Mass Coastal to acquire Bay Colony Railroad

TAUNTON, Mass. — Short line Mass Coastal Railroad is acquiring the assets of Bay Colony Railroad, which serves three customers on 35 miles of state-owned in southeastern Massachusetts, the Boston Globe reports. Mass Coastal currently operates 135 route-miles in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, including trackage rights on CSX Transportation, and interchanges with CSX in Taunton […]

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NJ Transit board fills vacancy

NJ Transit logo

TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey Senate President Nicolas Scutari has named Anthony Abrantes to fill a seat on the NJ Transit board vacated by Sangeeta Doshi, whose term expired Jan. 14, the New Jersey Herald reports. Abrantes, of East Hanover, N.J., is assistant executive secretary-treasurer of the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters. He […]

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Most Sacramento light rail service restored

Logo of Sacramento Regional Transit

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Most Sacramento light rail service was restored this afternoon (Monday, Feb. 5), following power outages and other storm damage that hit the Sacramento Regional Transit system on Sunday. An advisory on the Sacramento RT website says Blue Line service was restored at 2 p.m. with Green Line and a portion of the […]

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Norfolk Southern tallies $1 billion-worth of infrastructure projects in 2023

ATLANTA – Norfolk Southern’s engineering team completed $1 billion in improvement projects last year, including installation of new wayside detectors as well as repairs and replacement of tracks, bridges, and grade crossings. “Our extensive infrastructure work is an important component of being a customer-centric, operations-driven railroad and represents an investment in the safety of our […]

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Railroad reporting marks 101

New Georgia Railroad diesel locomotives on freight train in yard

Railroad reporting marks Railroad cars are identified by two, three, or four letters and by a number of up to six digits. The letters, known as reporting marks, indicate the owner of the car, while the number places it in the owner’s fleet. Reporting marks ending in X indicate ownership by a private concern as […]

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News & Products for the week of February 5th 2024

News & Products for the week of February 5th 2024   Model railroad operators and builders can get the latest information about locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, tools, track, and more by reading Model Railroader’s frequent product updates. The following are the products Model Railroader editors have news on for the week of February 5th […]

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Build a vintage water tower

teal model water tower on garden railway

The inspiration for this structure came to me as I was driving through a small town and a water tank came into view. It was one of those old-fashioned styles of water tanks. I stopped to take some pictures, and later I did research on these types of tanks. This type of structure is referred […]

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Plowing snirt in Nebraska

Snowbound diesel locomotive plowing snirt in Nebraska

  The year was 1978, and I was an assistant roadmaster for the Burlington Northern out of Lincoln, Neb. Through February, the winter weather had been mild and dry, and I’d mostly been overseeing repairs to several sets of outfit cars used to house production gang workers. On the first Tuesday of March, however, a […]

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Meet Doug Tagsold

man next to model train layout

What was your first train set (or locomotive)? Like so many other modelers, I started with Lionel trains. As a young child, both of my grandparents’ homes had a Lionel train layout in the basement. I naturally assumed that a Lionel train set was a standard part of every home’s basement. When visiting other relatives […]

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California storms disrupt Amtrak, Sacramento light rail service

Amtrak logo.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Winter storms in Southern and Central California have impacted rail service in a number of areas today (Monday, Feb. 5). Today’s Coast Starlight trains will run abbreviated routes. The train scheduled to depart Los Angeles this morning will instead originate in Emeryville, Calif., while the train departing Seattle will terminate in Emeryville. […]

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