JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – CSX Transportation has been recognized by USA Today as one of America’s Climate Leaders, ranking among U.S. companies that have achieved the greatest reduction in emissions intensity between 2019 and 2021. “As the most fuel-efficient mode of freight transportation on land, railroads can play a significant role in the nation’s climate strategy, […]
Type of Train: Freight
STB chairman: Class I railroad strategies are inviting stronger regulation
CHICAGO – Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin J. Oberman told a shipper conference that Class I railroad behavior over the past few years – mass layoffs, crew shortages, and poor service – may require a new approach to regulation. “It may be time to say 2023 is not 1980 and we need to rethink some […]
Great American Steam Locomotives: Articulateds DVD Trailer
Great American Steam Locomotives: Articulateds DVD | 16126 The Articulateds are the largest steam locomotives ever built. Starting as slow speed monsters hauling heavy trains over mountain ridges, they became a regular feature of many of the largest Class 1 railroads, handling everything from slow drag freights, to fast time freights, and even were able […]
Laredo and Houston concerns prompted Union Pacific lawsuit over STB’s Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger decision
CHICAGO – Union Pacific is suing the Surface Transportation Board because the agency’s approval of the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger didn’t fully protect cross-border competition at the Laredo, Texas, gateway or address the potential for congestion in Houston, UP CEO Lance Fritz told a shipper conference today. “In their approval they identified our concerns […]
Dave Wendt’s Norfolk & Western in HO scale
Watch trains steaming through the builder’s depiction of coal operations in Virginia and West Virginia in the 1950s. On this layout, mirrors and a cathedral ceiling make the mid-sized HO scale (1:87.1) layout feel much larger! To learn even more about the builder and layout details, be sure to read the July 2023 issue of […]
Dave Wendt’s Norfolk & Western in HO scale
Watch trains steaming through the builder’s depiction of coal operations in Virginia and West Virginia in the 1950s. On this layout, mirrors and a cathedral ceiling make the mid-sized HO scale (1:87.1) layout feel much larger! To learn even more about the builder and layout details, be sure to read the July 2023 issue of […]
Union Pacific and BLET reach tentative agreement on engineer scheduling
Union Pacific and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen have reached a tentative agreement that will provide engineers with more predictable schedules. The deal, which the union and railroad called “historic,” will provide engineers with an 11 days on, four days off schedule. UP and the BLET said the tentative agreement announced today will […]
Norfolk Southern and unions team up to focus on safety improvements
ATLANTA – Norfolk Southern and the 12 unions that represent the railroad’s employees have agreed to work more closely together to improve safety. “Today, national labor leaders and Norfolk Southern management are committing to work together to enhance rail safety for our people and the communities we serve,” they announced in a letter to employees […]
Michigan Senate advances bill for grade separation fund
LANSING, Mich. – Many states have attempted to address long delays at grade crossings by passing legislation to limit how long a train can hold up traffic. But the Michigan legislature is moving to adopt a different approach: eliminate the crossings altogether. The Michigan Senate has unanimously passed a bill that would create a permanent […]
Work in progress to upgrade BNSF’s old Sandpoint bridge
SANDPOINT, Idaho — With BNSF Railway and Montana Rail Link trains now using the new 4,873-foot long Lake Pend Oreille bridge opened in late November 2022 outside Sandpoint, Idaho, the adjacent bridge opened by Northern Pacific in 1904 is undergoing reconstruction. BNSF says the work involves “replacing all 59 of the remaining original 1904 bridge […]
Tacoma Rail ends service to Frederickson, Wash.
Another little piece of the Milwaukee Road is fading away in Tacoma, Wash. Tacoma Rail aka Tacoma Municipal Belt Line Railway consisted of three divisions. The Tidelands Division, the Mountain Division and the Capitol Division, now known as the Lakewood Division. The Capitol Division included lines in the Olympia, Wash., area and industries in South […]
BNSF and J.B. Hunt work on ways to improve service, convert loads off highway
Editor’s Note: This is an abridged version of a feature that will run in the October issue of Trains Magazine that will examine intermodal developments on both BNSF Railway and Union Pacific. It’s not easy for railroads’ domestic intermodal customers to jump ship, which is why their partnerships tend to endure for decades. Yet change […]