The Wednesday morning rail roundup: — In a significant blow to the fledgling commuter rail service, California voters in Sonoma and Marin counties have turned down a measure extending the quarter-cent sales tax that funds Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit. Approval of the measure would have guaranteed funding through 2059, the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat reports; without […]
Tuesday morning rail news: — Union Pacific and the city of Palestine, Texas, have been ordered to go to mediation over UP’s efforts to do away with a 150-year-old agreement requiring the railroad to keep a set number of jobs in the community. The Palestine Herald-Press reports a federal court is requiring the sites to […]
The little door below the headlight on an Alco switcher like Grand Trunk Western S4 No. 8090 led to a veritable chamber of horrors for a young roundhouse worker. J. David Ingles I know there are many dangerous occupations. My wife’s ancestors were coal miners in Pennsylvania after coming to America, having mined coal in […]
Rapido Trains HO scale General Electric B36-7 diesel locomotive HO scale locomotives General Electric B36-7 diesel locomotive. Southern Pacific (as delivered); Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; British Columbia Ry. (red, white, and blue “lightning stripe”); Conrail (as delivered, CSX patched numbers, and Norfolk Southern patched numbers); CSX (blue, yellow, and gray); Minnesota Commercial; Seaboard System […]
A CSX train passes through Blue Island, Ill., in September 2019. CSX led Class I railroads in operating ratio in 2019. TRAINS: David Lassen The operating ratio at every Class I railroad fell below 65% for the first time in 2019 as the industry average improved to an all-time low of 61.9%. The increased profitability […]
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett runs a BNSF Railway model train as BNSF CEO Carl R. Ice, right, looks on during Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Neb., in 2019. BNSF Railway OMAHA, Neb. — BNSF Railway has improved its profit margins without having to adopt Precision Scheduled Railroading, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett […]
KAHNAWAKE, Quebec — Canadian Pacific has obtained an injunction to remove a blockade from Adirondack Junction, south of Montreal near the Mohawk community of Kanhawake. The Montreal Gazette reports the injunction was granted earlier today by a Quebec superior court judge. In addition to disrupting freight service, commuter train service on the route has been […]
In a deal brokered by the Canadian government, Canadian Pacific and Canadian National trains have been sharing some rail routes to bypass blockades by protesters, most notably the Tyendinaga Mohawk blockade near Belleville, Ontario, that was broken up Monday by Ontario Provincial Police. The CBC reports the arrangement began last week but was kept quiet […]
Bachmann HO scale 2-10-0 Russian Decapod steam locomotive HO scale locomotives 2-10-0 Russian Decapod steam locomotive. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; Erie; St. Louis-San Francisco (Frisco, with doghouse); Western Pacific; and painted black but unlettered. Dual-mode TCS WOWSound decoder; Keep-Alive capacitor; Chuffinity technology; cog V-belt flywheel drive; metal motor bearings; separately applied stack, domes, cab, […]
News reports say several people were arrested Monday at a rail blockade near Belleville, Ontario, after protesters ignored a midnight deadline to clear the site, the first in a series of locations where rail service has been disrupted across Canada. New blockades appeared elsewhere over the weekend. Some VIA Rail Canada and commuter rail service […]
WASHINGTON D.C. — A federal judge has decided that crew size will be part of the debate during the upcoming round of national bargaining set to begin this week, and unions say they will work together to protect two-person crews. Late last year, eight major freight railroads filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in […]
Frisco 4-8-2 Mountain type steam locomotive No. 1522 hauls a tourist train near Swedeborg, Missouri, in 1994. Jim Wrinn 4-8-2 •YEARS BUILT: 1911 to 1948 •MANUFACTURERS: Alco, Baltimore & Ohio, Lima, Canadian, Montreal •OPERATED ON: Numerous large railroads requiring power for fast freight and passenger trains •NAMES: Mountain, Mohawk (New York Central) •QUANTITY: 2,201; New […]
