Fiery CPKC train rolls through London, Ontario

Night fire scene along railroad tracks. Fiery CPKC train rolls through London, Ontario

The Canadian Transportation Safety Board is investigating a bizarre fire aboard a Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway freight train in a London, Ontario residential neighborhood around 10:49 p.m., April 21, according to reports from numerous news agencies and the London Fire Department. Witnesses reported seeing the CPKC train moving through the city as flames shot […]

Read More…

Class I railroads tout their green cred in honor of Earth Day

CSX today announced the winners of its third annual CSX Customer Environmental Excellence Awards, which salute shippers who convert a portion of their freight from truck to rail. “Sustainability is a shared priority between CSX and our customers. Helping them reduce emissions by converting from trucks to rail is an important part of our strategy,” […]

Read More…

Guardian Award honors Union Pacific dispatchers

Union Pacific logo with Building America slogan

Omaha, Neb. — Recognizing the vital role played by its train dispatchers when it comes to safe operations, the Union Pacific Railroad has presented its Guardian Award to nearly 300 dispatchers for their work in 2023. The honored dispatchers work in three locations – Omaha, Neb., San Bernardino, Calif., and Spring, Texas. UP train dispatchers, […]

Read More…

Colebrookdale Railroad’s rebirth

A dark blue diesel locomotive next to a yellow depot with brick buildings beyond

The Colebrookdale Railroad’s rebirth as a successful tourist railroad breathes new life into a former Reading Company branch in southeastern Pennsylvania. The revival was sparked by a determined man named Nathaniel Guest and a supportive community. Guest, a Pottstown native, learned the railroad was going to be officially abandoned. Believing the line’s history made it […]

Read More…

Norfolk Southern questions operational data behind activist investor plan

Norfolk Southern says that activist investor Ancora Holdings’ detailed plan for the railroad, released last week in a 193-page presentation, contains misleading operational data and vastly overstated cost-savings projections. Ancora says its proposed management team would reduce costs by $800 million through a full-blown implementation of the low-cost Precision Scheduled Railroading operating model at NS. […]

Read More…

Five mind-blowing facts — Walt Disney’s railroads

Steam locomotive at Victorian passenger station. Five mind-blowing facts — Walt Disney’s railroads.

Walt Disney’s railroads It is no secret that Walt Disney loved trains. His passion for railroads runs to the time of his youth and can still be seen throughout today’s Disney empire. For Walt, as you will see, railroading was an early job — one that made him little money — but one that put […]

Read More…

Sold-out Reading & Northern special covers rare mileage

Three RDCs exit tunnel

MOUNT CARMEL, Pa. — For the first time in decades, a passenger train Saturday (April 20, 2024) covered the full length of Reading & Northern Railroad’s Mahanoy & Shamokin Branch, carrying 194 riders aboard a trio of Budd Co. Rail Diesel Cars. Sponsored by the affiliated Lehigh Valley Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society […]

Read More…

Beyond the byline with Mike Wilson

What was your first byline in Trains? Mike Wilson: My first byline in Trains was “Winter in Coal Country,” published in January 2022  featuring an in-depth look at the former Norfolk & Western, now Norfolk Southern, Pocahontas Division within the backwoods of southern Virginia and West Virginia. In my humble opinion, the Pocahontas Division serves […]

Read More…

South Dakota official sees Amtrak service as unlikely

Map of proposed passenger rail route from Denver to Minneapolis-St. Paul via South Dakota

PIERRE, S.D. — South Dakota’s transportation secretary has injected a note of reality into discussion of possible Amtrak service in the state. That discussion gained life in February with the inclusion of two routes serving South Dakota among the 15 in a Federal Railroad Administration report on its ongoing Amtrak Daily Long-Distance Service Study [see […]

Read More…