November 9

    Nov 07, 26 03:15 PM

    New Long Island Rail Road schedules start on every branch on Monday, November 9, 2026. Midday and weekend times change. Rush hour does not. Babylon service returns in stages.

    Read More

48. Draft EA Reviews Norfolk Southern Track in London, Ohio

    Nov 07, 26 11:35 AM

    
    The Surface Transportation Board environmental office issued a draft assessment on November 6, 2026, for about 0.96 miles of Norfolk Southern track in London, Ohio. Comments are due November 20.

    Read More

49. Metrolink Lines Will Not Run on Three Routes November 7

    Nov 07, 26 10:53 AM

    
    Metrolink will not run the Ventura County, Orange County, or Inland Empire-Orange County lines on November 7 and 8, 2026. The advisory says no substitute transportation will be provided.

    Read More

50. Hartford Line Adds a Weekday Round Trip on November 16

    Nov 07, 26 10:48 AM

    
    Connecticut said the Hartford Line adds a weekday New Haven-Hartford round trip on November 16, starts a morning train in Springfield, and extends weekend stops to Windsor and Windsor Locks.

    Read More