Digest: Canadian government proposes delay for grade-crossing regulations

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Proposed amendments would push back deadline for Canadian grade-crossing rules The Canadian government has published proposed amendments to regulations regarding railroad grade crossings which would extend the deadline for compliance with existing rules. The amendments would provide a one-year extension from the original deadline of Nov. 28, 2021, for grade crossings considered to be higher […]

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Digest: Colorado governor signs major transportation bill

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Colorado transportation bill helps advance Front Range rail plans Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has signed a major transportation bill including a provision allowing creation of transportation planning organizations to exercise the powers of a regional transportation authority — a step toward creation of a Front Range Passenger Rail Authority. Full text of the bill is […]

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Interiors near completion on three ‘Mark Twain Zephyr’ cars

Boy in red shirt looks through glass etched with image of train

TREGO, Wis. — After surviving 62 years in storage and seven previous owners unable to fulfill their plans for the historic Budd-built streamliner, Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad’s restoration of the Mark Twain Zephyr has turned a corner, with three of the five cars nearing interior completion. “I am thankful every day for the individuals and […]

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Solo ‘Blue Bird’

Crews service passenger train during station stop

Solo ‘Blue Bird’ Crews change on the Norfolk & Western Blue Bird at Decatur, Ill., in 1967. The train was running separate from the Cannon Ball (note the green flags) owing to the winter storm having disrupted schedules. Behind GP9 510 is E8 3808, one of five Wabash passenger cabs N&W repainted. J. David Ingles […]

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Milwaukee’s 2021 Trainfest cancelled

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The Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Southeastern Division of the National Model Railroad Association has announced via its Facebook page that the 2021 Trainfest is cancelled. “We really wanted to have Trainfest this year; however we think the risks are too great to hold the show,” the Facebook announcement said. The posting added the […]

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Digest: Metro-North to add trains on three lines as of June 21

Electric multiple unit trainset with red front stops at station

Metro-North to add trains, increasing service to 67% of pre-pandemic levels Metro-North Railroad will add trains on three lines as of Monday, June 21, bringing service to two-thirds of pre-pandemic levels, and will increase that to 83% of prior service levels as of Aug. 29. The Harlem, Hudson, and New Haven lines will each add […]

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Railfanning Chicago: La Fox, Illinois

  One in an occasional series on Senior Editor David Lassen’s favorite Chicago-area railfan locations Railfanning LaFox, Illinois Well west of Chicago, in a still mostly rural area with suburbia gradually encroaching, is La Fox, Ill., on Union Pacific’s Geneva Subdivision. There’s barely a community to speak of, but it does have a Metra station. […]

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