LA GRANGE, Ill. – The end may be near for a locomotive plant that was once at the top of the industry. Progress Rail parent Caterpillar Inc. is considering closing the famed La Grange facility, splitting the remaining engine production between a plant in North Carolina and outside suppliers, the Winston-Salem Journal reports. The 850,000-square-foot […]
Magazine: Trains Magazine
Trains and Cumbres & Toltec announce epic narrow gauge photo charter NEWSWIRE
A photo freight crosses the Los Pinos trestle, near Osier, Colo. TRAINS: Jim Wrinn WAUKESHA, Wis. — Trains magazine and the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad are pleased to announce a special photo freight event Aug. 25-26, 2018, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the last revenue freight on the legendary Rio Grande narrow gauge. […]
Scheduling freight trains
Northbound CSX Transportation aggregates train K944 is seen meeting intermodal train Q145 at Opelika, Ala., in 2010. Class I railroads use different kinds of schedules to keep their networks fluid and profitable, even on single-track lines. Frank Orona What time will the train depart? When will it arrive? While most people associate schedules with passenger […]
Ewbank gas-electric locomotive
Gene Mendonca’s painting of Ewbank Electric Transmission Co.’s train. Gene Mendonca Q Can you tell me anything about the Ewbank Electric Transmission Co. that is the subject of a picture I painted from a very old newspaper clipping? – Gene Mendonca, Folsom, Calif. A H.B. Ewbank Jr. built No. 333, a 75-foot-long gas-electric locomotive with […]
New Hampshire tourist railroad sold NEWSWIRE
Conway Scenic GP9 No. 573 leads an excursion out of North Conway in December 2016. Justin Franz NORTH CONWAY, N.H. — New Hampshire’s Conway Scenic Railroad has been sold to Profile Mountain Holdings Corp., the Conway Daily Sun reports. The sale was effective immediately. The popular New England tourist road was owned by Russ and […]
GE’s Brazil factory debuts modern moving assembly line NEWSWIRE
A view of a new modern moving assembly line at a GE Transportation factory in Brazil. The line is similar to ones used in aviation that move large and heavy components several feet per hour based on production demands. GE Transportation CONTAGEM, Brazil – GE Transportation’s plant in Contagem unveiled today a new approach to […]
Trains Video Postcard: the Princeton ‘Dinky’ NEWSWIRE
PRINCETON, N.J. — PRINCETON JUNCTION, N.J. — A cloudy late January morning sees NJ Transit electric multiple unit Arrow III cars Nos. 1311 and 1329 doing yeoman service on the Princeton Junction to Princeton “Dinky.” This 2.7-mile line offers over 40 round trips a day, connecting with NJT Northeast Corridor trains at Princeton Junction; it […]
Senator introduces two-person crew bill; cites 2013 oil train crash NEWSWIRE
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., has introduced the Safe Freight Act in the Senate today in an effort to require two-person crews aboard all freight trains in the United States. The bill is a companion to a piece of legislation previously introduced in the House of Representatives by U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska. […]
Trains Presents: Peru 2017 tour, day 3
Join us for the next video diary entry of our rail tour through Peru. Having crossed the Andes, our chartered Ferrocarril Central Andino train travels across the Altiplano from LaOroya to Cerro de Pasco through immense scenic beauty and raw industrial scars. We’ll pass wetlands where flamingos winter, inspect an abandoned narrow gauge diesel, and […]
GREX business car looms large in honoring company’s founding family NEWSWIRE
An exterior image of GREX Business Car No. 400, Edwin Brazelton Snead. The car served presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, and served multiple politicians and dignitaries before ownership was transferred to GREX in the 1990s. GREX An interior image from GREX Business Car No. 400, Edwin Brazelton Snead. GREX GEORGETOWN, Texas — On Monday […]
CSX rolls out distributed power on unit coal trains in Appalachia NEWSWIRE
A 220-car loaded CSX Transportation coal train with mid-train distributed power rolls into St. Albans, W.Va., on Jan. 27, 2018. Chase Gunnoe HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Unit coal trains in Appalachia are now running with distributed power less than two weeks after CSX Transportation officials indicated the increased use of the mid-train technology. Ed Harris, CSX’s […]
STB rules against CSX in rare rate-case win for a rail shipper NEWSWIRE
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board recently settled a carrier-shipper rate dispute in favor of the shipper, something that hasn’t happened in several years. The decision was in a case brought by Consumers Energy against CSX Transportation in January 2015. Consumers challenged the rates that CSX charged the Jackson, Mich.,-based utility to move Powder River […]
