DULUTH, Minn. — Amtrak officials are scheduled to be in Duluth today and tomorrow for meetings about proposed passenger service between Duluth and the Twin Cities. The Duluth News Tribune reports that Joe McHugh, Amtrak’s vice president, state-supported business development, will meet with Duluth-area officials today and elected officials at the State Capitol in St. […]
The Amtrak locomotive named for former CEO Joe Boardman is now at the railroad’s Beech Grove (Ind.) shops. Bob Johnston BEECH GROVE, Ind. — You may be wondering about the status of Amtrak P42DC locomotive No. 42, the “Salute to Veterans” diesel named for Joe Boardman, the former Amtrak CEO who died earlier this week […]
Former Amtrak President Joe Boardman seated at his former office in Washington, D.C. Bob Johnston EDITOR’S NOTE: This Q&A interview was originally published in the March 2019 issue of Trains Magazine. It is being re-published on news of his death in March 2019. Since retiring as Amtrak’s president and CEO in 2016 after eight years […]
HO scale locomotives Electro-Motive Division GP40-2 diesel locomotive. Conrail (blue in three road numbers, Reading Co. patchout in two numbers); CSX (dark blue and yellow, three numbers); Denver & Rio Grande Western (black and orange); Detroit, Toledo & Ironton (orange); Grand Trunk Western (red, white, and blue); Reading Co. (green and yellow, three numbers); and […]
Union Pacific’s LOA32 local finishes up its day passing the now-removed Lemon Avenue wig-wag in Anaheim California on July 6, 2018. Charles Freericks ANAHEIM, Calif. – The era of the wig-wag signal in Southern California made a step closer to its conclusion with the removal of Union Pacific’s Lemon Avenue crossing signal in Anaheim in […]
Metra and Amtrak trains move into Chicago Union Station in March 2017. Traffic in and out of Union Station was snarled for much of Thursday by Amtrak signal issues. TRAINS: David Lassen CHICAGO — Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson has offered an explanation and an apology for signal problems at Chicago Union Station that snarled Metra […]
WASHINGTON — Amtrak has informed federal, state and local officials along the route of the daily Southwest Chief that, with the enactment of the recent full-year funding bill by Congress, it will provide matching funds to enable a federal grant to be awarded for safety and reliability upgrades on the train’s route in Kansas, Colorado, […]
Bill Stephens/ Class I railroad data Bill Stephens/ Class I railroad data The Class I railroad average operating ratio rose slightly in 2018 — the first increase in a decade — as congestion-related costs and an accounting rules change pushed the closely watched efficiency metric up at four of the seven big systems. CSX Transportation […]
Canadian Pacific CEO Keith Creel Canadian Pacific MIAMI — Canadian Pacific CEO Keith Creel is cheering the industry’s embrace of the Precision Scheduled Railroad operating model touted by his mentor, the late E. Hunter Harrison. “I want them all to do it … I think it’s the right way to run the business,” Creel told […]
CHICAGO – The Coast Starlight isn’t the only Amtrak train making news this week. On Sunday afternoon, a Canadian Pacific freight train derailed east of Tomah, Wis., The eastbound Empire Builder had been running more than seven hours late, but would have passed the scene of the derailment had it been on time. Consequently, it […]
EUGENE, Ore. – Passengers on the southbound Coast Starlight that was stranded near Oakridge in southern Oregon are continuing on their journeys Tuesday following the arrival of a rescue locomotive to pull the train back to Eugene. Video shows Union Pacific ES44AC No. 5478 pulling the train into Eugene on Tuesday. Fallen trees across Union […]
A pair of BNSF Railway units pull a train of some 130-plus stored coal hoppers from Spikebuck, Colo., about five miles west of Parkdale, Colo., where Royal Gorge Route tourist trains terminate. Jody Moore CANON CITY, Colo. — A piece of Rio Grande’s long-dormant Tennessee Pass route saw freight traffic on it again briefly Monday. […]
