Thursday afternoon rail news: UP train derails near Dixon, Ill. Thirty-nine cars of a Union Pacific train derailed near Dixon, Ill., on Thursday morning. WIFR-TV reports UP initially informed the Lee County, Ill., Sheriff’s Office of the derailment at 1:49 a.m., and just before 5 a.m., updated its initial report to say diesel fuel, nut […]
Continuing the Trains News Wire countdown of 2020’s top stories: No. 4: The PTC deadline It was a long, expensive process, but the railroad industry has met the huge technological challenge of positive train control. When NJ Transit announced on Dec. 18 that its PTC system had been certified, it meant the last railroad considered […]
Continuing the Trains News Wire countdown of the Top 10 rail stories of 2020: No. 7: Alstom purchases Bombardier Two of the major suppliers of passenger and transit equipment in North America and Europe are combining, with French-based Alstom purchasing the rail business of Montreal-based Bombardier Transportation. The deal, announced in February, creates the second-largest […]
Wednesday morning rail news: Railroads granted exemption to trucking hours-of-service laws The Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has granted railroads an exemption to the hours of service law for truck drivers. The Association of American Railroads and American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association had requested the exemption for their member railroads […]
On Tuesday, Trains News Wire will begin counting down its Top 10 stories of 2020, a year marked by a wide range of stories in the realms of freight, passenger, rail transit, and preservation news. How wide? Well, 25 stories received votes in the end-of-the-year balloting among staff members and key contributing writers; excluding the […]
CALGARY, Alberta — Canadian Pacific has announced a program it says will develop North America’s first line-haul hydrogen-powered locomotive, retrofitting a current locomotive with hydrogen fuel cells and batteries to drive the traction motors. “This is a globally significant project that positions CP at the leading edge of decarbonizing the freight transportation sector,” Keith Creel, […]
By: Steve Glischinski DULUTH, Minn. — It’s a cliché when a person passes away to say “they had a life well lived.” But the life of Frank W. Christopherson meets that definition. Christopherson, who died in Duluth on Dec. 15 at 93, was one of the last surviving engineers who ran steam locomotives on the […]
CHICAGO — Food service on Amtrak’s long-distance trains has become such an exercise in repetition that something as modest as the cold meal service on the Portland, Ore., section of the Empire Builder is both a notable and welcome respite. That’s one aspect of the current state of onboard dining, which suggests both immediate and […]
Product news Model railroad operators and builders can get the latest information about locomotives, freight cars, structures, electronics, train sets, and more by reading Model Railroader’s frequent product updates. Here are the products Model Railroad editors have news on for the week of Dec. 17, 2020. HO scale locomotives Electro-Motive Division SD40 diesel locomotive. Atchison, […]
DC Metro releases report saying earlier claims of misconduct are ‘unsubstantiated’ DC Metro has released a report on an independent investigation into its Rail Operations Control Center that says complaints about misconduct by officials at the facility are “unsubstantiated.” The Washington Post reports the WMATA report, released Friday, is in response to an audit by […]
BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, and Union Pacific all set intermodal volume records in November as imports surged, retailers continued to restock depleted inventories, and consumer spending and e-commerce remained strong. The other big Class I systems — Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, and Norfolk Southern — were handling intermodal volumes at near-record levels. “It’s a perfect […]
Two Class I railroads were among the companies to invest in the latest round of funding for one of the startup companies that is developing self-driving trucks. Online technology publication TechCrunch has reported that Union Pacific and Canadian National both were among the investors in a $350 million round of funding for TuSimple. CN declined […]
