Virgin Trains was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Virgin Rail Group, a joint venture between Virgin Group and Stagecoach, which operated the InterCity West Coast franchise from 9 March 1997 to 7 December 2019. The franchise covered long-distance passenger services on the West Coast Main Line between London, the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland, consequently connecting six of the UK's largest cities: London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh, which have a combined metropolitan population of over 18 million. Virgin Trains had around 3,400 employees in 2015.
Ian Allan Publishing was an English publisher, established in 1942, which specialised in transport books. It was founded by Ian Allan.
Union Pacific 3985, also known as the "Challenger", is a four-cylinder simple articulated 4-6-6-4 "Challenger"-type steam locomotive built in July 1943 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) of Schenectady, New York, for the Union Pacific Railroad. No. 3985 is one of only two Challengers still in existence and the only one to have operated in excursion service.
The Illinois Terminal Railroad Company, known as the Illinois Traction System until 1937, was a heavy duty interurban electric railroad with extensive passenger and freight business in central and southern Illinois from 1896 to 1956. When Depression era Illinois Traction was in financial distress and had to reorganize, the Illinois Terminal name was adopted to reflect the line's primary money making role as a freight interchange link to major steam railroads at its terminal ends, Peoria, Danville, and St. Louis. Interurban passenger service slowly was reduced, ending in 1956. Freight operation continued but was hobbled by tight street running in some towns requiring very sharp radius turns. In 1956, ITC was absorbed by a consortium of connecting railroads.
This article contains a list of terms, jargon, and slang used to varying degrees by railfans and railroad employees in the United States and Canada. Although not exhaustive, many of the entries in this list appear from time to time in specialist, rail-related publications. Inclusion of a term in this list does not necessarily imply its universal adoption by all railfans and railroad employees, and there may be significant regional variation in usage.
The Pacific Locomotive Association, Inc. (PLA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of the physical aspects and atmosphere of Pacific Coast railroading during the period from 1910 to 1960.
The Sand Springs Railway is a class III railroad operating in Oklahoma. It began in 1911 as an interurban railway providing passenger service between Tulsa and Sand Springs. It soon developed a freight hauling business between the two cities. Passenger service was discontinued January 5, 1955, but the railroad has continued to operate until the present. On May 28, 2014, it was announced that the railroad would be acquired by OmniTRAX, with operations commencing no later than July 31, 2014
Railroads Illustrated, formerly known as CTC Board, was a monthly magazine, published by White River Productions (WRP), devoted to railroad photography. WRP purchased CTC Board magazine from Hundman Publishing after the May 2006 issue, and rebranded the magazine as Railroads Illustrated, and used the CTC Board name for the news section. December 2014 marked the final monthly issue, with future expanded editions to be released annually. The news section and some feature content now appears in an expanded Railfan & Railroad, which was acquired by WRP in 2014.
Pentrex Media Group, LLC, is an American producer and seller of railfan-related videos and DVDs. It was founded in 1984 and was originally headquartered in Pasadena, California.
Hamilton (HMN) is a former railroad station on Amtrak's Cardinal route between Chicago and New York City. The station in Hamilton, Ohio, was served by the Cardinal from August 1980 until October 31, 2005, when it was discontinued as a stop. Constructed by the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad, the building is still owned by CSX though currently unused. It sits at the junction of the Indianapolis Subdivision with the Toledo Subdivision both part of the CSX Louisville Division, and headed south of the station the line is known as the Cincinnati Terminal Subdivision, also due to a directional running agreement most CSX and Norfolk Southern freight trains will use the Cincinnati Terminal Subdivision headed north to New River Junction in New Miami, Ohio where Norfolk Southern trains diverge to the left on the New Castle District, and CSX trains diverge to the right on the Toledo Subdivision. Now headed south towards Cincinnati most CSX and Norfolk Southern trains will diverge at the Butler St. Interlocker just blocks before the station heading south on the New Castle District. The Pennsylvania Railroad, followed by the Penn Central used another station, one on Maple Avenue, until 1971.
Interurban Press was a small, privately owned American publishing company, specializing in books about streetcars, other forms of rail transit and railroads in North America, from 1943 until 1993. It was based in the Los Angeles area, and specifically in Glendale, California after 1976. Although its primary focus was on books, it also published three magazines starting in the 1980s, along with videos and calendars. At its peak, the company employed 10 people and generated about $2 million in business annually.
Pacific RailNews(PRN), originally named Pacific News and later RailNews, was an American monthly magazine about railroads and rail transit, oriented for railfans. It was published from 1961 until 1999. Although its coverage primarily concerned the western United States and western Canada, the magazine included less-detailed news on railroads and rail-transit from non-western states, as well as Mexico.
George McClelland Sebree III, better known as Mac Sebree, was an American journalist, writer and publisher whose area of expertise was urban mass transit, particularly urban rail transit. He was also a businessman, being owner and president of the publishing company, Interurban Press, from 1975 until 1993. In addition to writing and publishing historical material, he also followed – and regularly reported on – contemporary developments concerning rail transit, and by the 1990s he had become an expert on light rail in North America.
The New Electric Railway Journal was a quarterly American magazine primarily about electric urban rail transit in North America, published from 1988 to 1998, with an international circulation. Its name was a tribute to a much earlier magazine with similar coverage, the Electric Railway Journal, established in 1884 and published until 1931.
Bombardier Transportation México is a subsidiary company of Bombardier Transportation located in Ciudad Sahagún, Mexico.
White River Productions is an independent publishing company that specializes in books and magazines targeted to railroad enthusiasts and historians. Kevin EuDaly founded the company in 1992 to published the book Missouri Pacific Diesel Power, which he also authored. Several other titles followed, and the company became his full-time venture beginning in 1996. The company expanded when it took on publishing newsletters and managing membership databases for several railroad historical societies. The company is headquartered in Bucklin, Missouri.
William D. Middleton was an American reporter, writer and photographer. The majority of his work was on the subject of railroad history and operation. He published over 20 books and approximately 700 articles for magazines and newspapers, accompanied by photographs. His work as a photographer was profiled in the Spring 2011 issue of Classic Trains magazine.
Mike Schafer is an American author of books on railroading. He contributed to The Complete Book of North American Railroading.
