WASHINGTON — U.S. weekly rail traffic remained ahead of 2024 levels for a sixth consecutive week, according to the latest statistics from the Association of American Railroads. For the week ending Aug. 9, traffic totaled 511,194 carloads and intermodal units, an increase of 3% compared to the same week a year ago. That includes 227,327 […]
OMAHA, Neb. — The proposed Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern transcontinental merger could lead to nearly 10% traffic growth by 2030 — a significant turnaround for railroads that have yet to rebound to their pre-pandemic volume levels. UP and NS did not provide traffic growth projections as part of their July 29 merger announcement. Rather, […]
WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration today disbanded its Railroad Safety Advisory Committee as part of a broader Department of Transportation push to bring federal advisory panels in line with a presidential executive order. “These committees are long overdue for a refresh. Many have not held a single meeting in over a year, while others […]
MIAMI — Florida passenger rail operator Brightline is reissuing almost a billion dollars of private activity bond debt for which a mandatory redemption has come due. The more than 1,300-page Series 2025B “Limited Remarketing Memorandum” distributed to interested parties Tuesday has a term rate of 10%, but is expected to yield 15% to bondholders of […]
I found this manuscript from the late John Grams in our manuscript files. There was no date on the envelope but it’s likely from the early 1990s. The article discusses 12 Lionel products that, while great inventions, were fraught with problems or didn’t work exactly as advertised. He included the following disclaimer: Lionel trains were […]
After a long day of track maintenance or repairing rolling stock, a rail employee needs a place to sit down and catch up on paperwork or perhaps schedule tomorrow’s activities. The Cripple Creek & Western crew can now do just that — Menards has released the Cripple Creek Rail Maintenance Office (No. 275-9491). The ready-to-use […]
Most railfans will not dispute this statement: The most iconic General Electric locomotives to be employed by Amtrak were the Genesis series. These streamlined, monocoque-body (single shell) workhorses have been everywhere along the passenger carrier’s regional and long-distance services since the 1990s. The impact of the Genesis series locomotives can make it easy to forget […]
Southern Ry. SW9 No. 1136 spots a loaded hopper at Innes Brothers Coal & Lumber Co. Lou Sassi took the photo on Bob Lawson’s HO scale Southern Ry. layout in Danville, Ky. You can read more about Bob’s model railroad in the August 2003 issue of Model Railroader. Model Railroader‘s Photo of the Day features […]
Of the more than 500 stations Amtrak serves across its 21,000-mile network, most are pretty straightforward. Some serve as originating/terminating points for the carrier’s trains, while others are stops along the way for through services. But there are more than 30 Amtrak stations with both originating/terminating and through services. These dual-purpose facilities are small depots […]
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled Senate has passed a funding bill that would largely use capital funding to maintain transit operations, a move the state’s governor and Democratically-controlled House say is not a viable solution to the funding shortfall that could lead to major service cuts in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The Philadelphia-area Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation […]
Q: In the May 2025 Ask MR, the answer to a question about early diesel power for the Milwaukee, Racine & Troy included this statement: “For road power, the MR&T would most likely turn to four-axle units, such as the Alco RS1 through RS3 and EMD GP7 and GP9. It’s possible the MR&T could have […]
NEW YORK — The Long Island Rail Road has added more seating on the mezzanine level of Grand Central Madison, responding to customer requests during a period of rising ridership at the two-year-old facility. The station originally had no seating on the mezzanine — the area between the two levels of tracks well below Grand […]
