LIRR dispatcher, supervisor disciplined for sleeping on job

Commuter train and headlight of approach frieght

NEW YORK — A Long Island Rail Road dispatcher supervisor and dispatcher have been disciplined after being found asleep on the job by investigators from the Office of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Inspector General. A report by Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny says the office received a tip that overnight dispatchers were turning off the lights […]

Read More…

Effort to save 1870s Pennsylvania station receives $75,000 grant

Brown wooden train station

MERTZTOWN, Pa. — The Longswamp Township Historical Society has received a $75,000 grant for its project to relocate a circa-1875 railroad station in Mertztown. The funds from the Berks County Redevelopment Agency will go toward the Save Our Station-Mertztown Train Station Restoration Project. To date, more than $195,000 has been raised for the project, with […]

Read More…

Tennessee man killed at NS project in Pennsylvania

DAUPHIN, Pa. — A 27-year-old Kingsport, Tenn., man has been identified as the victim of a fatal accident on a Norfolk Southern project earlier this month. The Kingsport Times-News reports Kolton Parker Helbert, an employee of National Salvage & Service Corp., was killed in the Dec. 8 accident. National Salvage provides demolition and dismantlement services. […]

Read More…

MTA awards contract for Penn Station Access

Map showing location of new Metro-North stations in the Bronx

NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has approved a design-build contract for the Penn Station Access project, which will bring Metro-North service to Penn Station via the existing Amtrak Northeast Corridor route over Hell Gate Bridge. A joint venture of Halmar International and RailWorks has received the contract for the project, estimated to take […]

Read More…

Preservation effort mounted for New York’s Penn Station

Illustration showing station concourse under large glass ceiling

NEW YORK — The destruction of New York’s Penn Station — built in 1910, demolished in 1963 — is often cited as a seminal moment in the movement to preserve historic buildings. Now, the processes to protect historic structures may be used to prevent redevelopment of the current Penn Station, the crowded, confusing, and largely […]

Read More…

DC Metrorail gets okay to return 7000-series cars to service

DC Metrorail train

WASHINGTON — The independent agency that oversees DC Metrorail safety issues has given its approval to a plan to gradually return Metro’s 7000-series railcars to service, ending an equipment shortage that has led to a significant reduction in Metrorail operations. The Washington Post reports the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission said it had no technical objections […]

Read More…

Ma & Pa 0-6-0

20180116

Maryland & Pennsylvania 0-6-0 No. 6 gets a spin on the turntable at the beloved little road’s Baltimore roundhouse in March 1955. H. N. Proctor photo […]

Read More…

NS derailment damages Southern Railway heritage unit

Green, gold, and white locomotive on its side in darkness, headlight still illuminated

PITTSBURGH — Norfolk Southern’s Southern Railway heritage unit, ES44AC No. 8099, was among two locomotives damaged when a train hit a rock slide and derailed early Sunday in Pittsburgh’s Baldwin Borough. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports the derailment occurred about 4 a.m. along the Monongahela River paralleling State Route 837, with both locomotives overturning and five […]

Read More…

New York MTA sets farewell for long-serving subway equipment

Stainless steel subway train in station

NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has announced plans for a series of celebratory final runs as it retires subway equipment that it says are some of the world’s oldest active subway cars. The R32 cars, nicknamed Brightliners, were built by the Budd Co. in Philadelphia, with the first of the cars making their […]

Read More…