Philadelphia Bethlehem & New England

Company History: The PBNE was completed in 1912 and operates 56 miles of track around Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was owned for most of its life by Bethlehem Steel and its diesels wear the same yellow and black paint scheme as the other lines owned by Bethlehem (such as the South Buffalo Railway.) Traffic was heavy, requiring 25 locomotives to serve the line into the early 90s. The 1991 diesel roster consisted of: five slugs, eight NW2’s, four SW7’s, four SW9’s, five SW1200’s and three SW900m’s. Except for one Alco and a quartet of Whitcombs, PBNE has only ever owned EMD switchers. At 56 miles, the line is a bit bigger than Vermont’s Green Mountain Railway and a bit smaller than Detroit & Toledo Shoreline. In 1995, the location of Bethlehem’s steel mill was redeveloped into the 1,600 acre Bethlehem Commerce Center. PBNE now carries intermodal traffic (12 trains per week), lumber, steel, plastics and farm products. Norfolk Southern has used PBNE’s Laubach Yard as a place to build Triple Crown RoadRailer trains.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.