Welcome to The Occasional Express

Welcome to the Occasional Express.

Allow me to introduce myself: My name is Patrick Webb, I'm a Writing Major and Train Enthusiast. I enjoy writing about what I enjoy, which includes trains.

I run the blog Tug & Tram Blogging, where I published two train related articles that I had attempted to publish traditionally, but unfortunately wasn't able to get them published. One of my articles exploded, and is my most read blog post to date.

This got me thinking, Why not create a train focused blog?

Now I'm not here to compete with bigger websites such as Trains Magazine or Railway Magazine. This' just for fun, and I hope you enjoy the posts on here.

So, what will this blog have? As the name implies, this will be a more occasional blog, I will try to make this every other week, but depending on my schedule (College has to take priority) after all.
Other blog posts I would like to do are history posts on railway topics, an opinion series called "Shunting Around Ideas," and whatever else I may think of.

Currently, I am not accepting submissions, but if this does well, and if there's an interest, I might look into that. That will be something I'll have to decide later on.

One thing I should mention that my posts will be written in Chicago Style, as the larger magazine titles are, but I will have a source page at the bottom. Since I'm a smaller "news source" this seems to be appropriate.

All right, thank you for reading my introduction post, and I hope to see you around.

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Shunting Ideas Around: Reflecting on the ITM Situation, & Lessons to Learn from the ITM

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Welcome back to Shunting Ideas Around, the editorial series of The Occasional Express. Today, I want to reflect on what is (arguably) one of the most historic moments in US Rail Preservation in the 21st Century, but... not for good reasons. The ITM's Fall from a well established museum to a state of disarray and in flux (at least in the public's eyes) did not happen over night. This' a topic I've been meaning to cover for a while, but haven't yet (this' actually my third attempt to write an editorial on this topic). The ITM situation is very complicated. Allow me to try and offer my thoughts. (Disclaimer: This article may appear similar to an article published by Trains Magazine , any similarities are unintentional). If you want to, you can go back and read the article The Future of the ITM , but in a quick summary: In 2016 after 7 whistle blower volunteers were fired by the ITM (against ITM's own policy), they lost their track-age rights with the Hoo...
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The Future of the Indiana Transportation Museum (Reupload)

By Patrick Webb Edited by Mary Elizabeth Reid Disclaimer: Since 2016, I have been a Save the Nickel Plate and Indiana Transportation Museum supporter. I have tried to keep this article as subjective as possible, any bias is unintentional. The opinions stated by the interviewers do not reflect the opinions of The Occasional Express or Patrick Webb. This blog was originally uploaded on Tug & Tram Blogging on July 10, 2019. Due to its relevance I have decided to re upload it here. 2018 and The Indiana Transportation Museum’s eviction and July move out from Forest Park have come and gone. The future brings new opportunities for ITM, such as new riders, but also many challenges to overcome.  The ITM was founded in the 1960’s, according to American-Rails.com, and worked to preserve Indiana’s Railroad history. For around 50 years the ITM’s main headquarters was in Forest Park, located in Noblesville, until things came toppling down in the late 2010’s.    ...
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125 Group Undergoes Locomotive Change

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By Patrick Webb Nottingham, UK . Controversy has hit the UK preservation community, as a negotiation failure between the National Railway Museum and 125 group has become public.  Founded in 1994 as a news source on the Intercity 125’s, the 125 group’s goals are to provide news on the famous British High Speed Trains (HSTs) via their magazine and ultimately preserve some examples of IC engines and rollingstock, according to their website. John Zabernik, a 125 Group Trustee, said that preserving a 125 power car was always a long time goal.  The HSTs were introduced into service in 1976, according to the 125 Group’s website, to provide England with modern passenger service. The class, officially the BR Class 43, but better known as the Intercity 125’s, according to the Locomotive Wiki, were an instant success, which BR needed after the failure of the prototype Advanced Passenger Train. In 2011, according to Mr. Zabernik, all mainline HST’s were “re-engineering includin...
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