Railroad Milestones Since 1945 - A Tool for Modelers.
Bluford Shops products are not intended for children under 14.
Last new boxcars 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 Pevler Blue.
Frisco dumps black with yellow scheme for Mandarin orange and white.
Waffle side boxcars introduced.
USPS cancels mail contracts.
Penn Central appears (PRR+NYC.)
Chicago & North Western acquires Chicago Great Western, Des Moines & Central Iowa and Fort Dodge Des Moines & Southern.
ACI labels begin to appear.
Tennessee Central shuts down.
Canadian Pacific becomes CP Rail.
Missouri Pacific and Louisville & Nashville split Chicago & Eastern Illinois.
New Haven merges into Penn Central.
Last freight service on Rio Grande narrow gauge.
Thrall-Door boxcars 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.
Primordial centerbeam flats appear by the hundreds.
NP and SCL receive the first fleets of truly modern appearing centerbeam flats.
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.
Alton & Southern introduces MP and C&NW influenced blue and yellow paint scheme.
Electric operations end on Butte Anaconda & Pacific.
Piedmont & Northern acquired by Seaboard Coast Line.
Streetcar service in St. Louis ends.
Kansas City Southern adopts white paint for diesels and many classes of freight cars.
Burlington Northern appears (GN+NP+CB&Q+SP&S.)
40% of PFE fleet still ice bunker type.
Santa Fe builds first CF7.
Vert-A-Pack auto carriers appear.
RI adopts "speed letter" lettering.
UP drops "RAILROAD" from the shield.
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.
Illinois Central Gulf appears (IC+GM&O.)
MKT trades Deramus Red for Whitman (John Deere) Green.
Jersey Central exits Pennsylvania.
Pacific Great Eastern becomes British Columbia Rwy.
Con-Stencils (single panel) mandatory on new and rebuilt cars.
UP adds "We Can Handle It".
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. Begins rebuilding GP7's with chopped noses.
Electrification ends on Milwaukee's Cascade lines.
Trailer-Train starts painting cars yellow.
In December, GTW, CV, and DW&P (CN's U.S. lines) begin the switch from black to blue paint on diesels.
Cast iron wheels banned from interchange.
Vermont Railway takes control of Clarendon & Pittsford.
Operations end on the Rayonier Railroad.
September 3: Railroads no longer required to re-ice reefers in transit on their lines.
SDP40f's appear for Amtrak.
Chessie System image appears (C&O, B&O, WM.)
Providence & Worcester goes independent.
Con-Stencils mandatory on all cars and 2-panel version introduced.
Original Norfolk Southern acquired by Southern Railway and combined with Carolina & Northwestern.
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.
SCL begins to add "Pulling For You" to locomotives.
Cars built before July 1 have a 40 year maximum on underframes. Cars built after July 1 have a 50 year maximum on underframes.
Southern acquires Tennessee RR.
"Santa Fe" billboard lettering appears.
The last livestock movements on Santa Fe.
Delivery of first low nose units with dual cab controls on N&W.
Reading introduces Bee-Line Service.
Mississippi Central merges into IC.
Southern receives first EMD hood units with the long hood setup as forward (earlier deliveries had high short hoods but were setup
short hood forward.)
Fully enclosed autoracks appear in quantity.
Rock Island becomes "The Rock."
PATrain takes over B&O commuter responsibilities in Pittsburgh.
C&EI and T&P fully absorbed into Missouri Pacific.
Increasing branchline abandonments spell the end for growing numbers of 40' box cars in grain service.
Conrail launches taking over routes of PC+EL+LV+RDG+CNJ+L&HR+
P-RSL+and briefly, AA.
Spin-off short lines begin to appear in quantity.
Centerbeam flats begin to appear in large numbers.
Kankakee Beaverville & Southern appears.
VIA Rail appears as an independent Crown Corporation.
Southern ends Crescent and joins Amtrak.
ACI system abandoned - label removal begins.
Cars with White U-1 dots banned.
Milwaukee Road abandoned west of Miles City, Montana.
CSX created but Chessie and Family Lines still separate.
Maryland Midland appears.
Frisco merges into Bulington Northern.
B36-7, GP50, SD50S introduced.
Shortline boxcar boom peaks.
Guilford acquires Maine Central.
Detroit & Toledo Shore Line merges into Grand Trunk Western.
U-1 inspections complete.
Tests successful, SP launches double stack service in volume.
U-1 dots (black square with yellow dot) appear on all 70 ton cars with 33" whls.
PFE split into UPFE and SPFE.
BN completes Orin Line, setting off Powder River Basin coal boom.
F units still in service on 17 Class 1's.
Northern Alberta Railways merges into Canadian National.
Western Pacific and Missouri Pacific merge into Union Pacific.
D&RGW gets rights into Kansas City and SP gets rights into St. Louis.
Con-Stencil changed to 2/1 or 3/1-box format.
N&W adopts the "Claytor" scheme: NORFOLK AND WESTERN spelled out.
Guilford acquires Boston & Maine.
ICG paints locos orange and gray.
Missouri Pacific adopts Screaming Eagle logo.
Massachussets Central begins operations.
Indiana & Ohio appears (spun off Conrail.)
Plating over non-essential windows on cabooses and some locos begins.
4750 cu.ft. grain cars appear in quantity.
Southern adopts thin profile lettering.
Wisconsin & Southern appears (spinning off of Milwaukee Road.)
MKT sets up OK&T to operate some former RI routes.
Cotton Belt acquires Rock's Golden State Route.
First new street car system in decades opens in San Diego.
Durham & Southern merges into Seaboard Coast Line.
NYS&W is saved from abandonment, launches amazing growth spurt.
Freight service ends on White Pass & Yukon.
Illinois Terminal merges into Norfolk & Western.
The new Norfolk Southern is created.
Family Lines image appears on locomotives. (SCL, L&N, CRR, Georgia, A&WP, WoA.)
HR-616 introduced with the "Draper Taper."
Ann Arbor ends ferry service.
Boston & Maine turns over passenger equipment and some routes to MBTA.
Boston & Maine buys several Connecticut routes from Conrail.
Long-closed Cadillac & Lake City re-opens with ex-Rock line in Kansas and Colorado.
Bay Colony Railroad opens.
Chicago Madison & Northern opens for business.
Central Wisconsin RR takes over routes of Chicago Madison & Northern.
Colorado & Southern finally merged into Burlington Northern on 12/31.
Keokuk Junction Rwy opens.
Maryland & Delaware opens.
NJ Transit takes over NJ commuter ops.
Shamrock Coal's new Oneida & Western coal trains begin to operate.
ACF introduces Coalveyor gons.
Texas North Western opens.
Southeast Coal Company begins running their own trains (SECX.)
St.J&LC becomes Vermont Northern.
Family Lines merge and become Seaboard System.
Guilford acquires Delaware & Hudson.
45'x102" Z-vans become popular.
Toledo Peoria & Western merges into Santa Fe.
Spine cars become widespread.
UP adopts brown with small shield scheme for freight cars.
Rio Grande retires Zephyr and joins Amtrak.
Detroit Toledo & Ironton merges into Grand Trunk Western.
Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal and New York Dock Railroad close their doors.
Norfolk Southern introduces flying NS logo image in October.
Maryland establishes MARC.
Metro-North Railroad opens.
Norfolk Franklin & Danville absorbed into Norfolk Southern.
NJ Transit takes over commuter rail in New Jersey.
Santa Fe adopts blue script lettering for trailers.
SFLC Santa Fe Leasing cars appear.
Canadian railroads begin installing ditch lights on their entire fleets.
First NEW units on N&W with low short hoods, and single cab controls with the short hood as forward.
First BethGon CoalPorters (steel version) are delivered.
Last year for ARA 1919 standard tank cars.