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COWCATCHER MAGAZINE

METRO, City Of Houston proclaim and celebrate “Rally Around The Rails Day”

May 22, 2012 / Updated July 3, 2012

Passenger Rail

The New METRO, in partnership with the City of Houston and Mayor Annise D. Parker, proclaimed May 22 as “Rally Around the Rails Day” at a press conference at the Northline Transit Center, located on the future North Light-Rail Line.

With active construction under way on three new METRORail light-rail lines, “Rally Around the Rails Day” was a citywide grassroots initiative that encourages Houstonians to patronize mom-and-pop businesses located along the construction zones.

“Development of additional METRORail lines in our city means more jobs for thousands of local contractors, construction workers and engineers, but we also need to ensure these corridors stay thriving by supporting the small businesses located along the lines,” said Mayor Parker. “We need Houstonians to rally around the rails so we can continue to build a successful transit system for Houston.”

Current Issue: Sept/Oct 2026

Piney Empire

Empires don’t have to take a lifetime of work. Just ask Vern Hallead, who has only been at the hobby for about 20 years and just may be the model railroad magnate of Northeast Texas. Hallead had his massive HO-scale layout professionally built from bench work to structures to weathering to a painted backdrop for operations. And no piece of ballast has been left unturned on a kingdom that sits obscured by towering pine trees in a quiet lakeside neighborhood. The layout, loosely depicting towns within a few miles of where Vern and wife Sparky live was operational but had no name. Only after Vern consented to this story did his empire become the Jefferson & Lone Star Railway.

Ghost Train a Comin'

Paranormal activity on railroads is nothing new, as Pat Hiatte explains in a ghostly account sure to bring a shiver.

Touring Diorama

One NMRA member is spending his summer talking up model trains. But he doesn’t have a honed presentation and PowerPoint clicker. Darrell Cowles, MMR, is toting around a small, museum-quality HO diorama that’s getting second looks at local libraries with a subtle message: See what you can do with model trains?

Plus

BNSF’s planned intermodal facility in Barstow, CA, represents a fundamental shift in how freight will flow through California, the South Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad’s No. 6071 is waving stars and stripes, Micro-Trains by Atlas makes its product debut with several freight car releases and pre-order announcements over the summer and a PSC 70-ton ore car pays tribute to a popular freelance Minnesota HO mining railroad. And more!