Trains.com Video features layout owner Bob Cochran and his 22’-10” x 25’-7” HO scale (1:87) Vermont Rail System inspired by Rutland Railroad’s Bellow Falls Subdivision. Bob grew up watching trains of Central Vermont and Boston & Maine across from his childhood home in Bellow Fall, Vt., so you’ll be sure to see plenty of Northeastern […]
Type of Train: Freight
Rail union seeks Iowa bill to limit train length
DES MOINES, Iowa — An Iowa representative of the SMART-TD union says the union will try again next year to advance a bill that would limit freight train lengths in the state. House File 2339, introduced last February, was sponsored by outgoing Rep. David Maxwell (R-District 76). It would not allow any train “that exceeds […]
Top 10 stories of 2022: No. 10, alternative-power locomotives
Today, we begin our countdown of the Trains News Wire Top 10 stories of 22, as determined by a vote of Trains editors, columnists, and masthead correspondents. Up today, stories Nos. 10 and 9. The railroad industry’s search for alternatives to diesel-electric power continued to move forward in 2022, with manufacturers and railroads making inroads […]
Year in review: Top international stories
Trains News Wire’s review of the top stories of 2022 continues. We’ll count down the Top 10 stories of the year, as voted on by Trains editors, columnists, and correspondents, beginning Monday, Dec. 26. Today, we asked our European correspondent, Keith Fender, to look at what he considers the year’s top international rail stories. At […]
Gulf Coast grant application details planned infrastructure projects
WASHINGTON — A new 13,500-foot bypass around CSX Transportation’s Gentilly Yard in New Orleans and four siding extensions — three in Mississippi and one in Alabama — are among the 12 projects that would be funded under a grant sought by Amtrak to upgrade the route between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., for Gulf Coast […]
Year in review: CP-KCS merger bid navigates regulatory process
Trains News Wire continues our review of the top stories of 2022. We’ll count down the Top 10 stories of the year, as voted on by Trains editors, columnists, and correspondents, beginning Dec. 26. As a prelude, we’ll be looking at major stories that didn’t make that list. Today: The freight rail industry. How the […]
U.S. DOT announces loan for South Shore’s Double Track project
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Transportation on Thursday announced a $27.5 million loan to the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District for the South Shore Line’s Double Track Project, adding a second main line to the commuter route between Gary and Michigan City, Ind. “We are pleased to help finance the Double Track Project, which […]
Kansas attorney general joins group asking Supreme Court to review decisions on grade-crossing cases
TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has joined a group of officials from other states in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review decisions that have prevented states from enacting or enforcing laws that limit the amount of time railroads can block grade crossings. Eighteen other state attorneys general have joined a group […]
G&W to merge four Southeastern short line railroads into two
WASHINGTON – Genesee & Wyoming aims to merge four of its Southeastern short lines into two railroads early next year. The largest shortline holding company told regulators on Wednesday that in a pair of transactions it proposes to merge Chattahoochee Bay Railroad into The Bay Line Railroad, and the Fordyce and Princeton Railroad into the […]
Crew members released from hospital, NS line reopened after bridge-beam derailment
COLLEGEDALE, Tenn. — Injured crew members have been released from the hospital and a Norfolk Southern rail line has been reopened after Tuesday’s derailment of a train that hit a 134-foot concrete bridge beam being transported by truck, WRCB-TV reports. The rail line reopened Wednesday morning, while the grade crossing that was the site of […]
San Diego officials seek cost of reopening former SD&AE route
SAN DIEGO — Transportation officials in San Diego are studying what it would take to revive operations on a long-dormant 70-mile segment of the former San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railway to provide a direct freight link from San Diego to eastern markets, bypassing Los Angeles, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. The so-called Desert Line […]
Weekly U.S. rail traffic sees big drop
WASHINGTON — U.S. rail traffic is heading toward the end of the year on a down note, with weekly volume down 5.5% from the same week in 2021, according to the latest statistics from the Association of American Railroads. U.S. railroads moved 476,232 carloads and intermodal units for the week ending Dec. 17. That includes […]