Welcome to my web site. I am a transportation writer with more than 25 years of professional experience in the rail industry. From 1970 through 1996, I worked for four major U.S. railroads, and spent several years with a major Washington, D.C.-based transportation consulting firm.
In the years since 1996, I have written extensively about railroad operations, economics and history. From 1997 to 2009 I published a monthly newsletter, Rail StockWatch, that covered the rail industry from a financial perspective. Since 2001, I have written the following articles for TRAINS magazine:
• Ice railroaders: Despite the minus 18 temps and the four feet of snow per month, the Alaska Railroad acts like a Class I railroad... with both coal and passengers (December 2011)
• Where's that coal train going? The North American coal market is complex, and so is the rail network that moves coal from mine to user (April 2010)
• Nice ride! From boxcars to covered hoppers, here's how grain rides the rails (April 2009)
• How much does it cost? From head-hardened rail to heavy-haul locomotives, here's what railroads are spending on the hardware that keeps the industry moving (January 2008)
• Railroading's new economy: the China factor (August 2006)
• The East after Conrail: CSX, looking for a silver bullet (September 2005)
• Freight car Catch-22: railroad, shipper and leasing company survival strategies (April 2005)
• Ribbons of steel: rail is getting bigger and better (December 2004)
• Risky business: the railroad freight car market (January 2004)
• North American railroading's new frontier: Mexico (November 2003)
• Canadian National, from worst to first in 10 years (November 2002)
• Wrong train running? Why intermodal gets the green light (July 2002)
• Can railroads stay home for the holidays? (December 2001)
• TTX gives fast freight wheels: managing the intermodal equipment fleet (November 2001)
• Manned helper locomotives vs. distributed power: different railroads, different philosophies (August 2001)
For Classic Trains magazine, I have written one piece, Learning the Basics (Summer 2006), about beginning a career in railroading with the Boston & Maine and Soo Line in the early 1970s.
I have also written the following books for the MBI/Voyageur Press Railroad Color History series, which can be ordered from any book retailer:
• Rails Across Canada: The History of Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railways (ISBN 0760340080)
• Canadian National Railway (ISBN 076031764X)
• Canadian Pacific Railway (ISBN 0760322554)
• The Milwaukee Road (ISBN 0760320721)
• Illinois Central Railroad (ISBN 0760322546)
• Southern Railway (ISBN 0760325456)
• Chicago & North Western Railway (ISBN 0760325464)
Tom Murray
607 Taunton Drive
Santa Maria, CA 93455-1208
Phone 805-925-2822
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Updated January 4, 2012
