Amtrak GP40 diesel locomotives came in two flavors: eight former GO Transit GP40TCs acquired in October 1988 and 15 straight GP40s leased between May 1991 and June 1993. The 3,000 hp GP40 is a standard bearer of freight motive power in the second half of the 20th century. Introduced by EMD in 1968, the model […]
With larger railroads, you seldom see the big picture. You see trains passing a given location, but unless you have access to loading manifests, you seldom know the origin and destination of any single car or even what it is carrying. That can never be said about the Palmetto Brick Company Railroad, however. Its entire […]
The California Air Resources Board pitted a standard diesel-electric locomotive consist against zero-emissions alternatives – including battery-electric models from Wabtec and ProgressRail as well as Canadian Pacific Kansas City’s hydrogen fuel cell locomotive – in a hypothetical test run from the Port of Los Angeles to Barstow, Calif. The analysis concludes that the current zero-emissions […]
WASHINGTON — Amtrak has announced it expects ridership to top 2019 — pre-COVID — levels this year and reach a new all-time record high even though it currently has less capacity. Ridership is reported 20% higher in the first 8 months of Amtrak’s budget year that began Oct. 1, 2023. Ticket revenue is showing a […]
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The George H.W. Bush Presidential Center officially opened the new pavilion that houses Union Pacific SD70Ace No. 4141 on Thursday, which would have been the president’s 100th birthday. The 29,000-square-foot pavilion on the Texas A&M campus also includes a helicopter that was frequently used as Marine One to carry the president […]
DENVER – OmniTRAX, a supply-chain and logistics provider that operates 26 short line railroads, has promoted John Bradley to executive vice president of operations. The 30-year rail veteran leads an operational team that posted multiple company records in service, safety, and productivity while adding three new railroads to the OmniTRAX network. Under Bradley’s tenure, the […]
WASHINGTON – Union Pacific and BNSF Railway are contracting out dispatching of the Alameda Corridor to a neutral third party. The 16.1 mile grade-separated corridor, which leads to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., handled an average of 31 trains per day in the first quarter of 2024, according to the Alameda […]
The all-new Work IQ Tools IQ Vise, gets an authentic workshop test in Model Railroader magazine’s workshop! Watch as Model Railroader magazine Editor Eric White and guest Tim Kidwell of FineScale Modeler assemble, install, and then examine this versatile position bench vise. You’ll also see them explore the wide array of helpful jaws and add-on […]
WASHINGTON – Total U.S. weekly rail traffic for the week ending June 8 was up 4.1% compared with the same week last year thanks to a spike in intermodal volume. Carloads declined 4.4% compared with the same week in 2023, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was up 12.2%, the Association of American Railroads reported. Six […]
NEW YORK – The Metropolitan Transportation Authority replaced the first section of the 130-year-old Park Avenue Viaduct in Manhattan without disrupting Metro-North service over the weekend, the transit agency said yesterday. The Park Avenue Viaduct carries four Metro-North Railroad tracks and serves all Metro-North trains traveling into and out of Grand Central Terminal, totaling 750 […]
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a settlement with Canadian Pacific Kansas City for violating the Clean Water Act following two derailments that resulted in oil spills in Maine. The derailments on the former Central Maine & Quebec occurred in 2022 and 2023 following washouts. Nearly 15,000 gallons of contaminants were spilled into nearby […]
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – CSX is flattening the hump and demolishing the hump tower at its yard in Cumberland, Md., and building a classification yard ladder to make flat-switching more efficient. Similar moves are under way at the railroad’s yards in Hamlet, N.C., and Willard, Ohio, where the humps were decommissioned in 2017 as CSX shifted […]
