Menards has started offering starter sets, and their Track Inspection Set is one of the newcomers to that area. But instead of a locomotive and pieces of rolling stock in the box, you’ll find something a little different. This set includes a track maintenance truck and a track inspection vehicle, and no locomotives. Both vehicles […]
How to build a plywood train table: The train table is a means to an end. We want to build it carefully and well, but we also want to move on fairly quickly to running some trains. Good, straight, knot-free dimensional lumber (1 x 3s or 2 x 4s) has become expensive and difficult to […]
Locomotive air horn Throughout the United States, there are hundreds of thousands of railroad crossings that require sounding the horn. Federal law dictates that the engineer must blow the locomotive air horn with a sequence of blasts in the fashion of long, long, short, and long, no later than 15 seconds and as early as […]
MONTREAL — Canadian National today appointed two operations executives to take over for retiring Chief Operating Officer Ed Harris. Patrick Whitehead was named executive vice president and chief network operating officer, while Derek Taylor was named executive vice president and chief field operating officer. Both appointments are effective Nov. 15. Railroads traditionally have a lone […]
MIAMI — After more than a week with Brightline offering 15 round trips between Miami and Orlando, certain runs show fares are creeping up to sellout levels, while bargains are still available for travelers who book in advance. A Trains News Wire analysis of available fares since Saturday, Oct. 7, shows that wide variations continue […]
CHICAGO — Metra will receive a federal grant of almost $170 million — the largest discretionary grant in its history — to buy battery-powered trainsets, the commuter rail operator announced Tuesday. The grant under the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement program was approved last week by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and the […]
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Staten Island Railway has received its first new railcars in 50 years, with five of the R211 subway cars designated for service on the borough’s transit line unveiled at the railway’s Clifton Maintenance Shop after delivery in a series of nighttime moves. The cars were moved overnight […]
PUEBLO, Colo. — A broken rail is believed to have caused the derailment of a BNSF coal train near Pueblo on Sunday that led to the death of a truck driver on Interstate 25, according to preliminary findings of the National Transportation Safety Board. The Colorado Sun news site reports NTSB investigators determined the broken […]
STEUBEN COUNTY, Ind. — While the 2023 schedule of the Indiana Rail Experience — a partnership between the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society and Indiana Northeastern Railroad Co. — will continue with diesel-powered Christmas excursions out of Pleasant Lake and New Haven, Ind., the steam season for Nickel Plate Road No. 765 has concluded in […]
WASHINGTON — The Association of American Railroads says long freight trains are safe and has told the Federal Railroad Administration that there’s no need for an emergency order that would cap train length at 7,500 feet. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen on Oct. 9 called on the FRA to limit train length, claiming […]
Top preserved diesel locomotives are units that were not only saved from the scrap heap, but special. These locomotives are important to see and understand not only because they were saved but because visionary railroad management saw them as examples of the past that should be saved to be enjoyed by the present and future […]
Q: What is HOn3 scale? If it uses HO scale track (1:87 gauge), it seems the rolling stock must be scaled wider and taller. Conversely, if I modify an HO scale/gauge locomotive for narrow gauge, I’ll need to build new, narrower track. Help me understand this. – Mark Dice A: Hi, Mark. Your second guess is the […]
