The plant remains owned by Seattle City Light, the city's public electric utility. Since 2014 it has opened to the general public once a month, from 10am to 2pm on the second Saturday of each month.


The plant houses the last operable examples of early vertical Curtis steam generating turbines, as well as operational reciprocating steam engines, a collection of vintage machining tools, and several smaller steam engines.


The plant was the site of the last performance of the rock band Big Black.


Cincinnati Union Terminal is an intercity train station and museum center in the Queensgate neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Commonly abbreviated as CUT, or by its Amtrak station code, CIN, the terminal is served by Amtrak's "Cardinal" line, passing through Cincinnati three times weekly. The building's largest tenant is the Cincinnati Museum Center, comprising the Cincinnati History Museum, the Museum of Natural History & Science, Duke Energy Children's Museum, the Cincinnati History Library and Archives, and an Omnimax theater.


Union Terminal's distinctive architecture, interior design, and history have earned it several landmark designations, including as a National Historic Landmark. Its Art Deco design incorporates several contemporaneous works of art, including two of the Winold Reiss industrial murals, a set of sixteen mosaic murals depicting Cincinnati industry commissioned for the terminal in 1931. The main space in the facility, the Rotunda, has two enormous mosaic murals designed by Reiss. Taxi and bus driveways leading to and from the Rotunda are now used as museum space. The train concourse was another significant portion of the terminal, though no longer extant. It held all sixteen of Reiss's industrial murals, along with other significant art and design features.


The Cincinnati Union Terminal Company was created in 1927 to build a union station to replace five local stations used by seven railroads. Construction, which lasted from 1928 to 1933, included the creation of viaducts, mail and express buildings, and utility structures: a power plant, water treatment facility, and roundhouse. Six of the railroads terminated at the station, which they jointly owned, while the Baltimore and Ohio operated through services.


Initially underused, the terminal saw traffic grow through World War II, then decline over the following four decades. Several attractions were mounted over the years to supplement declining revenues. Train service fully stopped in 1972, and Amtrak moved service to a smaller station nearby. The terminal was largely dormant from 1972 to 1980; during this time, its platforms and train concourse were demolished. In 1980, the Land of Oz shopping mall was constructed inside the station; it operated until 1985. In the late 1980s, two Cincinnati museums merged and renovated the terminal, which reopened in 1990 as the Cincinnati Museum Center. Amtrak returned to the terminal in 1991, resuming its role as an intercity train station. A two-year, $228 million renovation restored the building, completed in 2018.


The station is served by Amtrak's "Cardinal" line, operating every other day, three times per week. The service runs between Chicago and New York City; trains to Chicago arrive at 1:31 a.m. and trains to New York arrive at 3:17 a.m., each departing 10 minutes later.


Ridership is among the lowest of Amtrak stations in Ohio and among the lowest for any station serving a metropolitan area of at least two million people. Union Terminal saw 11,862 boardings and alightings in 2016, 11,144 in 2017, 8,315 in 2018, and 8,641 in 2019. Ohio's total ridership for 2019 was 132,000 people.


The terminal is connected to Route 49 of Metro, the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority's bus system, which also connects to downtown Cincinnati, North Fairmount, and English Woods.


The terminal opened with service from seven railroads: the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad; Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway; Louisville and Nashville Railroad; Norfolk and Western Railway; Pennsylvania Railroad; and the Southern Railway.


Amtrak maintained two services here until moving to the Cincinnati River Road station in 1972, where Amtrak services remained until returning to Union Terminal in 1991.


The facility, grounds, and parking lot are owned by the City of Cincinnati, while the tracks and platforms are owned by the freight railroad company CSX Transportation. The city leases the building primarily for Amtrak use and the Cincinnati Museum Center, a collection of five entities:


The terminal also houses the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center, several foodservice operations, and event space.


All areas of the museum center are wheelchair-accessible. The Amtrak station is also accessible and ADA compliant. The main information desk is used for ticketing, and has daily schedules, museum maps, and coat checking, and has information on special events and the building's lost and found items. The Museum of Natural History operates two gift shops: one adjacent to the rotunda and a children's gift shop in the museum wing. The History Library operates a separate shop adjacent to the rotunda.


There are three dining rooms on the main concourse, two on the lower level, a retail shop, and other rotating operations. The main level operation Cup and Pint serves pizzas, coffee, and draft beer, while Nourish 513 serves sandwiches, salads, and fast food. The Rookwood tea room is operating as a Graeter's ice cream location.


In 2014, the museum center and the Google Cultural Institute created a virtual tour of the museum using Google Street View, with about 65 works of art and their descriptive labels viewable.


The station building was designed by the firm Fellheimer & Wagner, and is considered the firm's magnum opus. Fellheimer was known for designing train stations; he was lead architect for Grand Central Terminal (1903-1913). The large and busy firm gave the project design to Roland A. Wank, a younger employee.


Wank's original plan was traditional and featured Gothic architecture: large arches, vaulted ceilings, and conventional benches in long rows. In 1930, while initial construction took place, the terminal company persuaded the architects to hire Paul Philippe Cret as a design consultant. In 1931-32, Cret altered the design aesthetic: thereafter, the terminal and its supporting buildings used modern architecture (later known as Art Deco), even in places not visible or open to the public. The revised designs were approved as cheaper than the intricate Gothic designs, and more cheerful and stimulating with their colorful interiors than previous designs.


The terminal complex opened in 1933 with 22 buildings, , and of track. 130 acres were occupied by the terminal and its surrounding grounds, while 157 acres were occupied by supporting railroad facilities. The station building in total has .


Cincinnati Union Terminal had a capacity of 216 trains per day, 108 in and 108 out, carrying 17,000 passengers. Three concentric lanes of traffic were included in the design of the building, carrying traffic through enclosed ramps to a space beneath the main rotunda of the building, with ramps again for departure. One lane was for cars and taxis, one for buses, and one (never used) for streetcars. Similar to Buffalo Central Terminal, Union Terminal used a system of ramps for passengers to access the platforms below the concourse.


The building's architecture and design received mostly positive acclaim, though even in 1933 it was seen as possibly the last grand intercity train station built. Carroll Meeks described the passenger's route from the tracks up to the concourse and back down again to vehicle ramps as relatively complicated and arduous.


The space to the east of the station consists of a terrace and fountain to the west and parking lots around a narrow lawn to the east.


The terminal lawn originally measured , and gently carries broad driveways upward to the terminal. The lawn was originally Lincoln Park, a lush city park. It was remodeled during the terminal's construction to have simpler decorative landscaping, though it retained the name of Lincoln Park. The relandscaping included elms and sycamore tree borders, with flower beds in the central strip. The central strip is still intact, but the portions to its north and south became parking lots in 1980.


The west end of the lawn has an ornamental terrace with steps, hedges, and a central fountain. The terrace also features two groups of four pylons, supporting concealed flood lights. Behind the terrace, a driveway curves around the half oval to the building's entranceway. Dalton Avenue runs through a tunnel beneath the plaza. The fountain cascades water down a set of scalloped tiers into a pool below. It was constructed of concrete and green terrazzo, and was designed by Fellheimer & Wagner.


The grounds also feature a large Art Deco sign, not original to the building. For a time, the sign read "Cincinnati Museum Center", though during the extensive renovation in 2018, it was replaced with the current sign, reading "Cincinnati Union Terminal".


The main facade's central arch was inspired by Helsinki Central Station in Helsinki, Finland, which Fellheimer visited in 1927. The terminal was also reported as resembling Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi railway station in Kiev, Ukraine.


The relatively unornamented facade has two bas-relief carvings by Maxfield Keck on buttresses at the north and south ends of the arch. The north carving represents transportation, while the south represents commerce.


The building has a steel frame, masonry curtain walls, and concrete floors and roof slabs.


The entire east facade and the outer walls of the entrance drives are faced with a light, fine-grained Indiana limestone, with a low granite base. The low walls and pylons in front of the building are made of the same limestone. Fossils of sea lilies, bryozoans, brachiopods, snails, and other organisms can be seen in the stone. The entranceway under the marquise features Morton Gneiss, a Cold Spring dark rainbow granite. Morton Gneiss was popular in American Art Deco architecture at the time. The fountain utilizes pink porphyritic granite. The side and rear walls of the building utilize light buff brick. The dome was originally covered with terra cotta, though it was replaced with aluminum sheathing in 1945. The entrance arcades are lined with cream-colored terra cotta.


The terminal was built along with several auxiliary buildings, on the north side of the station, also designed in the Art Deco style. They were designed by Edgar D. Tyler, a staff architect for Fellheimer & Wagner, as well as a former student of Paul Cret.


The mail handling building and express terminals were on the east side of the terminal property, easily accessible to the city's downtown, and directly to the west and north of the Dalton Avenue U.S. Post Office, completed around 1933 and still standing.


The mail building, , was a steel-frame, flat-roofed enclosure for chutes and conveyor belts. The building was also connected to the post office through conveyor belts, delivering city mail separate from transfer mail; the post office in turn delivered outgoing mail split between northern and southern railways. The mail building had two platforms each with two conveyors and serving two tracks, one platform for southbound mail and one for northbound mail.


The express terminal was long, ranging from wide. The building was two stories tall, steel-framed, with brick walls and concrete floors and roofs. The second floor was used for offices and storage. It also included platforms with canopies.


The terminal complex also included a roundhouse, washing platform, cinder pit, fire-lighting stations, coaling station, two electric substations, a power plant, and a water treatment plant. The roundhouse had 20 indoor stalls, 17 outdoor spaces, and a turntable with a diameter. The power plant had a 250-foot chimney and a set of three boilers. The plant's basement housed a water treatment plant, which used zeolite to purify city water, softening the water.


Contrasting with the exterior's simple color scheme, the building's interior is characterized by bright, warm colors, intensified with natural light in daytime and with illumination at night. These colors and lighting contrast with the interior's simple form and detail. Most of the interior metal work is made of aluminum, including doors, signs, ticket grills, and light fixtures.


The floor was consistently patterned in the rotunda, through the checking lobby, and into and through the train concourse. The pattern was terrazzo divided by brass strips into bands and panels in shades of gray and rose. The contrasting flooring was laid out in way that guided traffic to and from the main entrance and platforms.


All interior spaces were designed without visible heating or cooling units. Hot air would be vented into the train concourse behind light fixtures. The ramps were also heated, to prevent drafts of cold air from entering the concourse. The rotunda's vestibules were also heated, and the central space was indirectly heated: the space between the inner plaster dome and outer cement dome was heated, as well as the space between the east facade's two panes of glass. This would surround the rotunda with warm air, insulating it from the cold.


The rotunda's semi-circular central information desk and ticket kiosk originally served as a newsstand and tobacco shop, and was originally the only structure in the rotunda. It features a decorative sphere and a digital clock, possibly the first digital clock installed in a public space. The clock is no longer functioning.


The northern curved wall housed 18 ticket windows, while the southern curved wall had a soda fountain, telegraph counter, drug store, and the entrance to the terminal's two dining rooms. The east wall included four shops, a travel bureau, the Rookwood Tea Room, and a small theater. The shops were for men's apparel, women's apparel, books, and toys. The toy shop had star and moon light fixtures that reflected colors from the ceiling onto the toys, which were depicted in patterns on the shop's floor.


The rotunda features a seemingly unlikely whispering gallery. The east wall's arch around its windows features decorated flues, elements typical in Art Deco design. The flues act as sound channels, allowing people 30 meters apart at the base of each arch, by symmetrical drinking fountains, to hold a private conversation with ease.


The Rotunda features the largest semi-dome in the western hemisphere, measuring wide and high (about ten stories in height). It was considered the largest in the world until 1973, when the Sydney Opera House was built.


The terminal was built with eight platforms and sixteen platform tracks, with room for expansion to 22 tracks. The platforms and tracks ran north to south, partially beneath the train concourse. The platforms were wide, unusual in train station design, and long, and able to be extended to 2,400 feet. They had concrete bases, covered with canopies. The support columns were 80 feet apart, also noted as unusual. The canopies were of painted steel; roofing was by the Philip Carey Company.


Parking tracks were installed between the platform tracks, as there was sufficient room between the platforms. These tracks allowed for sleeping cars and express cars to be exchanged.


The baggage level occupied space directly beneath the checking lobby and train concourse. The space also utilized a drive-through loading platform, where cars would enter the north side of the baggage level, drop off luggage on the loading platform, and exit the south side. Trucking ramps were located directly beneath the train concourse's northern passenger ramps, and a passageway connected the facility to the mail handling building.


A small 118-seat theater is at the entrance of the terminal. It reopened around 1991 as the Scripps Howard Newsreel Theater, showing free features, newsreels, and a video history of the terminal. It uses white and black marble walls, with linoleum carvings on either side of the main screen. It originally had a mulberry-color carpet. In the 2016-2018 renovation, the original seats were cleaned and repaired, and a new projector and sound system was installed.


The north side of the main level included terminal company offices, also present in spaces above the checking lobby.


The men's and women's waiting rooms both used distinctive marbles, and featured wainscoting, with the walls above made of plywood or flexwood showing the natural grain, or in designs. The men's room walls feature a railroad motif, using zebrawood, walnut, and holly; the women's lounge had panels of zebra and madrone wood. The rooms featured aluminum and leather-backed seats. Both waiting rooms had connecting bathrooms with marble walls and several showers.


The checking lobby is a space behind the rotunda. It was originally an intermediate lobby between the rotunda and the train concourse, and served passengers with baggage checking on the north side and parcel checking on the south side. The space also included or led to restrooms, telephone booths, a shoeshine room, barber shop, newsstand, train bulletins, and a soda fountain. The upper portion of the walls are decorated with two Reiss murals depicting the terminal's construction and opening.


The president's office is circular, with flexwood walls and cork floors. A design above the doorway has a depiction of Union Terminal created from inlaid wood, including a working electric clock. The room also has a Kasota stone fireplace, above which lies a map of the United States using inlaid wood; each wood panel is indigenous to the state it depicts.


The terminal also opened with a drug store, beauty parlor, barber shop, men's clothing store, gift shop, and a small hospital.


Cincinnati Union Terminal features works of art throughout its interior spaces. The works of art originally included 23 mosaic murals, totaling , making it the largest collection of secular mosaics in the United States in 1933.


The terminal's interior features numerous works by German-American artist Winold Reiss. Reiss was commissioned to design and create two large mosaic murals depicting the history of Cincinnati and history of the United States for the rotunda, two murals for the baggage checking lobby, two murals for the departing and arriving train boards, 16 smaller murals for the train concourse representing local industries, and a large world map mural. Reiss spent roughly two years in the design and creation of the murals.


The murals are often compared to works of the Federal Art Project, sponsored by the Works Progress Administration, however the Reiss murals predate the Federal Art Project by several years.


The world map mural was , weighing 22.4 tons. It included five decorative clocks made of tile, together representing five of the United States's time zones: Pacific, Mountain, Central, Eastern, and Atlantic. The United States was depicted in the center, divided into the time zones. Major cities were spelled out in the terminal's Art Deco typeface; Cincinnati was spelled largest. The mural also included two Nicolosi globular projections of the world, with the Americas on the left side and Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia on the right. The mural was demolished along with the train concourse in 1974; due to its size, the cost of saving it was estimated at $100,000 ($ in ). All of the clocks remain, except the Eastern time clock.


Reiss also created a set of sixteen murals depicting Cincinnati industries, created for the train concourse. Since the concourse's demolition in 1974, fourteen of the works have been moved numerous times. Currently five of these murals are at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport and nine are at the Duke Energy Convention Center. Two of the murals were initially installed in a still-existing section of Union Terminal; these murals still remain in the building.


Reiss made two murals to decorate space above the arrivals and departures chalkboards at the head of the train concourse. After the concourse's demolition, they were moved to each side of the entrance of the Cincinnati History Library, on the mezzanine level (the space is now occupied by the Holocaust & Humanity Center). The arrivals board featured an oncoming New York Central Hudson locomotive, and the departure board featured a departing observation car typical of the time. These murals were spared from demolition. From 1989 to 1991, to make room for the Omnimax theater under construction, the train murals were relocated to the mezzanine.


The terminal is widely considered the United States' finest example of railway architecture, and one of the last grand train stations in the country. The terminal was designed with a large amount of interior and exterior art, unusual for train stations at the time, intended to set Union Terminal apart and make it a model of modern Cincinnati. The commission was one of the largest of the time period. As well, the dome was the largest unsupported half-dome at the time of opening.


The terminal is popularly recognized by the American public; it was the 45th most popular work of architecture in the United States in the American Institute of Architects' 2006-2007 survey America's Favorite Architecture. It was also recognized in the survey as the most popular work of architecture in the state of Ohio.


Union Terminal inspired the design of the Hall of Justice, a fictional Justice League headquarters appearing in comic books, television, and other media published by DC Comics. The Hall of Justice first appeared in the 1970s animated series "Super Friends". The show was produced by Hanna-Barbera, a division of Cincinnati-based Taft Broadcasting. One of the animators, Al Gmuer, likely visited the terminal while attending meetings, and confirmed he was inspired by the terminal in designing the superhero headquarters.


Union Terminal was also featured in the 1996 DC comic book series "Terminal City".


The architectural firm Fellheimer & Wagner was commissioned to design the terminal in June 1928. The firm first released conservative plans with Gothic attributes in June 1929. The design evolved toward its final Art Deco design between 1931 and 1932. Art Deco was chosen with its proposed cost savings in mind, as well as its liveliness, color, and modern decoration.


The museum opened on November 10, 1990. The original members of the museum center were the Cincinnati Historical Society Library, Cincinnati History Museum, Cincinnati Museum of Natural History, and the Robert D. Lindner Family Omnimax Theater. The center became the fourth-largest attraction in the area, behind the Cincinnati Reds, Kings Island, and the Cincinnati Zoo. The museum center renovations also allowed Amtrak to restore service to Union Terminal via the tri-weekly "Cardinal" train in 1991. In 1995, the entities officially merged to create the Cincinnati Museum Center, also joined by the Cinergy Children's Museum in October 1998.


In 2004, county residents approved a levy for the building's operating costs and capital repairs. In 2009, they extended the levy to fund further repairs, and the museum center began to restore the terminal's southwest wing of the terminal.


In July 2016, the museum shut down for the first renovation of the entire building, a $228 million effort that would last until November 2018. In July 2018, Amtrak stopped staffing 15 of its stations, including Cincinnati. Since the completion of the renovation project, Amtrak allows customers to check bags trainside. The building and museum center had their reopening ceremony on November 17, 2018.


In January 2019, the terminal gained another museum as a tenant, the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust and Humanity Center, in the former space of the History Library.


The Harrisburg Transportation Center (HTC, formerly Pennsylvania Station, Harrisburg or Harrisburg Central Railroad Station) is a large railway station and transportation hub in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It is located on the eastern edge of Downtown Harrisburg between the intersections of Aberdeen and Market Streets and 4th and Chestnut Streets. The well-situated station is the primary hub for passenger rail and intercity bus services in the Harrisburg metropolitan area and South Central Pennsylvania.


The current station was built by PRR in 1887 and significantly rebuilt with its distinctive barn roof in 1905 following a serious fire in 1904. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and is also designated as a National Historic Landmark. The station is one of the few railway stations in the United States that still has a train shed above the tracks. It also has a red brick exterior, unlike many of the still-used U.S. railway stations built slightly later in the early 1900s that have white stone facing, such as 30th Street Station in Philadelphia and Union Station in Washington, D.C.


There are two intercity bus operators (Greyhound Lines and Fullington Trailways) that provide service to the station. Some of the key cities and large towns served with one-seat rides by each bus operator are as follows:


With both Greyhound and Fullington Trailways, many in-state and out-of-state cities and towns beyond those listed can be reached via transfers.


The local public transit operator in the Harrisburg area, Capital Area Transit (CAT), has many local and express bus routes that stop either along Aberdeen Street almost immediately outside the Transportation Center or 1/2 block away on Market Street between 4th Street and Aberdeen Street. These nearby CAT stops that are within easy walking distance of the Harrisburg Transportation Center enable convenient transfers between local public transit and intercity rail and bus services.


The public transit provider in York County, Rabbit Transit, operates its commuter-oriented RabbitEXPRESS bus service on weekdays between the city of York and downtown Harrisburg. Like the Capital Area Transit buses, the RabbitEXPRESS does not stop at the HTC itself but does have stops within one block of the facility.


Finally, R & J Transportation, a charter/tour bus company, has scheduled weekday, line route commuter service between Schuylkill County and downtown Harrisburg. R & J has stops within one block of the HTC, though no tickets for R & J's service are available at the Transportation Center.


Once the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad arrived in Chama, other railroad companies were formed to take advantage of the forests around the area. This created a flourishing logging economy to for the small town. There were lumber mills located to the west and south of Chama. These mills provided a steady stream of revenue for the railroad lasting until abandonment in the late 1960s.


After World War II, there was an oil boom in Farmington, New Mexico. This boom provided a surge of revenue for the railroad. This revenue consisted of 60 car pipe trains going west from Antonito. The Gramps Oil Fields of southern Colorado also provided oil for the trains to carry from Chama to Antonito. The lumber mills also provided a steady stream of revenue, although this was not as important as the oil. This increase in revenue is what saved the line from abandonment.


In September 1968, the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad filed for abandonment of the narrow gauge line. In April 1969, legislation was signed in New Mexico that provided a way for the state of New Mexico to buy the track between Chama and Antonito. In 1970, Colorado passed similar legislation. The two states took joint ownership of the line and by 1971 the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad was formed.


In 2002, the C&TSRR was shut down twice, first in the spring to resolve track bed issues. In the summer, operations were suspended again because of wildfire dangers.


On June 23, 2010, an unknown fire severely damaged Lobato Trestle, a deck girder bridge located approximately east of Chama. While the bridge was out of service, the C&TSRR operated limited services from the Chama end while trains from Antonito only traveled to Osier and back. After undergoing extensive refurbishment, the bridge was reopened on June 20, 2011.


In 1973, the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the boundaries were increased in 2007. The railroad was designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1976. In 2012, the railroad was designated a National Historic Landmark, for its engineering, its well-preserved infrastructure and equipment and the role of the railroad in the development of the region it served.


In addition to the through service, the C&TSRR operates various special excursions during the season such as dinner trains. On certain days during the holiday season, the railroad offers special "Santa Trains" from both Chama and Antonito and guests are encouraged to bring gifts and/or food for the less fortunate.


After the C&TSRR was formed in 1971, a bi-state agency, the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad Commission was created. Railroad operations were then contracted to third party rail operators. In 2012, after long discussions with other third parties bidding to take over, the Commission formed its own operating company, Cumbres and Toltec Operating LLC This is when they hired John Bush, a veteran of the railroad, to become president on December 13, 2012.


In 1988, a nonprofit organization called the Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad was established to preserve the history of the railroad and help maintain infrastructure and rolling stock. The Friends of the C&TSRR also participates in various education programs and provides the railroad guides, known as docents, who inform passengers about historical aspects of the railroad as well as locations of interest.


The track continues a gentle descent on the average 1.45% grade to the north until it reaches Los Piños tank. This tank is always full and is used for small engines and rotary trains. The track takes a gentle loop off to the west and comes back to the east at the station of Los Piños (MP: 324.8). There is nothing here except a siding and the station sign. The track then turns back north towards Osier Colorado. Just before Osier at Milepost 320, the track crosses Cascade Trestle. This is the highest trestle on the entire line sitting at above the river below. The train then stops at Osier Colorado (MP: 318.40).


This section covers the eastern portion of the line from the small cattle and junction town of Antonito to Osier, the midpoint of the line.


Antonito (MP 280.70) is a small company town of the former railroad main line. It is home to the C&TSRR car shop, a water tank and other relics. Most of the facilities were built by the C&TSRR, since the original rail yard, wye, and station were not sold to the states of Colorado and New Mexico.


Heading west, the track rounds Whiplash Curve, a double horseshoe curve. About from Whiplash Curve lie the sidings and wye at Big Horn. Past Big Horn the train loops around the sides of mountains going through horseshoe curves before reaching the first water stop at Sublette.


Sublette is an abandoned railroad section camp, consisting of a log bunk house, a section house, a siding and other buildings. There was a water tank at the western end of the siding. Today, in its place is a standpipe. After filling the tender with water, the train slowly creeps into lush aspen groves.


After departing Sublette is Toltec Siding, which in the 1950s was the meeting place for oil well pipe trains moving between Chama and Farmington to Alamosa. Shortly afterwards, trains pass through Mud Tunnel, which is unique, because it is lined with wooden pillars, since it is bored through soft volcanic ash. When the beams in the tunnel collapsed, the D&RGW made a "shoo fly" (a temporary by-pass) to allow passengers and small cars to be moved around the tunnel to an awaiting train. After passing through this, trains pass around Phantom Curve and through Calico Cut, then slow when entering the longer Rock Tunnel. Trains exit the tunnel entering Toltec Gorge where the track is above the river. The line then follows the river to Osier.


The T-12 No. 168 is a "Ten Wheeler" type inside frame engine also built by Baldwin Locomotive Works. This is the oldest steam locomotive owned by the railroad. Restoration work on No. 168 was completed in October 2019 and it now continues to operate on occasional special excursions on the C&TSRR. Another engine that operates on the railroad is D&RGW No. 315. No. 315 is a C-18 class inside frame "Consolidation" type locomotive. It is owned by the Durango Railroad Historical Society, but it is on indefinite loan to the C&TSRR. Restoration work on No. 315 was completed in August 2007 and it continues to operate on occasional special excursions on both the D&SNG and the C&TSRR.


The C&TSRR owns 2 class DE General Electric 44-ton center-cab diesel locomotives built in 1943, Nos. 15 and 19, for emergency use when the steam locomotives are inoperative. They are also used for operations outside the normal operating season. Both came from the Oahu Railway and Land Company; No. 19 was purchased by the C&TSRR in 1972 and No. 15 was purchased in 2013.


The C&TSRR owns two rotary snowplows, Rotary OY and Rotary OM. Rotary OM was purchased in the late 1800s by the D&RGW and has served the line ever since. It was last run in the 1970s and has not been run since then because of mechanical issues. Rotary OY was built in the 1920s and has served in several places on the line. It was last run in late winter of 2020 to begin the 50th anniversary of the formation of the C&TSRR. There are no current plans to run the rotary again anytime soon, but it is in good condition and fully functional.


In 2016, D&RGW No. 168 arrived in Antonito from Colorado Springs, Colorado for restoration to working order. The engine had been on display for a long time in a public park, but was in good condition. Restoration began in March 2017 and was completed in October 2019. The restoration project was headed up by Cumbres and Toltec Special Projects department and lead by Assistant General Manager Efstathios Papas. The project cost $508,000 and took 27 months to complete. The railroad intends to use this engine frequently in normal excursion service as much as possible. As of 2021, No. 168 continues to operate in occasional special excursions on the C&TSRR.


For passenger services, the C&TSRR operates a mixture of flat roofed and clerestory cars with interiors corresponding with the railroad's three classes of service: Coach, Deluxe (formerly Tourist class) and Parlor. In 2019, the car shop in Antonito, Colorado finished the first in a line of new clerestory cars that will serve as standard passenger cars and new Parlor cars. This is part of an effort to retire the older flat roofed cars due to their age. The C&TSRR also operates observation gondolas as well as special coaches configured to accommodate wheelchairs and house concession areas.


The Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad also owns a varied collection of former D&RGW narrow-gauge freight cars for display and use in nostalgic railtours.


Over the years, the railroad was featured in several documentaries and films. Among these are:


Eads Bridge is a combined road and railway bridge over the Mississippi River connecting the cities of St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois. It is located on the St. Louis riverfront between Laclede's Landing, to the north, and the grounds of the Gateway Arch, to the south. The bridge is named for its designer and builder, James Buchanan Eads. It was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie. Work on the bridge began in 1867, and it was completed in 1874. Eads Bridge was the first bridge across the Mississippi south of the Missouri River. Earlier bridges were located north of the Missouri, where the Mississippi is smaller. None of the earlier bridges survive, which means that Eads Bridge is also the oldest bridge on the river.


Eads Bridge became a famous image of the city of St. Louis, from the time of its erection until 1965 when the Gateway Arch was completed. The highway deck was closed to automobiles from 1991 to 2003, but has been restored and now carries both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. It connects Washington Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri with Riverpark Drive and, eventually, East Broadway, both in East St. Louis, Illinois. The former railroad deck now carries the St. Louis MetroLink light rail system, providing commuter train service between St Louis and communities on the Illinois side of the river.


The bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark. As of April 2014, it carries about 8,100 vehicles daily, down 3,000 since the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge opened in February 2014.


Eads Bridge was built by the Illinois and St. Louis Bridge Company, with the Keystone Bridge Company serving as subcontractor for superstructure erection.


Because of the increased reach of newly constructed railroads, river shipping trade had declined in importance compared to the antebellum years. Chicago was fast gaining as the center of commerce in the West. The bridge was conceived as a solution for St. Louis to regain eminence by connecting railroad and vehicle transportation across the river. Although he had no prior experience in bridge building, James Eads was chosen as chief engineer for the bridge.


In an attempt to secure their future, steamboat interests successfully lobbied to place restrictions on bridge construction, requiring spans and heights previously unheard of. This was ostensibly to maintain sufficient operating room for steamboats beneath the bridge's base for the then foreseeable future. The unproclaimed purpose was to require a bridge so grand and lofty that it was impossible to erect according to conventional building techniques. The steamboat parties planned to prevent any structure from being built, in order to ensure continued dependence on river traffic to sustain commerce in the region.


Such a bridge required a radical design solution. The Mississippi River's strong current was almost and the builders had to battle ice floes in the winter. The ribbed arch had been a known construction technique for centuries. The triple span, tubular metallic arch construction was supported by two shore abutments and two mid-river piers. Four pairs of arches per span (upper and lower) were set apart, supporting an upper deck for vehicular traffic and a lower deck for rail traffic.


Construction involved varied and confusing design elements and pressures. State and federal charters precluded suspension or draw bridges, or wood construction. There were constraints on span size and the height above the water line. The location required reconciling differences in heights - from the low Illinois floodplain of the east bank of the river to the high Missouri cliff on the west bank. The bedrock could only be reached by deep drilling, as it was 38 m below water level on the Illinois side and 26 m below on the Missouri side.


These pressures resulted in a bridge noted as innovative for precision and accuracy of construction and quality control. This was the first use of structural alloy steel in a major building construction, through use of cast chromium steel components. The completed bridge also relied on significant—and unknown—amounts of wrought iron. Eads argued that the great compressive strength of steel was ideal for use in the upright arch design. His decision resulted from a curious combination of chance and necessity, due to the insufficient strength of alternative material choices.


The particular physical difficulties of the site stimulated interesting solutions to construction problems. The deep caissons used for pier and abutment construction signaled a new chapter in civil engineering. Piers were sunk almost below the river's surface. Unable to construct falsework to erect the arches, because they would obstruct river traffic, Eads's engineers devised a cantilevered rigging system to close the arches.


Eads Bridge was recognized as an innovative and exciting achievement. Eads secured 47 patents during his lifetime, many of which were taken out for parts of the bridge's structure and devices for its construction. President Ulysses S. Grant dedicated the bridge on July 4, 1874, and General William T. Sherman drove the gold spike completing construction. After completion, 14 locomotives crossed the bridge to prove its stability.


On June 14, 1874, John Robinson led a "test elephant" on a stroll across the new Eads Bridge to prove that it was safe. A big crowd cheered as the elephant from a traveling circus lumbered toward Illinois. Popular belief held that elephants had instincts that would make them avoid setting foot on unsafe structures. Two weeks later, Eads sent 14 locomotives back and forth across the bridge at one time. The opening day celebration on July 4, 1874, featured a parade that stretched for through the streets of St. Louis.


The cost of building the bridge was nearly $10 million ($ million with inflation).


The Eads Bridge was undercapitalized during construction and burdened with debt. Because of its historic focus on the Mississippi and river trade, St. Louis lacked adequate rail terminal facilities, and the bridge was poorly planned to coordinate rail access. Although an engineering and aesthetic success, the bridge operations became bankrupt within a year of opening. The railroads boycotted the bridge, resulting in a loss of tolls. The bridge was later sold at auction for 20 cents on the dollar. This sale caused the National Bank of the State of Missouri to fold, which was the largest bank failure in the United States at that time. Eads did not suffer financial consequences. Many involved with financing the bridge were indicted, but Eads was not.


Granite for the bridge came from the Iron County, Missouri, quarry of B. Gratz Brown, Missouri Governor and U.S. Senator, who had helped secure federal financing for the bridge.


In April 1875, after the failure of the Illinois and St Louis Bridge Company, the bridge was sold at public auction, for $2 million, to a newly incorporated St. Louis Bridge Company controlled by the old company's creditors. This group was bought-out two years later by the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA). The TRRA owned the bridge until 1989, when the Terminal Railroad transferred the bridge to the Bi-State Regional Transportation Authority and the City of St. Louis, for incorporation into St Louis' MetroLink light rail system. In exchange for Eads Bridge, the TRRA acquired the MacArthur Bridge, previously owned by the City of St Louis.


In 1949, the bridge's strength was tested with electromagnetic strain gauges. It was determined that Eads' original estimation of an allowable load of could be raised to . The Eads Bridge is still considered one of the greatest bridges ever built.


Eads Bridge had long hosted only passenger trains on its rail deck. In the late 20th century, however, passenger traffic had declined because of individual automobile use, and the railroad industry was restructuring. By the 1970s, the Terminal Railroad Association had abandoned its Eads trackage. The bridge had lost all remaining passenger rail traffic to the MacArthur Bridge during the early years of Amtrak; the dimensions of modern passenger diesels were incompatible with both the bridge and the adjoining tunnel linking the Union Station trackage with Eads.


MetroLink service over the bridge began in 1993. The bridge was closed to automobile traffic between 1991 and 2003, when the city of St. Louis, Missouri, completed a project to restore the highway deck.


In 1998, the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center investigated the effects of the ramming of the bridge by the towboat "Anne Holly" on April 4 of that year. The ramming resulted in the near breakaway of the SS "Admiral", a riverboat casino. Implementing several recommended changes reduced the odds of this happening in the future.


In 2012, the Bi-State Development Agency/Metro (BSDA/Metro) started the Eads Bridge Rehabilitation project to extend the life of the bridge to at least the year 2091. The restorations included replacing 1.2 million pounds of struts, bracing, and other support steel dating to the 1880s; removing all paint and corrosion from the superstructure; re-painting the superstructure with a rust-inhibiting coating; repairing damaged structure; rebuilding concrete supports; restoring the brick archways; and upgrading the MetroLink's rails. The total cost was $48 million, with $27 million coming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. While expected to start in 2009, work didn't begin until 2012 due to labor disputes and higher-than-expected cost estimates. Workers completed the project in 2016.


City fathers wanted a wagon bridge to the heart of town to highlight the best features of St. Louis. Economics required that it be a railroad bridge, but there was no space for railroads in the heart of downtown. Hence, a tunnel was authorized to connect the bridge to the Missouri Pacific Railroad to the south (and later to the new Union Station).


Eads worked out the specifications for the tunnel. It was to be a “cut and cover” tunnel 4000 ft long, 30 ft below street level. They advertised for bids in the Missouri Republican on August 31, 1872. The contract was awarded to William Skrainka and Company. Construction began in October. A series of problems arose including quicksand and springs on the planned route. Also several workers were injured; at least one was killed.


On November 29, the city council passed an ordinance changing the tunnel route to Eight Street and transferring the right to build to the newly formed St. Louis Tunnel Railroad Company.


In April, Skrainka and Co. decided the project was too difficult. They agreed to complete construction south of Market St. The work north of Market was assigned to James Andrews, the company building the bridge piers.


Eads Bridge was ready to be opened after seven years of construction on July 4, 1874. The celebration included a fifteen car train filled with 500 dignitaries pulled by three locomotives that departed from the St. Louis, Vandalia, and Terre Haute Railroad station in East St. Louis. Locomotives were provided by the Illinois Central Railroad and the Vandalia line (a Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary). The route crossed Eads Bridge and traveled through the tunnel to Mill Creek Valley and then returned.


Locomotive smoke is a concern in tunnels, especially passenger tunnels. Specially designed coke burning “smoke consuming engines” from the Baldwin Locomotive Works had yet to be ordered. News reports tell of passengers coughing and gasping for breath. Construction of the tunnel was not yet complete. Only one of the two tracks was available and ventilation was not yet arranged.


A photograph of the St. Louis Bridge Company’s coke burning engine appears on page 38 of Brown’s Baldwin Locomotive Works.


In 1875, the bridge and tunnel companies declared bankruptcy. In 1881, Jay Gould got control of the bridge and tunnel companies by threatening to build a competing bridge four miles north of St. Louis. In 1889, Gould was instrumental in the creation of the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis. He died in 1892, but this led to the construction of Union Station in 1894.


Eads Bridge and its tunnel are now used by Metrolink, the St. Louis light rail system.


In 1898 the bridge was featured on the $2 Trans-Mississippi Issue of postage stamps. One hundred years later the design was reprinted in a commemorative souvenir sheet.


The bridge was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1964, in recognition of its innovations in design, materials, construction methods, and importance in the history of large-scale engineering projects.


During the bridge's construction, "The New York Times" called it "The World's Eighth Wonder". On its 100th anniversary, the Times' architectural critic, Ada Louise Huxtable, described it as "among the most beautiful works of man."


The Ellicott City Station in Ellicott City, Maryland, is the oldest remaining passenger train station in the United States, and one of the oldest in the world. It was built in 1830 as the terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line from Baltimore to the town then called Ellicott's Mills, and a facility to service steam locomotives at the end of the 13-mile (21 km) run. The station, a National Historic Landmark, is now used as a museum.


The station was built in 1830 at the end of the Oliver Viaduct, of local stone (Ellicott City Granodiorite) provided by one of the quarries owned by the Ellicott family, which had founded the town and local flour mill in 1772. The two-story stone building is built against the viaduct. A gabled roof is topped by a wood ventilating cupola. The upper level of the station is at the level of the tracks on the viaduct.


The Oliver Viaduct was the second major stone bridge built by the railroad (after the Carrollton Viaduct). It was long and comprised three arches. The viaduct was damaged by Hurricane Agnes in 1972, and has since been reconstructed.


The station building was designed to allow engines to be pulled in on the upper level so that they could be worked on from below. A turntable with a diameter of was fitted in 1863 to permit locomotives to be turned around. The turntable was filled in after the rail line was extended, but the granite foundations remain.


The railroad built an adjacent freight house, designed by E. Francis Baldwin, in 1885. The station is now used as a museum.


The railroad's inaugural trip from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills has held on May 22, 1830, with horse-drawn rail cars. Regular passenger service began on May 24.


The B&O demonstrated its first locomotive, the "Tom Thumb," at Ellicott's Mills in a famous race against a horse later in 1830. The railroad began using locomotives for passenger trains in 1832.


The station is the terminus of the original B&O railroad, which was intended to re-establish Baltimore as a major terminus of inland commerce after the opening of the Erie Canal. It was also meant to help the city compete against regional rival Washington, D.C., where construction was starting on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.


From Ellicott's Mills the tracks reached Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, in 1834, Cumberland, Maryland (the eventual terminus of the C&O Canal) by 1842, and Wheeling, West Virginia, on the Ohio River in 1852.


B&O passenger service from Baltimore to its Ellicott City station was discontinued in 1949, although freight service continued until 1972.


Today, the Ellicott City Station is part of the Baltimore & Ohio Ellicott City Station Museum. The museum was operated by the B&O Railroad Museum with Howard County from 2006 to 2017. Since September 2017, the museum has been managed by Howard County's Department of Recreation & Parks. Admission is free, with fees for some special events and tours.


The B&O Ellicott City Station Museum includes:


An HO-gauge model train layout is housed in the 1885 freight house; the layout depicts "the original 13 miles of commercial rail track stretching from Baltimore to Ellicott Mills", and train videos are projected onto the wall behind. Other static displays include memorabilia explaining the role of the B&O Railroad and the station in the American Civil War. The car house also hosts a holiday train layout in December.


The Museum also offers living history interpretation, reenactments, guided group tours, visiting exhibits, educational programs and special events for school groups, families, and adults.


The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, often abbreviated as the D&SNG, is a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge heritage railroad that operates on of track between Durango and Silverton in the U.S. state of Colorado. The railway is a federally designated National Historic Landmark and was also designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1968.


The route was originally opened in 1882 by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) to transport silver and gold ore mined from the San Juan Mountains. The line was an extension of the D&RG narrow-gauge line from Antonito, Colorado to Durango. The last train to operate into Durango from the east was on December 6, 1968. The states of New Mexico and Colorado purchased 64 miles between Antonito and Chama, New Mexico, in 1970 and operates today as the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad (C&TSRR). Trackage between Chama and Durango was removed by 1971.


The line from Durango to Silverton has run continuously since 1881, although it is now a tourist and heritage line hauling passengers and is one of the few places in the U.S. which has seen continuous use of steam locomotives. In March 1981, the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) sold the line and the D&SNG was formed. Today, the D&SNG, along with the C&TSRR, are the only two remaining parts of the former D&RGW narrow-gauge network. The railroad has a total of nine narrow-gauge steam locomotives (eight of which are operational) and soon-to-be eleven narrow-gauge diesel locomotives, six of which were acquired within the last three years, in their current roster. The railroad also operates former D&RGW No. 315 for special events.


Some rolling stock dates back to the 1880s. Trains operate from Durango to the Cascade Wye in the winter months and Durango–Silverton during the summer months. Durango depot was built in January 1882 and has been preserved in its original form.


In July 1881, the Denver & Rio Grande reached Durango and started building the final 45-mile stretch up the Animas River to Silverton. The first 18 miles to Rockwood were completed by late November. The remainder of the route entered the narrow Animas Canyon, which has steep granite walls. The labor crew, made up of mostly Chinese and Irish immigrants, blasted the canyon cliffs off and left a narrow, level shelf to lay the tracks on. Grading was completed by late spring 1882.


The D&RG reached Silverton on July 10, 1882. Trains hauling passengers and freight began immediately. The D&RG soon re-emerged as the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (1886) and ultimately began operating as the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) on July 31, 1921, after re-organization of the Colorado lines and Rio Grande Western of Utah. Eventually, the railroad became widely known as the "Rio Grande".


The Silverton branch, as it became known, struggled under D&RG ownership following the Panic of 1893 and the end of free coinage of silver. Typical of many portions of the surviving narrow-gauge branches into the middle of the twentieth century, the line faced sagging revenue due to ever-declining mining ventures, highway trucking competition, and insignificant passenger revenue. Annual snowslides and several major floods on the branch would only continue to challenge the railroad's ability to survive.


After World War II, domestic tourism began to grow across the country and the Silverton branch of the railroad would benefit. Bolstered by national exposure via Hollywood movies being filmed along the line in the late 1940s, the railroad created "The Silverton", a summer-only train service on June 24, 1947. A short time later, the railroad adorned a locomotive and four coaches with a colorful yellow paint scheme and launched modest public promotion. With this effort, "The Painted Train" officially started a new era of tourism that continues to this day. Freight traffic, however, continued to decline and during the 1950s, "The Silverton" operated as a mixed train.


By the 1960s, a modernized D&RGW did not see the Silverton Branch as worthy to maintain and a petition was filed with governmental agencies to abandon the route. The Interstate Commerce Commission declined to grant the request due to the continued increase in tourist patronage. Following the ICC's ruling, the railroad reluctantly responded by investing in additional rolling stock, track maintenance, and improvements to the Durango depot. The railroad purchased some of the property around the depot, cleaned up the block extending north to Sixth Street, and facilitated the opening of gift shops and other tourist-friendly businesses. As ridership continued to grow, the D&RGW operated a second train to Silverton on certain days.


Since 1971, the Silverton branch and nearby Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad (C&TSRR) were the only remnants of the Rio Grande's once extensive narrow-gauge system. During the late 1970s, the D&RGW was actively trying to sell the Silverton branch, and in 1979, Charles Bradshaw, a Florida citrus grower, offered the railroad a legitimate opportunity to divest itself of the now isolated route. On October 5, 1980, "The Silverton" made its last run under D&RGW ownership and after operating a work train the following day, the railroad finally concluded its narrow-gauge train operations, bringing to a close an era that began 110 years earlier with its narrow-gauge railroad from Denver to Colorado Springs.


In March 2020, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the country severely affected the US. For the safety and protection of guests and employees, the D&SNG suspended all operations until June 23, 2020.


The D&SNG was founded by Charles Bradshaw Jr., of Florida, with the intent of purchasing the right-of-way and equipment while expanding the infrastructure and passenger revenue. His plans were fulfilled with the March 25, 1981, acquisition of the D&RGW's Silverton branch and all of its structures and rolling stock.


In March 1997, Bradshaw sold the D&SNG to First American Railways, Inc., located in Hollywood, Florida. Then in July 1998, the railroad was sold again to American Heritage Railways. At the time, American Heritage Railways was headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida. Since then their headquarters have been moved to Durango, Colorado. The D&SNG has two museums, one each in Durango and Silverton.


As of 2021, the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad operates coal-fired and converted oil-fired steam engines and diesel engines.


The steam-powered locomotives used today on the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad were built during the 1920s. There are three classes, K-28, K-36 and K-37, which are all based on wheel arrangement and pulling power of the locomotive. Of the nine steam locomotives currently owned by the D&SNG, Nos. 473, 476, 478, 480, 481, 482, 486 and 493 are all operational. However, locomotive No. 478 is currently sitting on display in the D&SNG Museum awaiting a future overhaul.


The "K" represents the nickname "Mikado" that describes a locomotive with two non-powered, pivoting wheels in front of eight driving wheels, which are connected to driving rods powered by the engine's pistons and finally two non-powered trailer wheels located under the cab. The name comes from the fact that the first significant use of the type was a series built by Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Japanese Railways in 1887.


The numbers 28 and 36 designate the tractive effort (pulling force) of the locomotives in thousands of pounds. The tractive effort of K-28s is rated at and the tractive effort of a K-36 is a . The weight of a K-28 with a full tender is and a K-36 weighs with a full tender.


Out of the original ten only three 470s remain and all are owned and operated by the D&SNG. The other seven were requisitioned by the United States Army in 1942 to be used on the White Pass & Yukon Route in Alaska during World War II. They were later dismantled for scrap in 1946.


Locomotives 473, 476 and 478 operated on many parts of the D&RGW. Engine 473 served frequently on the "Chili Line" that operated between Antonito, Colorado and Santa Fe, New Mexico. 473 served on the "Chili Line" until it was abandoned in 1941. 476 and 478 saw an extensive service on the "San Juan" passenger train, which ran between Durango, Colorado and Alamosa, Colorado until 1951. 473, 476 and 478 operated on the Silverton Branch from the 1950s through 1980 and are still in service today.


In July 2015, the D&SNG and C&TSRR had announced that a trade that proposed that the 478 should go to Chama, New Mexico, and in exchange, the D&SNG would get K-36 class No. 483, which had not seen operation in several years. Since the swap failed to go through, the D&SNG announced in June 2016 that they were going to restore 476 to operating condition and place 478 in the museum.


The D&SNG owns four K-36s: Nos. 480, 481, 482 and 486, all of which are operational. The Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad (C&TSRR) owns Nos. 483, 484, 487, 488 and 489. Locomotive No. 485, unfortunately, fell into the turntable pit in Salida, Colorado in 1955. It was scrapped for parts thereafter, however, some accessories, running and valve gear was salvaged and used on other locomotives. As of early November 2020, No. 480 is currently undergoing a conversion from burning coal to burning oil and will be the third and last locomotive so far on the D&SNG to be converted to burn oil, the others being K-37 class No. 493 and K-28 class No. 473.


The D&SNG currently operates eight Diesel engines. Narrow-gauge Diesel engines are just as rare as any other narrow-gauge equipment. Some of the Diesel engines of the D&SNG are of the center-cab style, where the cab straddles the center of the locomotive.


Below are the Diesel engines currently used by the D&SNG:


The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad currently operates over 50 pieces of rolling stock. Some of the cars are the oldest passenger cars in existence.


Like most of the coaches on the D&SNG, the concession cars are good examples of how coaches were renumbered and rebuilt several times by the D&RGW.


The D&SNG operates one combination car 213 named Bitter Root Mine, it was previously named Home Ranch and was built in 1983 by the D&SNG. It has a hydraulic lift for passengers in wheelchairs.


Built in 1883, the Cinco Animas was originally an immigrant sleeper. Immigrant sleepers had very few amenities and had little consideration for passenger comfort. The original Cinco Animas could seat up to thirty passengers. It was turned into a business car in 1913. In 1963 it was purchased by the Cinco Animas Corporation, where it received its present name. Then, in 1982, the Cinco Animas was sold to the D&SNG. It runs daily throughout the summer.


Built in 1878, the Nomad was originally named Fairplay. In 1886, it was rebuilt as Business Car N. It is reportedly the favorite car of D&RG president William Jackson Palmer. The Fairplay has hosted Presidents William H Taft, Ulysses S Grant and Theodore Roosevelt. While being owned by several parties between 1951 and 1982 the Fairplay was renamed the Nomad. It was acquired by the D&SNG in 1982. Today it is the oldest private railroad coach still in service in the United States. It runs daily throughout the summer.


The General Palmer was built in 1880 as a business car for the D&RG. In later years it fell into disrepair. It was restored in 2001 at a cost of $250,000 by the D&SNG. Its modern amenities include internet service and a twenty-inch flat paneled television. The General Palmer is exclusively used by owner Allen Harper, his family and guests.


Built by the D&RG in 1887, it had clerestory roof and bullnose ends. It was finished in ash and seated forty-six. It was rebuilt in 1937 at the Alamosa shops. Vestuable ends, train-line steam heat, electric lights, and deluxe Heywood-Wakefield reclining coach seats for 24 passenger were installed. The D&SNG named coach 312 the Silverton. In the winter of 2007–2008 it was rebuilt with overstuffed seating for in a wide three across arrangement and had its name changed to San Juan. It runs during the summer time.


Was built in 1984 as a coach and was named Hunt. In 2009 it became a family upscale coach. The Prospector features comfortable table and chair style seating. The ceiling of the Prospector features an enlarged route map, making it easy for passengers to follow the train's progress along the route.


Tall Timber Legend 631 & Tall Timber Legacy 632.


631 was built in 1985 and named the North Star. 632 was built in 1986 and named Teft. Both cars were built as general passenger cars to help with the increase in passengers. In 2009 the cars were converted with overstuffed seats. They are used mainly to take passengers to Tall Timber to go zip lining.


Open observation gondolas 400–402 were built in 1963, equipped with passenger car trucks, steel roofs, tile floors and tramway seats. Gondolas 403–405 were built for the 1967 season on The Silverton. Between 1982 and 1985 the D&SNG built Open Observation cars 411 and 412. Open Observation cars 406–409 and 413–416 were built between 1982 and 1986


The original Silver Vista was built in 1947 by the D&RGW. It was a popular glass-topped observation car and the only one of its kind. The original Silver Vista was destroyed by a fire in Alamosa in 1953. Because of its popularity, there has been speculation that the D&RGW destroyed it on purpose to drive revenue down so they could abandon the line from Silverton to Antonito. The recreation of the Silver Vista was built in 2006. It runs daily throughout the summer.


Built in the winter of 1987–1988, the Rio Grande was originally railbus trailer 1002 and was painted red. It was used with the Animas Canyon Railway Diesel-powered rail-bus. It was stored from 1992 to 1997, until it was rebuilt as an open observation car 313. It was given number 313, because it resembled the Silver Vista. After the Silver Vista was built in 2006, it became open observation car 410. In the winter of 2006–2007 it was again rebuilt into an open air observation car with comfortable and large overstuffed seats for a more expansive view. It runs daily during the summer.


Caboose No. 0505 was built in 1886 and is stocked with provisions to provide shelter and food.


Caboose No. 0540 was built in 1881 and is a mini-warehouse, carrying the most common tools and supplies. It is used by Maintenance of Way.


Is long, and was built in 1886. It was originally known as D&RG No. 1. In 1950 it was sold to Bob Richardson, then again in 1987 to a business in Cripple Creek. In 1993 it was acquired by the D&SNG and was restored to its original condition. It is available for charter and can hold up to eight people.


Rail camp car No. 3681 is an ex-D&RGW boxcar. It was rebuilt by the D&SNG in 1984 with a kitchen, a bathroom and beds. It is pulled to Cascade Canyon Wye for elegant camping. It can hold a group of up to eight people.


The D&SNG operates two museums, the D&SNG Museum and the Silverton Freight Yard Museum. They both feature historic locomotives and railway equipment used on the D&RGW line.


Opened in 1998, the D&SNG Museum is a tribute to railroading nationally and southwest Colorado. The museum is located in the Durango roundhouse. Half the roundhouse is used for the steam engines and the other half is for the museum. The museum features memorabilia from the D&RGW and other railroads. It also features many artifacts from the Durango and Silverton areas. There is an HO train layout in the museum. It depicts a narrow-gauge railroad similar to the D&RGW. There is also a movie coach that was used in the filming of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, where the railroad's informational and educational films are featured.


Originally built as flat car No. 6630, it was rebuilt in 1968 as a baggage car for the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. No. 127 was the third concession car built by the D&SNG. It saw limited service and acted as a backup concession car. No. 127 is now used as a movie theater in the museum.


The Silverton Freight Yard Museum was opened in 1999 and is located at the Silverton depot and rail yard. On display are outfit cars, some equipped with kitchen facilities and side-dumped gondolas. In the Silverton depot are local artifacts.


Beginning May 7, 1988 a new Diesel-hydraulic motorcar and trailer railbus began making trips out of Rockwood, Colorado up the Animas canyon. The new company Animas River Railway was incorporated by the D&SNG, in order to preserve the integrity of its own claim of "100% coal-fired steam locomotives". The railbus hauled hikers and fishermen into the canyon from Rockwood. Operations for the Animas River Railway were run out of Rockwood. Former mail baggage car 66 was used as the ticket window, office and waiting room for the railway.


Built in 1987–88 winter, motorcar 1001 was named Tamarron. It could seat 32 people and had a six-cylinder Caterpillar engine. It also had a baggage compartment and restroom. The trailer 1002 could seat 48 in longitudinal seats.


The first railbus trip left at 7:30 a.m. on May 7 for Elk Park. There were 12:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. trips to Cascade Canyon. The season for the Animas River Railway was supposed to last from May 7 through October 30, but lasted until September 4 due to mechanical problems.


The railbus was repaired and began operations on May 6, 1989. A 12:01 p.m. trip for Cascade Canyon ran until October 29. From May 27 through September 15 Elk Park trips ran at 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.


The schedule for the Animas River Railway remained the same. The last excursion of the Animas River Railway was on September 23 from Rockwood to Cascade. Patronage never met expectations and has not operated since.


During the 2002 Missionary Ridge Fire, the D&SNG voluntarily shut down steam service. To help continue service, motorcar 1001 now RB-1 and trailer 1002 now 313 took people out to Elk Park from Silverton.


Just as narrow-gauge equipment and parts are rare, narrow-gauge railroads are rare these days too. When narrow-gauge pieces of equipment come back to life there are very few places in the United States where they can run. Many of these pieces run during the railroad's annual Railfest held every August. Below are some pieces of narrow-gauge equipment that visit the D&SNG railroad.


Eureka and Palisade No. 4 is a Class 8/18 C 4-4-0 locomotive, built in 1875 by Baldwin Locomotive Works. It originally was owned by the Eureka and Palisade Railroad, and was later sold to the Sierra Nevada Wood and Lumber Company. In 1938, it was sold to Warner Bros. and was used in many films. Eventually, the engine went to the Old Vegas amusement park in Henderson, Nevada, where it became badly damaged by a fire. Finally, it was bought by Dan Markoff and restored to operating condition. Dan privately owns the engine, and on occasion brings it to various railroads to operate, including the D&SNG.


The Casey Jones railbus was built in 1915 out of a Model T and is a predecessor of the Galloping Goose. It was originally designed to be an ambulance servicing the Sunnyside Mine in Eureka, Colorado. It was often used by mine officials to commute to Silverton. It has room for 11 passengers. The Casey Jones is owned by the San Juan Historical Society. In the summer months it is on a siding near the Silverton Depot and in the winter it is on display at the D&SNG Museum in Durango.


Galloping Goose No. 5 went into service on June 8, 1933 and was built by the Rio Grande Southern railroad. It was built with a 1928 Pierce-Arrow limousine body and running gear. It was rebuilt in 1946/47, using a World War II surplus GMC gasoline truck engine and a Wayne Corporation school bus body. In 1950, the freight/mail compartment was converted to carry 20 additional passengers for sightseeing trips. After RGS was scrapped in 1953, Galloping Goose No. 5 came to rest in Dolores, Colorado. Galloping Goose No. 5 was completely restored to operating condition in 1998 by the Galloping Goose Historical Society in Dolores, Colorado. It visits both the D&SNG and Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad.


SP No. 18 is a narrow-gauge 4-6-0 "Ten Wheeler" type locomotive built in 1911 by Baldwin Locomotive Works. It arrived to Durango on lease from the Eastern California Museum in November 2018 and it stayed until October 2019. It was used for oil-fired testing in preparation for the D&SNG's conversion of some of their steam locomotives from coal to oil for fuel. On April 8th, 2021 it was announced that No. 18 is returning to Durango & Silverton from April 2021 to October 2021 and on April 11th it departed for Durango, Colorado via truck.


The train is the subject of the song "The Silverton", by C. W. McCall.


The Sons of Katy Elder, 1965 starring John Wayne, Dean Martin.


The Ferdinand Magellan (also known as U.S. Car. No. 1) is a former Pullman Company observation car that served as Presidential Rail Car, U.S. Number 1 from 1943 until 1958. It is named after the Portuguese explorer. The current owner, Gold Coast Railroad Museum in Miami-Dade County, Florida, acquired it in 1959. The "Ferdinand Magellan" was designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service on February 4, 1985.


The "Ferdinand Magellan" was built in 1929 by the Pullman Company in Lot 6246, Plan 3972B as a private car. It was one of six similar cars constructed in two batches - four on Lot 6037, and two on Lot 6246. They were named after famous explorers: David Livingstone, Henry Stanley, Marco Polo, Robert Peary (on Lot 6037), Roald Amundsen and Ferdinand Magellan (on Lot 6246).


After the United States entered World War II, it was suggested by Secret Service agent Mike Reilly and White House Press Secretary Stephen Early that President Franklin D. Roosevelt needed a specially equipped and armored car rather than using standard equipment provided by the Pullman Company. The "Ferdinand Magellan" was selected, and the Pullman Company rebuilt the car. The "Ferdinand Magellan" became the first passenger railcar built for a President since the War Department had built a special car for the use of Abraham Lincoln in 1865.


The other Lot 6246 car, "Roald Amundsen" has also been preserved and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


When the "Ferdinand Magellan" was rebuilt for service as United States Railcar No. 1, the original six bedrooms in the car were reduced to four, and the dining room and observation lounge were enlarged. Two of the bedrooms were a suite for the President and the First Lady, with a fully equipped bathroom, including a bathtub, connecting the two bedrooms. The dining room could also be used as a conference room. It has a solid mahogany table that measures and seats eight. The front end of the car held quarters for two stewards, a pantry, a galley, mechanical equipment, storage and ice bunkers.


President Roosevelt's first trip in the "Ferdinand Magellan" was to Miami, Florida, where he boarded a Pan American World Airways flying boat for his trip to the Casablanca Conference in 1943. He traveled approximately 50,000 miles (81,500 km) in the car in the next two years, using it for the last time on a trip to Warm Springs, Georgia two weeks before he died there.


Like other observation cars of its era, the "Ferdinand Magellan" had an open platform on the rear end of the car. Observation cars were normally placed at the end of a train, so that the occupants of the car had an unobstructed view in three directions. This is the platform from which Harry Truman gave his "whistlestop" campaign speeches. During the campaign the car travelled more than 28,000 miles (46,284 km), and Truman gave almost 350 speeches from the rear platform. The famous photograph of Truman holding the incorrect "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline was taken while the president was standing on the platform of the railcar.


President Dwight D. Eisenhower made little use of the "Ferdinand Magellan". He travelled a few times in it to his farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to visit his brother, Milton S. Eisenhower who was President of The Pennsylvania State University, in University Park, Pennsylvania, and once to Ottawa where he addressed the Parliament of Canada. The car was last used officially in 1954, when Mamie Eisenhower rode it to Groton, Connecticut, to christen the first nuclear powered submarine "Nautilus".


The railcar was declared surplus and offered to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958, but the Smithsonian did not act on the offer, and the Gold Coast Railroad Museum was able to acquire it.


In 1984 the "Ferdinand Magellan" came back to life, when it was briefly loaned to the presidential re-election campaign of President Ronald Reagan, who gave a series of "whistlestop" speeches from the rear platform during a one-day trip in Ohio, on October 12, 1984.


President Reagan's five-stop train journey, had involved transporting the train from Florida to Ohio, re-assembling it, and putting it back into commission.


Over 100,000 people came to see the President, who at each stop cited the memory of Truman and said, 'Mr. Truman could also make very plain the differences between himself and his opponent, And, my friends, that's just what we're going to do today.'


'It was super,' remarked campaign director Ed Rollins. 'The President loved it.'


President Reagan's journey was the last time the car was used.


Named for its founder, the automobile industrialist Henry Ford, and based on his efforts to preserve items of historical interest and portray the Industrial Revolution, the property houses homes, machinery, exhibits, and Americana of historically significant items as well as common memorabilia, both of which help to capture the history of life in early America. It is one of the largest such collections in the nation.


Architect Robert O. Derrick designed the museum with a exhibit hall that extends behind the main façade. The façade spans and incorporates facsimiles of three structures from Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia – Old City Hall, Independence Hall and Congress Hall.


The Edison Institute was dedicated by President Herbert Hoover to Ford's longtime friend Thomas Edison on October 21, 1929 – the 50th anniversary of the first successful incandescent light bulb. The attendees included Marie Curie, George Eastman, John D. Rockefeller, Will Rogers, Orville Wright, and about 250 others. The dedication was broadcast on radio with listeners encouraged to turn off their electric lights until the switch was flipped at the Museum.


The Edison Institute was, at first, a private site for educational purposes only, but after numerous inquiries about the complex, it was opened as a museum to the general public on June 22, 1933. It was originally composed of the Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village, and the Greenfield Village Schools (an experimental learning facility). Initially, Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum were owned by the Ford Motor Company, which is currently a sponsor of the school and cooperates with the Henry Ford to provide the Ford Rouge Factory Tour. The Henry Ford is sited between the Ford Dearborn Development Center and several Ford engineering buildings with which it shares the same style gates and brick fences.


In 1970, the museum purchased what it believed to be a 17th-century Brewster Chair, created for one of the Pilgrim settlers in the Plymouth Colony, for $9,000. In September 1977, the chair was determined to be a modern forgery created in 1969 by Rhode Island sculptor Armand LaMontagne. The museum retains the piece as an educational tool on forgeries.


In the early 2000s, the museum added an auditorium to the building's south corner. This housed an IMAX theater until January 2016 when museum management decided to change formats for the facility to better fit with its mission. The renovated theater reopened in April of that year.


The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation began as Henry Ford's personal collection of historic objects, which he began collecting as far back as 1906. Today, the 12 acre (49,000 m²) site is primarily a collection of antique machinery, pop culture items, automobiles, locomotives, aircraft, and other items:


Behind the scenes, the Benson Ford Research Center uses the resources of The Henry Ford, especially the photographic, manuscript and archival material which is rarely displayed, to allow visitors to gain a deeper understanding of American people, places, events, and things. The Research Center also contains the Ford Motor Archives.


To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS "Titanic", the Henry Ford Museum exhibited a vast array of artifacts and media documenting the "Titanic"s voyage and demise. The exhibit was hosted from 31 March to 30 September 2012.


There are various modes of historic transportation in the Village providing rides for visitors, which utilize authentic Ford Model Ts, a 1931 Ford Model AA bus (one of about 15 known to exist), horse-drawn omnibuses, and trains pulled by steam locomotives.


The rail line on which the steam locomotives in Greenfield Village presently run originally consisted of a simple straight stretch of track along the northern edge of the museum property, and has been present ever since Greenfield Village was dedicated in 1929. The rail line, now named the Weiser Railroad, was later expanded into a continuous loop around the perimeter of the museum property, which was completed in stages between 1971 and 1972. This passenger line is long and has four stations. All of the railroad's stations consist solely of single side platforms except for the station in the Railroad Junction section, which also includes the relocated Smiths Creek Depot building originally built for the Grand Trunk Railway in 1858.


The line utilizes a modern replica of a Detroit, Toledo & Milwaukee Railroad (DT&M) roundhouse built in 1884. At the time it was opened to the public in 2000, the new DT&M Roundhouse replica was one of only seven working roundhouses open to the public in the United States.


The railroad, unusual for a heritage railroad built purposely for tourism, has a direct connection to the United States National Railroad Network. The line to which it connects is a section of the Michigan Line owned by MDOT and is used by Amtrak's "Wolverine" service, which runs between Chicago, Illinois and Pontiac, Michigan. In the past, Amtrak's Greenfield Village station provided direct access to Greenfield Village near the Weiser Railroad's Smiths Creek Depot for reserved tour groups of twenty or more. It was consolidated in December 2014 with the new John D. Dingell Transit Center. The new transit center is adjacent to the Henry Ford museum complex and has a gate allowing access to the complex via a short walk.


Each year the Village honors the sacrifices and achievements of those who fought in the American Civil War. The Civil War Remembrance event takes place Memorial Day weekend (Sat-Mon) every year. An estimated 750,000 people died during the Civil War. The Civil War Remembrance is a weekend event, which includes hundreds of Union and Confederate reenactors, musicians and historic presenters. This event features more than 400 Civil War reenactors who spend the entire weekend in the Village. Greenfield Village provides many opportunities in order to learn about the Civil War: exhibits, presentations, battle reenactments, concerts, short plays, hands-on activities and Q&A with historians.


Motor Muster is one of two car shows that take place annually in Greenfield Village. Motor Muster is traditionally held on Father's Day weekend. This event currently features cars built from 1932–1976, and features between 600–800 cars. Special attractions include car judging, and Pass in Review in which experts discuss highlights of the passing cars.


Every summer the Henry Ford has a Summer Camp. It takes place inside Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum between June and August. It is for children in grades 2-9. Each grade level has a different theme and children who participate in the Summer Camp have the opportunity to look at both the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village from different perspectives. Children participate in activities such as: apprenticeships, canoeing, glass blowing and other age-dependent activities.


The World Tournament of Historical Base Ball takes place every year in August. Guests get to take a step back in time to 1867 as vintage base ball clubs from around the country compete by the game's early rules in a two-day exposition of historic base ball. The clubs engage in two days of throwing, batting and competition. The event is included in Greenfield Village admission.


For four nights around Independence Day, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra performs a patriotic concert on Walnut Grove in the Village. Attendance ranges from 5000 to 9500 per evening.


This weekend event in July was first presented in 2007 and ran annually through 2015. Ragtime Street Fair featured dozens of live performers, including the River Raisin Ragtime Revue, "Perfessor" Bill Edwards, Mike Montgomery, Nan Bostick, Taslimah Bey, John Remmers, and Tartarsauce Traditional Jazz Band, who celebrated the Ragtime era (ca. 1900–1917). The event also featured silent movies, phonograph demonstrations, a cake walk, a cutting contest, and a musical revue in Town Hall as well as the 1912 presidential campaign of Theodore Roosevelt. Instruction in the ragtime one-step was provided free of charge at this event.


The Old Car Festival takes place every year in September. The Old Car Festival has been held on the first weekend after Labor Day since 1955. The festival takes over the streets and grounds of Greenfield Village with the sights, sounds, and smells of hundreds of authentic vehicles from the 1890s through 1932. This event features 500–700 cars. Special events include car judging, Pass in Review, the gaslight tour, and car races on the Walnut Grove field. Guests can take a self-guided tour of the exposition and talk to the owners of the treasured vehicles. Visitors can watch a Model T be assembled in just minutes, attend presentations, and hear experts share information about the vintage vehicles.


The Village's Halloween celebration features decorations, a headless horseman, witches, other costumed characters, treats and activities for visitors. It is held Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings in October.


The Christmas season has traditionally been popular in Greenfield Village. Many buildings feature period decorations and the Village is open for self-guided strolls. An ice skating rink is available. Visitors can view live entertainment and costumed presenters or ride in a horse-drawn carriage or Model T.


The Ford Rouge Factory Tour is a first-hand journey behind the scenes of a modern, working automobile factory. Boarding buses at the Henry Ford Museum, visitors are taken to the River Rouge Plant and Dearborn Truck Plant, an industrial complex where Ford has built cars since the Model A that once employed 100,000 people.


In 2003, the Ford Rouge Factory, the manufacturing facility for the Ford F-Series truck, reopened following extensive renovations. When it reopened in 2003, as sustainable architecture (Gold LEED Building) led by noted 'green' architect William McDonough, it also opened a new state-of-the-art visitor center highlighting the factory's sustainable aspects and educating visitors on the legacy of the historic manufacturing facility as well as the vehicle manufacturing process that takes place within the manufacturing plant. The visitor experiences, designed by award-winning experience designer Bob Rogers and the design team BRC Imagination Arts, offers two multi-screen theaters, numerous touchscreen interpretive displays and overlook the world's largest "Green" roof, atop the factory. Visitors then walk through the working assembly plant.


The Bollman Truss Railroad Bridge at Savage, Maryland is the sole surviving example of a revolutionary design in the history of American bridge engineering. The double-span is a suspension truss bridge. The first Bollman bridge was installed on the site; however, the current bridge is not the original. The current bridge was built in 1852 and moved to the site thirty years later. It is one of the oldest standing iron railroad bridges in the United States. Currently, however, it is in use carrying the Savage Mill Trail across the Little Patuxent River.


The Bollman design was the first successful all-metal bridge design to be adopted and consistently used on a railroad. The type was named for its inventor, Wendel Bollman, a self-educated Baltimore civil engineer. Bollman formed two companies in Baltimore, the W. Bollman and Company and the Patapsco Bridge Company, to market the bridge in North and South America.


In 1966 the American Society of Civil Engineers introduced a new program, designating the bridge as the first-ever Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 18, 1972, and was designated a National Historic Landmark on February 16, 2000.


It was the first successful all-metal bridge design to be adopted and consistently used on a railroad. The design employs wrought iron tension members and cast iron compression members. It was an improvement over wooden structures, as the independent structural units lessened the possibility of structural failure. Patented on January 6, 1852, the company built about a hundred of these bridges through 1873. Their durability and ease of assembly greatly facilitated expansion of American railroads in this period. Bollman's Wills Creek Bridge has also survived, but it employs a different type of truss system.


The truss includes decorative elements, such as Doric styled vertical members. The cast iron end towers, which bear transfer the weight of the structure to the abutments and pier, are also detailed. A decorative and protective metal enclosure at the top of the towers was lost to vandalism, but was replaced during the restoration work. Metal strips at each portal read "W. BOLLMAN, PATENTEE", "BALTIMORE, MD.", "BUILT BY B&O R.R. CO.", "1869" AND "RENEWED 1866". Replicas of the original strips were installed during the restoration.


The bridge was brightly painted, using red oxide for the towers and the heavier compression members and an ivory color for the lighter tension members. The bridge was originally painted in a three color scheme, documented in black and white photography, with specific shades unknown.


Ilchester, MD - Built in 1869 in Ilchester Maryland for the B & O Railroad to replace the stone Patterson Viaduct which was destroyed by flood in 1868.


The cable cars are separate from San Francisco's heritage streetcars, which operate on Market Street and the Embarcadero, as well as from the more modern Muni Metro light rail system.


Service was suspended in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. , service on the Powell–Hyde line is expected to resume in fall 2021.


In 1869, Andrew Smith Hallidie had the idea for a cable car system in San Francisco, reportedly after witnessing an accident in which a streetcar drawn by horses over wet cobblestones slid backwards, killing the horses.


The first successful cable-operated street running train was the Clay Street Hill Railroad, which opened on August 2, 1873. The promoter of the line was Hallidie, and the engineer was William Eppelsheimer. The line involved the use of grip cars, which carried the grip that engaged with the cable, towing trailer cars; the design was the first to use grips. The term "grip" became synonymous with the operator.


The line started regular service on September 1, 1873, and its success led it to become the template for other cable car transit systems. It was a financial success, and Hallidie's patents were enforced on other cable car promoters, making him wealthy.


Accounts differ as to the precise degree of Hallidie's involvement in the inception of the line, and to the exact date on which it first ran.


The next cable car line to open was the Sutter Street Railway, which converted from horse operation in 1877. This line introduced the side grip, and lever operation, both designed by Henry Casebolt and his assistant Asa Hovey, and patented by Casebolt. This idea came about because Casebolt did not want to pay Hallidie royalties of $50,000 a year for the use of his patent. The side grip allowed cable cars to cross at intersections.


In 1878, Leland Stanford opened his California Street Cable Railroad (Cal Cable). This company's first line was on California Street, and is the oldest cable car line still in operation. In 1880, the Geary Street, Park & Ocean Railway began operation. The Presidio and Ferries Railway followed two years later, and was the first cable company to include curves on its routes. The curves were "let-go" curves, in which the car drops the cable and coasts around the curve on its own momentum.


In 1883, the Market Street Cable Railway opened its first line. This company was controlled by the Southern Pacific Railroad and would grow to become San Francisco's largest cable car operator. At its peak, it operated five lines, all of which converged on Market Street to a common terminus at the Ferry Building. During rush hours, cars left that terminus every 15 seconds.


In 1888, the Ferries and Cliff House Railway opened its initial two-line system. The Powell–Mason line is still operated on the same route today; their other route was the Powell–Washington–Jackson line, stretches of which are used by today's Powell–Hyde line. The Ferries & Cliff House Railway was also responsible for the building of a car barn and powerhouse at Washington and Mason, and this site is still in use today. In the same year, it also purchased the original Clay Street Hill Railway, which it incorporated into a new Sacramento–Clay line in 1892.


In 1889, the Omnibus Railroad and Cable Company became the last new cable car operator in San Francisco. The following year the California Street Cable Railroad opened two new lines, these being the last entirely new cable car lines built in the city. One of them was the O'Farrell–Jones–Hyde line, the Hyde section of which still remains in operation as part of the current Powell–Hyde line.


In all, twenty-three lines were established between 1873 and 1890.


The first electric streetcars in San Francisco began operation in 1892 under the auspices of the San Francisco and San Mateo Electric Railway. At that time, it was estimated that it cost twice as much to build and six times as much to operate a line with cable cars as with electric streetcars.


By the beginning of 1906 many of San Francisco's remaining cable cars were under the control of the United Railroads of San Francisco (URR), although Cal Cable and the Geary Street Company remained independent. URR was pressing to convert many of its cable lines to overhead electric traction, but this was met with resistance from opponents who objected to what they saw as ugly overhead lines on the major thoroughfares of the city center.


Those objections disappeared after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The quake and resulting fire destroyed the power houses and car barns of both the Cal Cable and the URR's Powell Street lines, together with the 117 cable cars stored within them. The subsequent race to rebuild the city allowed the URR to replace most of its cable car lines with electric streetcar lines. At the same time the independent Geary Street line was replaced by a municipally owned electric streetcar line – the first line of the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni).


By 1912, only eight cable car lines remained, all with steep gradients impassable to electric streetcars. In the 1920s and 1930s, these remaining lines came under pressure from the much improved buses of the era, which could now climb steeper hills than the electric streetcar. By 1944, the only cable cars remaining were the two Powell Street lines – by then under municipal ownership, as part of Muni – and the three lines owned by the still-independent Cal Cable.


In 1947, Mayor Roger Lapham proposed the closure of the two municipally owned lines. In response, a joint meeting of 27 women's civic groups, led by Friedel Klussmann, formed the "Citizens' Committee to Save the Cable Cars". In a famous battle of wills, the citizens' committee eventually forced a referendum on an amendment to the city charter, compelling the city to continue operating the Powell Street lines. This passed overwhelmingly, by 166,989 votes to 51,457.


In 1951, the three Cal Cable lines were shut down when the company was unable to afford insurance. The city purchased and reopened the lines in 1952, but the amendment to the city charter did not protect them, and the city proceeded with plans to replace them with buses. Again Klussmann came to the rescue, but with less success. The result was a compromise that formed the current system: a protected system made up of the California Street line from Cal Cable, the Powell–Mason line already in municipal ownership, and a third hybrid line formed by grafting the Hyde Street section of Cal Cable's O'Farrell-Jones-Hyde line onto a truncated Powell–Washington–Jackson line, now known as the Powell–Hyde line.


This solution required some rebuilding to convert the Hyde Street trackage and terminus to operation by the single-ended cars of the Powell line, and also to allow the whole system to be operated from a single car barn and power house. Much of the infrastructure remained unchanged from the time of the earthquake.


Since 1984, Muni has continued to upgrade the system. Work has included rebuilding of another historical car, the building of nine brand new replacement cars, the building of a new terminal and turntable at the Hyde and Beach terminus, and a new turntable at the Powell and Market terminus.


The cable cars are principally used by tourists rather than commuters. The system serves an area of the city that is already served by a large number of buses and trolleybuses. The two lines on Powell Street (Powell–Hyde and Powell–Mason) both serve only residential and tourist/shopping districts (Union Square, Chinatown, North Beach, Nob Hill, Aquatic Park and Fisherman's Wharf), with the "downtown" end of both lines a substantial distance from the Financial District. The California Street Line is used more by commuters, due to its terminus in the Financial District.


In 2006, then-Mayor Gavin Newsom reported that he had observed several conductors pocketing cash fares from riders without receipt. The following year, the San Francisco auditor's office reported that the city was not receiving the expected revenue from cable cars, with an estimated 40% of cable car riders riding for free. Muni's management disputed this figure and pointed out that safe operation, rather than revenue collection, is the primary duty of conductors. In 2017, after an audit showing that some conductors were "consistently turn[ing] in low amounts of cash", as well as a sting operation, one conductor was arrested on charges of felony embezzlement.