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 […]
Type of Train: Freight
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 […]
Owner of Beech Mountain Railroad prepares to close mine
ALEXANDER, W.Va. — The Carter-Roag Coal Co. plans to close its Morgan Camp mine, the last coal mine in Randolph County, W.Va., as well as the Star Bridge coal preparation plant, likely spelling the end of the company’s Beech Mountain Railroad. Local news reports say Carter-Roag, a subsidiary of United Coal Co., announced last week […]
Maine legislature seeks to end confidentiality for rail shipment of hazardous materials
AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Legislature is considering a bill that would repeal an earlier act that created confidentiality for information about hazardous material transported on railroads. LD1937, sponsored by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland) and co-sponsored by Sen. Richard A. Bennett (R-Portland), would repeal the bill passed in 2015. The Bangor Daily News, […]
Norfolk Southern debuts new emissions report tool for customers
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern has launched a Rail Emissions Report tool that, in an industry first, uses fuel burn data directly from locomotives. “Fuel burn can be applied to each shipment based on the weight as it travels across the Norfolk Southern network,” a railroad spokeswoman says. “Combining fuel burn with other estimates for yard […]
Hopper car load — chemical used in explosives — disappears during shipment
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A hopper car loaded with 30 tons of ammonium nitrate — a chemical used as fertilizer and as a component in explosives — was empty by the time it arrived at its destination last month, triggering investigations by state and federal authorities, as well as the manufacturer and Union Pacific, the railroad […]
Norfolk Southern reaches paid sick time agreement with engineers’ union
Norfolk Southern and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen have reached a sick time agreement, the railroad and union have announced. The deal announced today (May 18) will provide NS engineers with five new days of paid sick leave per year while also offering the flexibility to use up to two additional days of […]
Norfolk Southern is on pace to restore East Palestine main line in early June (corrected)
BOSTON — Norfolk Southern’s remediation work at the site of the February derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, is on pace to allow reopening of the second main line early next month, CEO Alan Shaw said today. “What’s important is we’re making progress there,” Shaw told an investor conference. To date, NS has distributed $34.5 million […]
UP derails 20 cars in Idaho yard
POCATELLO, Idaho — One of Union Pacific’s main lines out of its Pocatallo railyard was blocked for a day following a derailment of about 20 cars on Tuesday evening, the Idaho State Journal reports. The derailment occurred about 8:50 p.m. No injuries were reported and no hazardous materials were spilled. Most cars were empty and […]
Weekly U.S. rail traffic shows familiar pattern
WASHINGTON — The latest figures for U.S. rail traffic are extremely familiar: carload numbers are comparable to 2022, while intermodal volume is down significantly. The specifics from the Association of American Railroads, for the week ending May 13, show 466,381 carloads and intermodal units, a 5.9% decline from the corresponding week a year ago. That […]
Auto racks on CPKC train derail in Ontario
CAMBRIDGE, Ontario — No injuries were reported after 14 cars of a Canadian Pacific Kansas City train derailed today (May 17) near Cambridge, CTV News reports. Robert Shantz, fire chief of the Township of North Dumfries, told CTV that his department had been released from the scene after it was determined no hazardous materials were […]
Metra takes STB to court over CPKC decision
WASHINGTON — Chicago commuter operator Metra has become the third entity to sue over the Surface Transportation Board’s approval of the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger. In a single-page filing with the board, Metra notified the STB today (Wednesday, May 17) that it had initiated a suit on May 12 in the U.S. Court of […]