TRAINS July 2007

Thinking Local Local freight was the manifestation of a larger struggle to unite an immense continent into one common market and diverse people into one nation. John P. Hankey

Moving the Merchandise Class I railroads are changing the way they handle carload freight, while shorter railroads find opportunities for growth. Michael W. Blaszak

Map of the Month: Follow That Car! On this foldout map, we plot the journeys of four freight cars as they cross the eastern portion of the continent.

Local Freight Where It Shouldn't Be See how peddlers and passenger trains mix on America's fastest railroad: the Northeast Corridor. Scott A. Hartley

Dodging Bullets and Other Assorted Tales The last freight serving San Francisco is the mouse to Caltrain's cat. David Lustig

Against the Current Norfolk Southern train H33, the weekday local out of Reading, Pa., is a classic wayfreight in a mainline world. Kevin P. Keefe

How I Learned to Love Life on the Local To a greenhorn conductor, local freights just weren't that cool. Andy Cummings

Railroad Reading Greenhorn on patrol: My rookie months on the Milwaukee Road's Morton Grove Patrol were tough, but Toby, Chipmunk, and I survived. Jim Smith

Gallery Railcars on a barge in New York harbor, BNSF in North Dakota, Camas Prairie Railnet, and Canadian Pacific