UPDATED — CAÑON CITY, Colo. (via KRDO) — In a post on the Royal Gorge Route Railroad’s Facebook page, the railroad announced it will open, after all, on May 23. No other details were available.
In previous statements, Mark Greska, the Royal Gorge Route Railroad’s owner said his tourist railroad may close permanently if area businesses were unable to re-open from Coronavirus closures by June 1.
Greska told KRDO that he doesn’t hear back from Colorado officials by then, he’ll “have to lay off 300 employees”.
Local officials tell the television station that they’ve been told a decision on when to re-open businesses has been made, but that county and state officials haven’t shared details.
Omaha Railroad Days have been cancelled
OMAHA, Neb. (Via Omaha.com)
Officials in Omaha; Council Bluffs, Iowa; and surrounding communities are putting off annual railroad festivities until at least July 2021 due to Coronavirus concerns.
The May 19 announcement impacts festivities planned for July involving the Lauritzen Gardens, Durham Museum, Union Pacific Railroad Museum, RailsWest Railroad musuem, among others.
This year would have been Railroad Days’ 13th annual event.
Largest ever UK station planned for London
LONDON (via The Railway Hub)
The Railway Hub news site reports that UK officials have approved planning applications this week for what would be the largest train station in the United Kingdom.
The station is slated for Old Oak Common in west London and is expected to a hub for HS2 or a second phase of high-speed rail expansion on the island.
Station planners reportedly will build 14 platforms accomodating about 250,000 passengers daily.
Game maker adds to collection with “Trans Siberian Railroad”
The Gaming Gang reports that Rio Grande Games based in Placitas, N.M., will release a new board game for rail enthusiasts called “Trans Siberian Railroad.”
Players take the roll of Russian rail barrons attempting to connect Moscow with the Pacific Ocean.
The new game adds to the company’s list of railroad-themed game titles which includes “Boxcars”, “Gulf, Mobile & Ohio”, and “20th Century Limited.”
I have a board game on the trans siberian theme. I’ve got to find it!
They are crying wolf Colorado just retracted their order now UP which still owns the line needs to lease it to a new buyer so freight can start moving again.
Yes, Old Oak Common was a famous shed/ loco terminal back in steam days.
What is former Gov. Jesse Ventura saying NOW?
The Great Western Main Line is now electrified from Paddington to Newbury on the “Berks & Hants” route to the West of England, to near Chippenham on the route to Bristol Temple Meads, and to Cardiff Central. The lines from Didcot to Oxford, Chippenham to Bristol TM, Bristol Parkway (on the Cardiff route) to Bristol TM, and Cardiff to Swansea are still diesel, thanks to cost and time over-runs. As ever, likely to be a revision to that government decision, but who knows when?! Again, as ever, short-termism is adding to the costs of operating the railway, with less efficient bi-modes having to be used.There is a very large area available for development in the Old Oak Common area. My guess is it’ll be the “biggest” in terms of size, certainly not the number of platforms – London Waterloo has 24 platforms. Check out the area on Goggle Earth, which already describes it as OOC railway station. Part of the area was the original Great Western Railway’s London loco depot; opened in 1905, it had four turntables in a huge “square house” arrangement.
Regarding the Royal Gorge permanently closing. I’m afraid we will be seeing a lot more of this kind of thing. The Washington Post is reporting that in the last three months something like 40 million unemployment claims have been filed. Wikipedia has the size of the US work force at about 160M, so that is 25 percent unemployment right there. Add in another 5 percent to deal with previously unemployed, time-outs, independent contractors, gig types and the rest and we have a 30 percent unemployment rate. Businesses are failing left and right. You might want to argue, but we have a Great Depression on our hands.
Artcile in therailwayhub.co.uk contains little more detail then the article above. This station woiuld serve the trains out of Paddington – the former Great Western Railway Routes and the parallel Heathrow Trains. The location is in the London Borough of Hamnmersmith and Fulham. I’ve been through their twice, from the airport into Paddington where I immediately turned around for a train to Bristol, so I can’t say if I recall a big bunch of empty space or a rail yard. It would seem that this would be in conjunction with electrifying the former GWR, the last major holdout for deisel trains in England. Does anyone know of any progress on adding catenary on the former GWR? Plz. inform.
JOHN SEARS – Thanks for all the great info. My one trip to UK was eight years ago so I’ve fallen behind. Are the bi-modes new for these lines or have they been used before? … Leaving Bristol TM, that huge old barn of a station, was my first – ever walk on the wild side of British traffic. The fools drive on the wrong side of the street! And whip out of the roundabout far too fast! In UK just as in America, roundabouts may work for vehicular traffic but can be difficult for pedestrians. RON SALTERS – Somehow I missed the rail yard at OOC. I do remember a freight yard but not anything really big or important.