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This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference.

Defector

Noelle Mateer is a writer in Pittsburgh. Her work appears in Wired, The Baffler, The Guardian and more. Her Substack is <a href="https://pathenewsletter.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://pathenewsletter.substack.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1786567070811000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1LOAnbsGrpau8RvDRBu5SF">Pennsylvania: The Newsletter</a>.

Noelle Mateer

Big Boy, the largest operating steam locomotive, arrives in Silver Springs, New York, on its only East Coast tour this month to celebrate its 250th anniversary. (Photo by John Whitney/NurPhoto)

Life's Rich Pageant

Everybody Loves Big Boy

Patrick Redford

PARADISE, NEVADA - JULY 24: An aerial view of the construction site of New Las Vegas Stadium, the future home of the Athletics baseball team, on the site of the former Tropicana Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, on July 24, 2025 in Paradise, Nevada. (Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images)

Podcasts

This Building Is A Bucket, With Ben Schneider

Kathryn Xu

This photograph shows a TGV inoui high speed train of the French national SNCF rail company SNCF running in Nantes, western France, on April 4, 2025.

Transit

All The Trains I Rode In France

Interior Of Empty Subway Train, Photo Taken In Shanghai, China

All The Trains I Rode In China

A Tribute To PATCO, The Little Rail Line That Could

Columnist. Author of many <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Drew-Magary/e/B001JS8R52/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1">fine works of literature</a>, including Point B. Handsomest man in the world.

Drew Magary

A woman stands with her cellphone in Grand Central Terminal, the historic world-famous landmark and transportation hub in Midtown Manhattan July 21, 2020 in New York. - The station is the southern terminus of the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem, Hudson and New Haven Lines and ridership has been down during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP) (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)

Life Lessons

Metro-North Is My North Star

Aaron Gordon is a reporter covering transportation, infrastructure, and the environment. Most recently, he was a senior staff writer at Motherboard, VICE News’s tech and science website.

Aaron Gordon

A general overall aerial view of Arrowhead Stadium on December 25, 2023 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Soccer

The Good, The Bad, And The Unreachable: A World Cup Transit Report Ranking

Defector Staff

LMS streamlined Princess Coronation Class 4-6-2 No 6220 Coronation at Euston with the Coronation Scot. 1937, United Kingdom. (Photo by Rail Photo/Construction Photography/Avalon/Getty Images)