With all the gloom-and-doom posts on here about the model railroad hobby, here’s some recent good news: the railroad business is booming and the railroads once again are expanding. You can read about it in this Washington Post article.
As I’ve mentioned in other threads on the health of the hobby, the future is anything but gloomy. High speed passenger rail lines outside the US are booming, with the Chunnel train, for example, booking more passenger miles between London and Paris than the airlines. The US is looking seriously at hi-tech high speed rail lines here.
And trains continue to capture the fancy of the media and of families with children. I personally don’t expect the trains-as-the-toy-of-choice fad of the 1950s and 60s to ever return, but I also see the hobby’s future as anything but grim.
This story proves you can’t expect the future to always just be the trends of the last two decades projected as a straight line into the future. Times change, things ebb and flow. The hobby will shrink, the hobby will grow, the hobby will shrink. But disappear totally? I seriously doubt it.
I’d like to see more rail freight (and passenger, too). It would take some of the stress off the Interstate Highway System, where the infrastructure upkeep is becoming terribly costly for state governments.
I agree - Interesting article. Thanks for posting it.
For many years rail lines around the Boston area have been abandoned and some turned into rail-trails. This trend was recently reversed as the MBTA commuter rail restored an 18 mile stretch on the south shore (the Greenbush line). With the longstanding traffic issues the ‘big dig’ never really alleviated, and now the skyrocketing price of gas, it didn’t take long before it became a well used line.
There are also plans to extend another commuter line up into New Hampshire from Lowell. It would restore a double line (now a single line used by slow coal drags to Bow, NH) and add stations.
There is one other abandoned line in the area that would make sense to restore as well: The Minuteman line through Lexington. It was converted into a rail trail a while back, but I’m always watching to see if they will take action to restore it (as I understand the right of way still exists). Even if to extend a light rail line (Red line) through it.
Perhaps the rise in gas prices will pull the United States out of its self imposed dark ages (dependence on individual automobiles and trucks).
I lived for a number of years in Europe and even though I owned a car it was often easier to walk out my door; hop on a trolley to the train station; take the train for 100 miles; hop on another trolley; and visit a friend or store with no automobile related stress or hassle (dodging between left and right lanes on the German Autobahn can be quite stressful).
My only concern is that our railroad infrastructure is out-dated and poorly maintained. The number of accidents that may occur as we try to ramp up rail traffic may create a lot of public opinion grief from the uninformed.
We’ve done well with investments in railroads in recent years. I have BNSF Railway (BNI) stock that I bought for under $30.00/share, and it’s now about $98.00/share. My better half has done quite well with her Union Pacific (UNP) stock. I’ve also traded CSX, NS, CN, and KCS (CSX, NSC, CNI, KSU). CSX has done exceptioanlly well in past 12 months.
As for America’s transport policies, we are all paying the price of shifting from a rail-based transport system to a highway-based transport system in the decades following WWII. We must have wasted trillions of gallons of petroleum over that time because of changing to highways.
I grew up in the UK, people here in the USA have no idea what they are missing. I think gas prices will have to start hitting $5 - $6 a gallon before the average person really starts considering alternative means of transport. But when gas in the Midwest (where I live) gets to $5+ the passenger rail service needs to be in place.
If you live in the area of the US with a population density similar to Europe (the North East Corridor) you can do that right now, right here in America. If you go anyplace else in the world that has the same population density as the US outside the NEC, then you won’t be able to to do that, just as you won’t in the US.
The railroad infrastructure is the best its been in the last 50 years. Better maintenance equipment, better inspections, bigger rail, concrete ties, faster speed switches, more CTC, better communications, better information technology, better equipment identification, newer engines, new engine technology, reduced emissions, reduced fuel consumption, better productivity, fewer derailments, fewer injuries. We have been ‘ramping up’ rail traffic for decades. What was a system crushing, bring it to a grinding halt volume of traffic 10 years ago is now considered a very slow day.
Since the railroads have been deregulated, they have been pouring millions of dollars into their physical plant and equipment. America has the worlds best freight system bar none. Any way you want to measure it we are the biggest and best.
Its just its taken the news media a couple decades to tumble to the fact.
A small rail company bought 220 miles of track near me recently from CSX. They are going gang busters on it! I constantly hear horns blowing day and night. Much more traffic then CSX had on the line.
They’re running passenger service from Nashville south now. (The Mourning Star) I wish they had a station near me. I’d definitely use it!
I’m a big fan of rails to trails because a trail can be recovered to rail service whereas an abandoned line is very often built over.(the ReMax office in Lebanon PA sits on top of a spur whose rails are still seen cutting across the parking lot.) The Macy*s warehouse in Middle Village, alongside the Fresh Pond Yard of the LIRR, was built with a short spur leading into the building. That was in the 1970’s. I took a look at an areial view of my boyhood neighborhood and noticed the spur is gone. Most likely replaced by another truck bay and inside with more floor space. Local rail freight, single carload shipments are still fading from what I can see, but the individual owner operator trucker is also fading fast as the national carriers are all taking advantage of intermodel services that an individual O-O can’t. Passenger rail service between major regions of our great nation still can’t compete with air travel. I’m holding my breath on the mag-lev.
Hey, who said it’s outlook is grim. i’m only 13 and have been involved in MRRing for several years, there’s an entire forum just for teens on the web, and there will always be a fascination with the old trains of yester-year. And I seriously doubt those high-speed trains can take over frieght.
HEdeward-I used to do a lot of printing for those rails to trails people. They came up against a lot of opposition from rail fans that were mad about the tracks being ripped out. Usually once the rails come out, they never go back in.
The rail business is indeed not in a slum by any means.
The overtime is great, traffic is booming, and infrastructure that was previously abandoned/exempted/de-commissioned is being brought back online to increase capacity.
Noooo It’s not. Least, not around here. (Midwest) I know three (3) engineers for NS and CSX, they have stories of being bounced out of their seats on Dash 9s. 50 years ago, they didn’;t have the tech to fix it. But now, it’s cost.
Also, the Amtrak California linbe has connector Trolleys in a lot of places, especially to take you into Sacramento, the BART, buses, et all. And we’ve seen the CSX commercial I suspect, 600 miles per gallon.
Our Interstates are ready to go 6/8 lane, Why? beecause at any given time, 4 of them are closed down for roasd building. It’s counter-productive.
Thanks for the post Dave!! [:)] Now if General Motors & Firestone hadn’t ripped up most of the trolly & interurban lines right after WWII, we’d not be so dependant on gas from the UPEC [censored] and that Chavez piece of human waste!![:(!]
Guys,The biggest problems right now is:
1.Terminal dwell time that can leave a loaded car set up to 39 hours.
2.Average train speed of 22 mph.
3.Track Maintenance windows that leads to a backlog of trains.
4.Rested crews.
5.Trains parked in sidings waiting for rested crews or yard entrance.
Nothing new there except the increase in freight traffic.