WASHINGTON — Cross-examination of Jim Blair, Amtrak’s senior director of host railroads, consumed the full 8-hour, 28-minute session Monday as the Surface Transportation Board’s hearing on the effort to launch passenger service between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., resumed after an almost three-week hiatus. Blair was questioned by lawyers from Norfolk Southern, CSX Transportation, and […]
PHILADELPHIA – The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority has issued a request for proposals regarding the final-design stage of its Norristown High-Speed Line expansion. The project will add a 4-mile branch extending to King of Prussia, Pa. The grade-separated line extends 13.4 miles southeast from Norristown, Pa., to 69th Street Terminal, with connections there to Center […]
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The prospect that the Surface Transportation Board will require specific, operational moves by the rail industry to address its ongoing service issues appears unlikely, and board member Patrick Fuchs spells out why it is not the regulators’ preferred option. “To the board, carriers are clearly in the best positions to identify […]
SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. — Two construction barges broke loose on the flood-swollen Potomac River, with one of them striking the 1904 Norfolk Southern deck truss bridge here before hanging up further east. Both runaway vessels were engaged in work at a section of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park to the north along the […]
OTTAWA, Ontario – Class I railroads operating in Canada would be required to report additional performance and staffing metrics under a proposal Canadian regulators unveiled on Friday. Transport Canada’s move was announced on the same day that the Surface Transportation Board said it will temporarily require the big railroads to provide more detailed operational and […]
WASHINGTON – Federal regulators have ordered Class I railroads to provide more detailed operational and staffing metrics and will require the big four U.S. systems to submit service recovery plans in light of widespread service problems that were spotlighted during hearings last week. The Surface Transportation Board, in a decision issued on Friday, said “immediate […]
ANGOLA, Ind. — The Ft. Wayne Railroad Historical Society has announced plans for “The Indiana Rail Experience,” a series of trips featuring Nickel Plate Road Berkshire No. 765 on the Indiana Northeastern Railroad. A complete schedule and tickets for the excursions will be available later this month at the Ft. Wayne Railroad Historical Society website. […]
Bay-window caboose Scale: HO (1:87.1) Price: $36.99 Era: 1970s to 1990s (era varies depending on paint scheme) Manufacturer: Athearn Trains, 2904 Research Rd., Champaign, IL 61822, 800-338-4639, athearn.com Bay-window caboose features: Separate, factory-installed smokejack and brake wheel End handrails and ladders Clear window glazing Body-mounted McHenry scale couplers Injection-molded plastic body Caboose trucks Available June 2023 Road […]
CHICAGO — The “Last Pullman Car,” Amtrak Superliner George M. Pullman, and a locomotive simulator from Norfolk Southern have been added to the upcoming Pullman Railroad Days, to be held May 14-15 at the Pullman National Monument and hosted by the Historic Pullman Foundation, the monument’s non-profit partner. The Superliner, the last car built by […]
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte Western Railroad, the newest short line of Jaguar Transport Holdings, began operations Monday, May 2, as contract operator on 13 miles of track owned by the North Carolina Department of Transportation. “We are excited for the opportunity to establish our first operation in North Carolina and the southeastern US,” Jaguar CEO […]
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern President Alan Shaw spent his first two days as CEO visiting railroaders across the system and vowing to restore service to normal levels. On Sunday, when he added chief executive to his title as president, Shaw headed to DeButts Yard in Chattanooga, Tenn., where he spent time in the main tower, […]
Amid lot of talk, just what is Precision Scheduled Railroading? It began with a simple lesson. In the late 1960s E. Hunter Harrison was working in the tower in Frisco’s Tennessee Yard in Memphis when Bill Thompson, the railroad’s operations chief, dropped by. Thompson pointed to the yard tracks, chocked full of freight cars, and […]
