Year: 2026

  • Introducing our new site

    Our newly overhauled website was a two-month project that we’ve been wanting to do for the past five years. Staff members Jordan Craig and Scott Lothes will take you behind the scenes in their next blog post; in the meantime, here are some of the basics about the new site. E-commerce changes We now use…

  • PBS Wisconsin program: Railroads of Madison and South Central Wisconsin

    On March 19, 2026, PBS Wisconsin aired the Center’s program “Railroads of Madison and South Central Wisconsin,” a presentation by Scott Lothes about the history and development of railroads in and around the Center’s home city. At their zenith, nine railroad lines radiated out of Madison, and the program traces their arrival, development, consolidation, and…

  • Cover of the spring 2026 issue of Railroad Heritage featuring the American Freedom Train

    Spring 2026: Freedom Train, Hudson Highlands, Travels with Don, and more

    Just in time for the America 250 celebration, the Spring issue of Railroad Heritage will take readers back fifty years, to a time when the American Freedom Train crossed the west … plus spectacular photography of New York’s Hudson River Valley, photographer Victor Hand’s lifelong friendship with railroad journalist Don Phillips, and more! Highlights include:…

  • Conductor at Jackson Station, watercolor by Elaine S. Wilson

    Zoom program: Charting the Wolverine with artist Elaine S. Wilson

    In the Center’s March 2026 Zoom presentation, artist Elaine S. Wilson describes her ongoing project, Charting the Wolverine, a series of digital prints about the views from Amtrak’s Wolverine train from Michigan to Chicago. She examines the process from its inception in 2008 to its current state that features thirty-one “map-prints” and more than 200…

  • Zoom member-exclusive program: “Dining in Motion – Railroad Cuisine History”

    The Center’s Zoom presentation “Dining in Motion” is a members-exclusive feast for the eyes! Staff members Adrienne Evans and Lisa Hardy, along with CRP&A board member Justin Franz, combine to celebrate the culinary side of American railroading, from luxury dining cars to the sometimes quick-and-dirty foodways of railroaders on the go. George M. Pullman built the first…