MARCO ISLAND, Fla. – Canadian National’s “very ambitious capital program” for 2019 include up to 105 miles of new double track, said Jim McLeod, the railroad’s chief engineer for structures, design, and construction, in a Tuesday presentation at the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association Conference. Up to 75 miles of the new double track […]
How did your favorite railroad fare in traffic growth last year? Probably about the same as every other railroad. Five of the big six Class I systems ran neck-and-neck and ended 2018 with 4-percent traffic growth, according to a review of the railroads’ Association of American Railroads weekly carload reports for the final week of […]
MARCO ISLAND, Fla. – The introduction of positive train control remains very much a work in progress, with all the bugs and growing pains that accompany a new technology. But for all that, PTC has definitely begun demonstrating its ability to avoid accidents. Jim LeVere, BNSF Railway vice president, engineering – signals, telecommunications and network […]
Matt Rose MARCO ISLAND, Fla. – Matt Rose thinks the railroad industry is placing itself at regulatory risk with its embrace of Precision Scheduled Railroading. “We have this common-carrier obligation to provide freight service to all customers in all markets,” said Rose, BNSF Railway’s executive chairman, during a Monday morning “fireside chat” at the annual […]
HO scale freight cars Pullman-Standard 4,740-cubic-foot-capacity three-bay covered hopper. Burlington Northern (Cascade Green, three-pack features paint scheme variations); Chicago & North Western (green, gray, and yellow schemes); Milwaukee Road (gray); Montana Rail Link (gray); Pillsbury (gray with black underbody); and Reading, Blue Mountain & Northern (gray). Three single cars and one three-pack per scheme. Roller-bearing […]
A Cargill unit feed train rolls through Shawnee, Kan., in June 2009. The train consists of covered bathtub gondolas pulled from coal service. Zach Pumphery Q While traveling near Atchison, Kan., I noticed a BNSF Railway train with covered bathtub coal gondolas. What were the covers for, and could they be removed should they be […]
A Union Pacific train crosses underneath a positive train control-equipped signal bridge on BNSF Railway tracks in Cajon Pass, Calif., in 2013. TRAINS: Steve Sweeney A year ago, three of the Class I railroad systems — Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, and CSX Transportation — were operating under the late E. Hunter Harrison’s Precision Scheduled Railroading […]
A northbound Canadian National stack train passes through Waukesha, Wis., in May 2018. CN announced on Dec. 20 that it has met the Dec. 31 deadline for installation of PTC equipment. TRAINS: David Lassen HOMEWOOD, Ill. — Canadian National has met installation requirements for positive train control equipment and applied for a two-year extension to […]
GARY, Ind. — The state will award $121 million in matching funds for grade-crossing separation projects, Gov. Eric Holcomb has announced. Under the state’s Local Trax funding, communities receiving funds must provide 20 percent of the funds for land acquisition and construction. Norfolk Southern, CSX Transportation and Canadian National will also provide $10 million in […]
HO scale locomotives Electro-Motive Division GP38-2 and GP38-2W diesel locomotive. GP38-2: Canadian Pacific (Action Red with Multimark herald in three road numbers, maroon-and-gray with script lettering in one number), Southern Pacific (scarlet-and-gray scheme with Roman lettering in four numbers, speed lettering in one number), and Southern Ry. (high short hood with paper or oil bath […]
Behind six units, an eastbound Z-train flies through historic downtown Laramie, Wyo., on June 7, 2018, exactly 150 years to the day that Union Pacific tracks reached the town named for French-Canadian fur trader Jacques La Ramee. Bill Stephens OMAHA, Neb. — More of Union Pacific’s intermodal trains will operate daily, up from five or […]
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Distributed power will become an even more common sight on CSX Transportation tracks in 2019. The railroad, which has introduced distributed power in intermodal service over the past four months, aims to double its use of distributed power over the next year, says Jamie Boychuk, senior vice president of network operations. “We’re […]
