For the first time in more than a year, Canadian Pacific 4-6-4 2816 appeared in public under steam for the premiere of a new documentary about CPKC's Final Spike Steam Tour railfan.com/cp-2816-make... Latest for @railfanandrailroad.bsky.social

Regular freight service has returned to the Washington, Idaho & Montana Railway railfan.com/freight-serv...

Full Steam Ahead www.distinctlymontana.com/full-steam-a... A small group of volunteers works to restore a vintage steam locomotive in Missoula that once worked in logging camps and even starred in a Hollywood film. My latest for Distinctly Montana Magazine.

Our annual Alco issue is out and it includes 18 pages (!!!) of diesel action on the Nevada Northern Railway, including an incredible photo essay by two of the greatest railroad photographers ever, Ted Benson and Dave Stanley. Really happy with how this one came out #PrintIsntDead

The announcement follows UP and NS competitors, particularly CSX Transportation, that have launched several new partnerships to enhance transcontinental service and demonstrate to stakeholders that another merger isn’t necessary railfan.com/up-ns-launch... Latest for @railfanandrailroad.bsky.social

Steam has returned to the slopes of the Northeast’s highest peak. Latest for @railfanandrailroad.bsky.social

While it has faced intense pressure to join with another railroad to form a transcontinental line that would rival a combined UP-NS, CSX has chosen a different path railfan.com/amid-pressur... Latest for @railfanandrailroad.bsky.social

And the winners are... Today, we're sharing the winners of the 2025 Center Spread Contest. Be sure to keep an eye in print for information about next year's competition! railfan.com/2025-railfan...

CPKC becomes the second Class I railroad to come out against UP+NS. But with Trump firing the STB's lone voice against mergers, will it matter? railfan.com/cpkc-were-no... Latest for @railfanandrailroad.bsky.social

Good afternoon and welcome on board this beautiful Amtrak NextGen Acela train! I’m joining Amtrak for its “Acela-bration” ride northbound out of New York Penn Station. Very excited to finally get on one of these trains after seeing them sit idle across the Northeast for half a decade!

After years of delays and anticipation, Amtrak’s new NextGen Acela entered revenue service on Wednesday morning with departures from Boston and Washington, D.C. railfan.com/nextgen-acel... Latest for @railfanandrailroad.bsky.social

A month after Union Pacific announced its plan to acquire Norfolk Southern, Warren Buffett says BNSF Railway has no plans on merging with NS or CSX railfan.com/warren-buffe... Latest for @railfanandrailroad.bsky.social

About a decade ago, several stakeholders in western Montana came together to discuss issues related to beavers. Beaver dams occasionally wreaked havoc on roadways and property, but those involved recognized the animals' importance to the landscape. #mtnews

One of my favorite times trackside last year was sunrise at Metra's Highlands station on its famed "Racetrack." For @railfanandrailroad.bsky.social's annual Traction & Transit issue, I put together an essay about it. Check it out in the new issue shop.whiteriverproductions.com/products/rfr...

Latest on the Class I railroad merger mania...

I've been kind of terrible at sharing my photography work in recent months — work work and parenting will do that, I suppose. So here are a few favorites from the past few months.

Dwight A. Smith, founder of the Conway Scenic Railroad, died on August 8, 2025. He was 100 years old. railfan.com/dwight-a-smi...

Harnessing the Kootenai flatheadbeacon.com/2025/08/06/h... A half-century ago, the Libby Dam was the final piece of one of the most significant public works projects in American history. Latest for Flathead Living Magazine.

A day after Union Pacific announced its intent to acquire Norfolk Southern, many shippers and stakeholders withheld opinions on the proposal. The few who did expressed skepticism about a plan that could significantly change the North American rail network railfan.com/shippers-sta...

BREAKING NEWS: Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern announced on July 29 that the two Class I railroads are merging to create the first single, transcontinental railroad in the United States railfan.com/union-pacifi...

BREAKING NEWS: Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern announced Thursday that they are in talks to merge into a single transcontinental railroad railfan.com/up-ns-confir...

100 years ago, Chicago Union Station celebrated its grand opening as the heart and soul of America's railroad capital railfan.com/100-years-of... Latest for @railfanandrailroad.bsky.social

@justinfranz.bsky.social ‘s reporting in #Railfan is probably the best aggregation of all the news that’s come out in the past week about Merger Mania II. Well done. All the receipts handy.

What many considered unthinkable just a few years ago could become a reality. According to multiple reports, Union Pacific and BNSF Railway are looking to merge with their eastern Class I counterparts, Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation railfan.com/report-bnsf-...

Officials say the $105 million bond is needed to replace the crowded and out-of-date detention facility.

Rowland made his money in the commodity trading market, but his true passion was steam railroading, and in the 1960s and 1970s, he was responsible for some of the biggest steam-powered spectacles of the preservation era railfan.com/ross-rowland...

Jaguar Transport Holdings is seeking to acquire two short lines in Washington, the Columbia Basin Railroad and the Central Washington Railroad railfan.com/jaguar-to-ac...

BREAKING NEWS: Norfolk & Western Class J No. 611 will return to the main line this fall for a series of excursions on the Virginia Scenic Railway railfan.com/nw-611-to-re...

Looking to make its dollar go further, Metra turned to Progress Rail to convert former freight locomotives into passenger power for Chicago www.railwayage.com/mechanical/l... My latest for Railway Age Magazine...

Delaware-Lackawanna announced that it has restored one of its Alco RS-3s to the iconic lighting stripe livery of the Delaware & Hudson and completed the operational restoration of Alco PA-4 190, which will make its public debut next month railfan.com/delaware-lac...

Chicago Union Station. Trains Editor David P. Morgan once compared it to a holy place of worship, and if Chicago is America’s railroad capital, then Union Station would undoubtedly be a fitting National Cathedral. railfan.com/100-years-of... My latest for @railfanandrailroad.bsky.social

The Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City is hosting the “Star Spangled Steam Up” on the weekend of July 4th, featuring three operating steam locomotives, including a special steam-powered guest railfan.com/nevada-museu...

"We’re keeping our heads down and getting to work.” On Monday, I spoke with Metra's CEO about the many challenges ahead for Chicago's commuter railroad. Check it out over @railfanandrailroad.bsky.social.

something I've learned by covering online archives and libraries is that many valuable, free, online resources are maintained by extremely small teams, maybe one volunteer. Asking them to deal with scrapers that behave like DDoS attacks is unrealistic www.404media.co/ai-scraping-...

Water managers say even with reduced flows, Flathead Lake will be well below its optimal level by August 31.

The original number plate for the Boston & Maine’s Flying Yankee streamliner was recently discovered in the Steamtown National Historic Site collection and has been returned to New England railfan.com/flying-yanke...

The New Mexico Department of Transportation and New Mexico Heritage Rail have agreed to allow Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe 4-8-4 2926 to operate on 40 miles of state-owned trackage around Albuquerque railfan.com/new-mexico-h...

New York’s MTA Metro-North Railroad unveiled its seventh heritage unit on Friday, paying homage to the silver and blue “M-Central” scheme that made its debut in 1979 and lasted into the mid-1980s railfan.com/metro-north-...

Maine’s newest short line began operations on May 31, becoming the eighth operator of the scenic Rockland Branch in the past 40 years railfan.com/maines-cumbe...

Chesapeake & Ohio J3a Class 4-8-4 614 was moved from its long-time home in Virginia to the Strasburg Rail Road in Strasburg, Pa., on the weekend of June 7 and 8, the first step toward an eventual operational restoration railfan.com/chesapeake-o...

Canadian National 2-8-0 2141, the primary power for British Columbia’s Kamloops Heritage Railway, is expected to be fired up in the coming weeks for the first time since 2019 railfan.com/canadian-nat...

Glad to highlight one of the many cool things happening at the Heber Valley Railroad on Railfan & Railroad today.

Illinois lawmakers failed to pass legislation on May 31 that would prevent “doomsday” cuts to public transit in and around Chicago railfan.com/metra-cta-br...

Another win for the plagiarism machine. AI-generated content benefits no one but publishers who are already sitting on a pile of cash, and every time you use AI to make a funny little picture, you're only adding to the problem www.avclub.com/business-ins...

Public opposition thwarted a previous effort to expand the historic lodge in the Swan Valley.

A Swedish locomotive loaned to Amtrak, which led to the eventual creation of the AEM-7 electric, has been restored to its mid-1970s appearance in Europe railfan.com/amtrak-demon...

Still accurate... Anyway, excuse me while I ignore a story due Monday to instead work on a locomotive roster for a Railfan & Railroad story that won't be published until October.

A little bit of railroad history happened last week...

Want to get in print? The Railfan & Railroad Center Spread Contest will provide a skilled and/or lucky photographer the opportunity to see their photo grace the center spread of the September 2025 issue! railfan.com/railfan-rail...

Rangers to the Rescue flatheadbeacon.com/2025/05/11/r... For more than a century, an elite group has worked to keep visitors safe from the wilds of Glacier National Park — and themselves. Latest for Flathead Living Magazine.