U.S. Freight Rail Transportation Companies (Class I):
- BNSF (BNSF YouTube channel)
- CSX (CSX YouTube channel)
- Kansas City Southern
- Norfolk Southern (NS YouTube channel)
- Union Pacific (UP YouTube channel)
U.S. Freight Rail: Rail Cars
- TTX (private): Developer of railcars and freight car management. Wikipedia link.
- Trinity Industries, Inc (NYSE: TRN): largest North American freight rail manufacturer with 30% of the market. It produces freight cars, passenger railcars, boxcars and others.
U.S. Freight Rail: other
- Railex (private): Uses Union Pacific and CSX along with special Railex-designed, purpose-built refridgerated cars to transport produce. Railex, a refrigerated rail transport and warehousing company, began service in 2006. Guarantees five days coast to coast. Routes: Washington (state) to New York; and Delano, CA to New York. A single train is equal to 220 semi trucks.
U.S. Rail Transportation: Locomotives and Supporting Industries:
- Electro-Motive Diesels (EMD, and its predecessor Electro-Motive Division [sold by General Motors, now part of Caterpillar]; Wikipedia)
- GE Transportation -- Rail/Locomotives (Wikipedia); GE Transportation ( YouTube)
- RailPower: (Canadian/U.S. stock: TSX:P) Specialized energy technology systems for transportation with its state of the art locomotives and hybrid crane power plants.
- Westinghouse Air Brakes Technology Corporation (NYSE: WAB): Recently won a contract to build 26 trains for the Maryland transportation system, worth $95 million, and $100 million contract in New York City. Wabtec has also received contracts from rail systems in California, New Mexico, Utah and Minnesota. its numbers look good…
U.S. Passenger and Light Rail:
- Amtrak
- Amtrak California (A partnership between Amtrak and Caltrans)
- California's High-Speed Train System
- CalTrain: Bay Area rail service. Provides rail service between San Francisco and San Jose, with weekday commute-hour service to Gilroy.
- Chicago L -- Official Chicago CTA site; Wikipedia link
- Light Rail Now: a charitable educational enterprise designed to support efforts both within North America and worldwide to develop and improve light rail transit (LRT) and other rail transit and mass transportation systems.
- Metra Rail (Chicago) -- Serves Chicago and its suburbs. Wikipedia link
- Metrolink Trains -- Southern California
- MTA (Los Angeles)
- MTA Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York)
- St. Louis Metro Rail
- U.S. cities: metro and light rail (comprehensive) -- UrbanRail.net has map-based info with images and info.
U.S. Railroad Training and Careers:
U.S. Government Agencies:
- Federal Railroad Administration (part of DOT)
U.S. Federal and State Government Support of Railroad:
U.S. Railroad Organizations:
- Alaska Railroad (ARR) -- Corporation information, sightseeing tours, fares, schedules, freight service, employment, programs, newsletter, events, and contact information.
- American Association of Railroads (AAR):
AAR members include the major freight railroads in the United States,
Canada and Mexico, as well as Amtrak. Based in Washington, DC, the
AAR is committed to keeping the railroads of North America safe, fast,
efficient, clean, and technologically advanced.
- Freight Rail Works -- AAR's public relations campaign and sister website to AAR.org. "freightrailworks" YouTube channel
- American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA)
- National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC)
- Railway Supply Institute
U.S. Railroad Investor information:
- Barron's Railroad Stock Index
- Warren Buffett’s Railroad : In 2007, Buffett started buying up railroads such as Norfolk Southern Corp (NYSE: NSC) and Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE: UNP). And now he’s building his largest railroad position - Burlington Northern (NYSE: BNI)
- Yahoo! Industry Center - Railroads
- Yahoo Railroad Investor Info (Consolidated)
Note: On Feb. 12, 2010, BNSF (former stock symbol BNI) merged with parent company Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK-A). BNI Historical Stock Prices are here.
Train / Rail Technology and Engineering (global):
- Railway-Technology.com: European web site that contains up-to-the-minute news on the worldwide rail industry. With its unique blend of news, analysis and special in-depth reports, this resource gets to the heart of issues affecting the working lives of people dealing with technology in the railway industry. From boardroom directors to trackside staff, or third-party providers, railway-technology.com offers a comprehensive view of the industry, staying on top of the latest industry movements and views.
- Railway Technical Web Pages: provides free articles about railways, using the UK railway system as the base technology with more articles and information about other systems, like the US, as appropriate. Articles and glossaries are provided for a range of subjects. These include planning, finance, operations, design, engineering, production and maintenance. There is also some information about steam locomotives, including a glossary and an explanation of wheel arrangement descriptions.
- railwaygazette.com -- UK-/Europe-based web site and "webezine" for railway industry.
- railwaysubstructure.org -- Railway Substructure Engineering
- railroadsignals.us
Railway/Railroad/Train magazines/periodicals/webzines (USA and Global):
- Progressive Railroading magazine (U.S.)
- GLOBAL Rail News
- Rail magazine (UK)
- Railway Age (U.S.)
- Railfan & Railroad (U.S.)
- Trains magazine (U.S.) from: Kalmbach Publishing Co. (Includes: Model Railroader magazine, Classic Trains magazine, etc.
Fan-based web sites (global):
- John's Alaska Railroad Web Page -- alaskarails.org
- Raillinks.com
- Trainweb.com
- The Diesel Shop -- "Home to First & Second Generation Locomotives and Motive Power Rosters". Essentially a "Field Guide". Excellent, non-stock photos and descriptions. Class One is here.
Fan-based web sites (mostly American/U.S.):
- The American Railroads -- a website dedicated to U.S. railroad history, both past and present, and a resource tool describing and educating about American railroading in general.
- High Speed Rail America Club (YouTube)
- Spike Systems – Mostly American historical rail-fan site.
- steamlocomotive.com -- This web site primarily contains info on full-scale U.S.A steam locomotives.
- carrtracks.com -- website for western historical train symbol information.
- trainorders.com -- This discussion/forum web site is one of the busiest railfan sites on the internet.
Passenger / Travel / Vacation (for Americans traveling in Europe):
- Eurail Benelux-Germany Pass
- Eurail Saver Pass
- Map of Europe (Rail Destination)
- Rail Europe Canada
- TGV Booking Center
- Thalys high-speed train