Railroad Milestones Since 1945 - A Tool for Modelers.
GP38, SD40, SW1000, SW1500, C430, U28B, U30B introduced.
U30C, U33B, SD38, SDP45 , FP45, C636 introduced.
Last new cars with running boards are delivered.
SP's Palmdale Cutoff over Cajon Pass completed.
Seaboard Coast Line appears (ACL+SAL.)
Norfolk & Western switches from Black to Blue.
Frisco dumps black with yellow scheme for Mandarin orange and white.
Waffle side boxcars introduced.
USPS cancels mail contracts.
SW1001, SD39, F45, U33C, U23B, U23C introduced.
Pullman ends sleeping car operations.
Penn Central appears (PRR+NYC.)
Chicago Great Western merges into C&NW.
ACI labels begin to appear.
Tennessee Central shuts down.
Canadian Pacific becomes CP Rail.
DDA40X, U36B, U50C, M630, M636 introduced.
Elevators on heavy mainlines now prefer loading grain in covered hoppers. Branchline elevators still loading 40' box cars in large
numbers.
Missouri Pacific and Louisville & Nashville split Chicago & Eastern Illinois.
New Haven merges into Penn Central.
Last freight service on Rio Grande narrow gauge.
Akron Canton & Youngstown trades in FM fleet in exchange for geeps from parent N&W.
45'x96" trailers appear, though rarely on rails.
Burlington Northern appears (GN+NP+CB&Q+SP&S.)
40% of PFE fleet still ice bunker type.
ACI labels now mandatory.
Santa Fe builds first CF7.
Vert-A-Pack auto carriers appear.
RI adopts "speed letter" lettering.
Amtrak begins service (D&RGW, Southern, RI, Georgia opt out.)
Tennessee Alabama & Georgia acquired by Southern.
Norfolk & Western switches to black with white NW logo.
EMD introduces the -2 line (38, 40, 45 series.)
PFE ends ice service, ventilator service continues (ice hatches propped open.)
Illinois Central Gulf appears (IC+GM&O.)
MKT trades Deramus Red for Whitman (John Deer) Green.
Jersey Central exits Pennsylvania.
Pacific Great Eastern becomes British Columbia Rwy.
Con-Stencils mandatory on new and rebuilt cars.
UP adds "We Can Handle It".
CN gets first wide nose hood units and begins applying "sargeant stripes" to road switchers.
Fully enclosed autoracks introduced.
September 3: Railroads no longer required re-ice reefers in transit on their lines.
SDP40f's appear for Amtrak.
Thrall-Door box cars appear.
Frisco ends passenger service.
Rio Grande is "the Action road".
Illinois Central adopts orange and white and "split rail" logo.
UP's 3-unit Turbines retired.
Early attempts to cover autoracks.
Southern adds "Gives a Green Light to Innovations."
Railway Express Agency becomes REA Express.
CB&Q, SP&S and NP begin to paint Cascade Green.
Short line box car boom begins.
"Employee Owned" added to C&NW logo.
First Bicentennial diesels appear.
Santa Fe adopts Yellow Bonnet for hood units.
Electrification ends on Milwaukee's Cascade lines.
Chessie System image appears (C&O, B&O, WM.)
Providence & Worcester goes independent.
FRA bans Cab units as leads in road switching operations.
Running board removal on older cars begins.
Con-Stencils mandatory on all cars.
Ditch lights appear in Canada.
Original Norfolk Southern merges into Southern.
Family Lines image appears on freight cars (SCL, L&N, CRR, Georgia, A&WP, WoA.)
MP15DC, GP39-2, SD40T-2, F40C introduced.
Milwaukee Road ends remaining electrified operation.
55,000+lb/axel cars must have roller bearings.
Livestock traffic all but extinct.
Flexi-Van service draws to a close.
7 major US cities still sport street car systems.
Plate E through Plate H cars now legal.
Fully enclosed autoracks appear in quantity.
Rock Island becomes "The Rock."
N&W begins ordering new road units with low short hoods.
Primordial centerbeam flats appear by the hundreds.
NP and SCL receive the first fleets of truly modern appearing centerbeam flats.
Trailer-Train starts painting cars yellow.
Indian Red replaces brown on Santa Fe cabooses.
Last new cars built with friction bearing trucks are delivered.
Decades ahead of their time, Florida East Coast developes the EOT and runs cabooseless.