If you have followed me at all, you have likely seen photos taken of Fernley's small rail yard. Today was the big day for the Big Boy to leave Sparks and pass through Fernley on its way to Lovelock and Winnemucca as the train makes its way back to Cheyenne. Lisa was our there fairly early once other people started showing up, and she came loaded ( Read more... )

The UP "Big Boy" locomotive traveled from Portola to Roseville via Oroville and the former Western Pacific line last Thursday, much to the dismay of people who assumed it would travel between Marysville and Roseville over the former Southern Pacific route and thus missed out on action shots. At Roseville, a two-day celebration was held on Friday ( Read more... )

On Tuesday, the Big Boy traveled from Winnemucca to Portola over the former Western Pacific route via Gerlach. Those of you familiar with Burning Man will know of Gerlach as the last town before you head off into the Black Rock Desert. It was once a division point for the WP and still has a yard and people based there. I had to work on Tuesday, but ( Read more... )

This month's episode of Railway Legends, Myths, and Stories is about the first steam locomotives to operate in the Americas. These locomotives had only short and unsuccessful careers, and one of them seems to have come to an explosive end when first operated.

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At last, we are back on schedule with Railway Legends, Myths, and Stories, as this month we bring you a story of how one country undertook a complete rebuilding of its railway system in the wake of the destruction of World War 2.

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We cut it close, but we managed to get an episode of Railway Legends, Myths, and Stories published in January.

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Yes, I know this is being pedantic, but we've learned from answering questions from people that most people don't know any of this. For example, one of the people with whom we've discussed how trains work thought that there was a crew in ( Read more... )

The Big BN through freight collected a locomotive from Fernley Yard yesterday, but not the one that I expected.

( Coming and Going )

The "little BN" local got a new locomotive to replace the clanger that sat broken down for a couple of weeks. For a while, it looked like it wasn't going to make a difference.

( At least it didn't start clanging )

As I explained a couple of days ago, Lisa called the railroad to tell them about the ding-a-ling locomotive. Nobody seems to have paid any attention to that call, based on the experience of the BNSF crew called on Monday.

( Not a Good Start )

[With DW-to-LJ crossposting still broken, I manually crosspost stuff from DW. I was in a hurry this morning because the noise described literally drove us out of the house and we spent the day elsewhere; therefore, I didn't get the crosspost done at the time. Spoiler alert: it's quieter this evening ( Read more... )