OLYMPIA, Wash. — The Washington Department of Transportation has issued a request for proposals for an operator of a 90-mile branch of a state-owned short line in eastern Washington. The Palouse & Lewiston branch is one of three sections of what’s collectively known as the Palouse River & Coulee City Railroad. The Palouse & Lewistown […]
CALGARY, Alberta — Canadian Pacific CEO Keith Creel does not believe that the spread of Precision Scheduled Railroading to U.S. Class I railroads will increase regulatory risk for the industry. “There’s always a risk and we have to manage that. And I think you manage that by educating the regulators as well as the customers […]
Trains editors discuss all the rail news that is fit to publish. This week, Digital Editor Steve Sweeney and Columnist Brian Solomon discuss BNSF Railway’s Matt Rose, Amtrak food, and topics for future columns and podcasts. Only from Trains! […]
James Foote, CSX Transportation CEO CSX Corp. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX Transportation set a record for the lowest U.S. Class I railroad operating ratio in 2018 and expects the key measure of efficiency to drop below 60 percent this year, a year ahead of schedule. “What an incredible year,” CEO Jim Foote said on the […]
Mark Wallace, CSX executive vice president of sales and marketing TRAINS: David Lassen LOMBARD, Ill. — Proclaiming that his railroad has gone “from worst to first” in just 20 months, CSX Transportation’s Mark Wallace offered a strongly positive view of Precision Scheduled Railroading Thursday at the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers conference. Wallace made his […]
Atlas Santa Fe class BX-177 boxcar in N, HO scales An Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe class BX-177 plug-door boxcar is now available in N and HO scales from Atlas Model Railroad Co. Don’t confuse this Master Line car with the BLMA (now Atlas) class BX-166 double-plug-door boxcar that I reviewed in the March 2016 […]
G&W CEO John C. Hellmann TRAINS: David Lassen LOMBARD, Ill. — Precision Scheduled Railroading is not just for Class I railroads — either as a concept or in its impact. Railroading’s most inescapable topic also reaches short lines, as Genesee & Wyoming chairman, president, and CEO John Hellman outlined during his Wednesday luncheon address to […]
BNSF Executive Chairman Matt Rose TRAINS: David Lassen LOMBARD, Ill. — Matt Rose continues spiking hard on Precision Scheduled Railroading. Speaking before the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers on Wednesday, BNSF Railway’s executive chairman laid out additional considerations and problems he sees with the continued roll-out of PSR. He spoke candidly on the topic a […]
HO scale locomotives Electro-Motive Division SD70ACe diesel locomotive. Union Pacific (George Bush 41 Presidential Library and Museum). One road number (2018 version with black radiator fan housings). Removable cab roof secured with magnets, light-emitting-diode headlights and ditch lights, and commemorative box. Direct-current model with 21-pin NEM plug for Digital Command Control decoder, $249.98; with dual-mode […]
MGPX No. 201, part of the first batch of Magnetation iron ore cars built by FreightCar America, arrives in Superior, Wis., in June 2014. David C. Schauer Q I live along the BNSF Railway main line west of Chicago, and I have seen black gondola unit trains with MGPX reporting marks. Even from my second-story […]
Class I railroad earnings expectations Bill Stephens CSX Transportation will lead off the Class I railroad fourth-quarter earnings reports on Wednesday in what’s expected to be a parade of record results across the industry in a year when volume was up, costs declined, and revenue grew even faster. For the fourth quarter and the full […]
A Metra train led by the Rock Island-painted unit honoring former CEO Don Orseno arrives at Blue Island, Ill., on Jan. 2, 2018. Metra will introduce a new schedule on the Rock Island District on Jan. 28, reflecting rider input and changes to allow positive train control operation. TRAINS: David Lassen CHICAGO — Metra will […]
