Spaces to Places V | A new path to the underpass, part 3

In this episode of Spaces to Places, we find host Gerry Leone in the thick of two projects! The main objective of his efforts was to build out the highway underpass and scenery along a layout peninsula. But Gerry also scrambles to complete trackwork reconfiguration that will improved the operation of his HO scale Bona […]

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Pere Marquette Berkshire steam locomotives

One of Pere Marquette Berkshire steam locomotives with freight train by gas holder

  By the late 1930s, the Pere Marquette Railway had made a big splash in motive power acquisition. And rightly so, as the tired and second-rate fleet of steam locomotives was not enough to pull the Michigan railroad out of the hardship of the Great Depression. An order of 15 N-class 2-8-4s initially was rolled […]

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West Coast winter weather affects California Zephyr, Empire Builder

Two passenger trains with bilevel equipment meet in snow

CHICAGO — Amtrak’s California Zephyr has been cancelled west of Salt Lake City through the weekend as weather forecasters are predicting heavy snow will pound Donner Pass and the Sierra Nevada mountains through Saturday. Service on the Seattle segment of the Empire Builder route was also disrupted this week. Trouble started early Thursday when the […]

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Metra project underway to increase speeds on Electric District

Metra_Flossmoor_Lassen

CHICAGO — Jim Derwinski hates the phrase “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” At a Wednesday presentation for Northwestern University’s Sandhouse Rail Group, Derwinski, Metra’s CEO/Executive Director, illustrated why that’s the case, and the potential that comes from putting that approach in the past. “Here’s a little story about where we’re not going to […]

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BNSF to pay $75 million to settle biometric privacy suit

Trucks and containers at intermodal yard

CHICAGO — BNSF Railway will pay $75 million to settle a biometric privacy lawsuit in which it was originally assessed a $228 million penalty, only to have that award thrown out on appeal, Reuters reports. The settlement was originally reported last September, but terms had not been disclosed until a Monday filing in federal court […]

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Metra UP Northwest train derails; no passengers aboard

Commuter train at station

CRYSTAL LAKE, Ill. — Metra service on the Union Pacific Northwest line has been suspended today (Saturday, Feb. 24) between Crystal Lake and Harvard following a low-speed derailment this morning, WLS-TV reports. Inbound train No. 710, which was scheduled to originate at Crystal Lake at 10 a.m., had no passengers aboard when it derailed as […]

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Metra signs deal with Stadler US for battery-electric trainsets

Blue and white two-unit trainset

CHICAGO — Stadler US will build eight two-car battery-electric trainsets for Chicago’s Metra, its first order for such equipment in the United States, the commuter operator and manufacturer announced today (Wednesday, Feb. 21). The eight trainsets are the initial order for an agreement that could expand to as many as 16 trainsets. While the trainsets […]

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