CHICAGO — Metra will restore service to pre-pandemic levels while avoiding fare increases as part of its proposed 2022 proposed operating budget. The agency’s board of directors has also approved a $263 million budget for capital projects. The 2022 operating plan also includes a new $6 day pass that would be valued for unlimited rides […]
Zone & Region: Midwest
PAs on parade
PAs on parade Santa Fe PA1s 75L and 78L hustle train 23, a nameless three-car remnant of the Grand Canyon, up Edelstein Hill west of Chillicothe, Ill., on Feb. 10, 1968. F.C. “Buck” Dumaine Jr. and the Delaware & Hudson saved the PA from extinction. J. David Ingles photo […]
Auto woes, Mexico protests crimp Kansas City Southern earnings
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Kansas City Southern’s profits slumped in the third quarter due to the impact of merger-related costs, but revenue was up sharply even as volumes declined slightly as a result of auto assembly plant shutdowns and protests that blocked the railroad’s route to a key Mexican port. The railroad today reported that […]
Mark Twain Zephyr mural takes shape
HANNIBAL, Mo. — While the Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad is home of the under-restoration Mark Twain Zephyr, the city of Hannibal, Mo., is getting its own version of the streamliner — a 60-foot-by-14-foot mural. For a couple of weeks, muralist Ray Harvey of surburban St. Louis has been perched on a manlift above the corner of […]
William Gray, midwestern preservation figure, dies at 49
FOUNTAINTOWN, Ind. — One of the Midwestern leaders of U.S. railway preservation has passed away. William Walter Gray, 49, died Oct. 12 from brain cancer. Known as one of the driving forces behind Indiana’s Whitewater Valley Railroad tourist line, he was a professional railroader, having worked as a Cincinnati-based CSX locomotive engineer for 26 years. […]
BNSF to activate trackage rights over Union Pacific in Missouri to reach power plant
WASHINGTON – BNSF Railway will gain trackage rights over a short stretch of Union Pacific’s Jefferson City Subdivision in Missouri to begin serving a power plant 45 miles west of St. Louis. The 11.5 miles of trackage rights will allow BNSF to deliver coal trains from the Powder River Basin to Ameren’s power plant in Labadie, […]
‘New England States’
New England States New England States passengers navigate the rough platform at La Salle Street Station in 1952. The New York Central train operated between Chicago and Boston. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]
Bob’s Train Box 74: Lionel GP30, track cleaning, modern S gauge
On this installment of Bob’s Train Box, Bob and CTT editor Hal Miller do a quick review of Lionel’s new Legacy GP30 (Read the full review in the December 2021 issue of CTT). Then Bob explains various track cleaning techniques and reveals his favorite thing to keep the rails shiny. The last stop is modern […]
Bob’s Train Box 74: Lionel GP30, track cleaning, modern S gauge
On this installment of Bob’s Train Box, Bob and CTT editor Hal Miller do a quick review of Lionel’s new Legacy GP30 (Read the full review in the December 2021 issue of CTT). Then Bob explains various track cleaning techniques and reveals his favorite thing to keep the rails shiny. The last stop is modern […]
FRA unveils ambitious Midwest Rail Plan
CHICAGO — Deputy Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose released the agency’s Midwest Regional Rail Plan at a Chicago Union Station media event Wednesday, characterizing it as “a 40-year multi-state framework and vision for restoring, modernizing, and expanding the existing intercity passenger rail network in the Midwest.” The blueprint, a culmination of two years collaborative work […]
CP train operating without functioning PTC at center of three-train collision in Minnesota
WASHINGTON — A Canadian Pacific train operating without functioning positive train control triggered August’s three-railroad, three-train collision in St. Paul, Minn., according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board. The preliminary report, released Wednesday, lays out basic facts of the accident but does not draw any conclusions or recommend any actions. The […]
CN, Watco ask STB to unfreeze Wisconsin, Michigan branch line sales before winter (updated)
WASHINGTON – Canadian National and Watco have urged the Surface Transportation Board to lift the hold it placed on the transfer of nearly 500 miles of former Wisconsin Central branch lines. Watco, in a filing on Tuesday, told the board that it has been preparing to launch service on the routes in Wisconsin and the neighboring […]