Whatever happened to Minifornia?
From 5th to 7th March 2020 at London’s Waterloo station the only public appearance of an unusual exhibition known as Minifornia took place. It had made its appearance on the public stage as COVID ravaged its way across the world. Countries were entering lockdown and people’s movements were being limited.…
Rails – to the Moon
Sylvester Marsh was a New England entrepreneur whose proposed mountain line received considerable ridicule when the idea was put forward in the late 1850s – for it was seen as a ‘railway to the moon!’ People thought the idea most inconceivable and it was a struggle for Marsh to get…
Milwaukee Road: Seattle/Tacoma
Avery is of course the western end of the noted 440 mile long Rockies electrification. However the company also ran another electrics division that traversed the Cascades in Washington state, and these tracks led to Seattle and Tacoma. The latter was of course the absolute extremity of any of the…
White Pass & Yukon Railway
The fantastic White Pass & Yukon Railway – which passes through mountainous territory in both Alaska and Canada – is a stupendous line that was built to overcome the elements. The route was gruelling and many thought it would be impossible to build. But build it they did! The three…
South Shore Line Michigan City
The Chicago, South Shore and South Bend Line (the South Shore) is America’s last interurban line – and what is more surprising is it still operates a substantial section of on-street track. The railroad once had other street sections too which have since been diverted – however this in Michigan…
MILW picture gallery #2
The second part of this special gallery of Milwaukee Road scenes! Most are from Flickr pools – and not even featured on Google’s pages. Many fascinating pictures – and great photographers who captured these scenes! Drummond between Deer Lodge and Missoula. One of the few stops on the Rockies division…
MILW picture gallery #1
I thought I’d do a gallery of Milwaukee Road scenes! Most are from Flickr pools – and not even featured on Google’s pages. Many fascinating pictures – and some very lucky guys who captured these scenes! The eastern terminus of the 438 miles of electrification at Harlowton. Large marshalling yards…
On the Milwaukee Road #4
This is the fourth part of the Milwaukee’s electrified Rockies route through Montana towards Eastern Idaho. Many questioned the choice of route especially as it served few places and paralleled other railroads. Compared to the other railroads’ attempts through this part of the States the Milwaukee’s route involved the traverse…
On the Milwaukee Road #3
This is the third part of the Milwaukee’s electrified Rockies route through Montana towards Eastern Idaho. The company’s choice of route was questioned especially as it paralleled other railroads. These outlasted the later Milwaukee company because they were in a rather better position strategically, financially in terms of routeing and…
On the Milwaukee Road #2
This is the second part of a look at whats left of the railroad’s 440 mile route through the Rockies and covers the section from Butte to Missoula. The line follows the Clark Fork River for most of the way (as it does in fact all the way to St…