In need of reliable medium-horsepower six-axle road switchers, Union Pacific’s Mike Iden turned to Progress Rail’s EMD subsidiary to rebuild a batch of out-of-service EMD 3,800-hp SD60s into more modern 3,150-hp units with new prime movers for secondary road freights. Twenty-eight — Nos. 9900 to 9927 — were built in the late 2000s. Progress later […]
Class I railroads, which pruned their interline intermodal service as the Precision Scheduled Railroading operating model spread in the U.S. over the past few years, have rediscovered joint service and say it’s a way to capture freight moving on the highway. Several interline intermodal initiatives have been announced since May. Among them: The Canadian National-Union […]
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — One of the first decisions that Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena made after rejoining the railroad in August was to take 24 hours out of the schedule for Falcon Premium interline cross-border intermodal service. At an investor conference on Tuesday, he was asked whether there were other similar opportunities to improve intermodal […]
This is the one I’ve been waiting for: The Lionel VisionLine Big Boy. Anyone in model railroading knows that the Big Boy is an incredibly popular model. Only 25 of these 4-8-8-4 steam locomotives were built by The American Locomotive Company (Alco) with a primary purpose for high-speed freight and climbing grades over the Wasatch […]
PINECLIFFE, Colo. — Fifteen cars of a BNSF freight train derailed early today (Sunday, Nov. 12) in the Rocky Mountain foothills west of Denver, leading to a closure expected to block Union Pacific’s main line for 36 hours, according to preliminary estimates. KCNC-TV reports the Gilpin County Sheriff’s Office was informed of the derailment at […]
Twenty miles out of Kansas City on its 187-mile trek to Salina, Kans., on the old Kansas Pacific route, Union Pacific No. 800, a 1937 Alco and first of its 45 4-8-4s, has a roll on train 39, the Kansan, west of Bonner Springs on August 8, 1955. Frank and Todd Novak collection […]
Ask anyone who covers railroads for a living and they’ll tell you — if they are honest — they couldn’t do it without the support of their contacts in railroad public relations. Of course, such cooperation varies from company to company, and PR directors I’ve known have run the gamut from obfuscation to enlightenment. One […]
WASHINGTON – The Surface Transportation Board has denied Union Pacific’s request to dismiss a common-carrier case filed by a small shipper in the Twin Cities. In a 3-2 decision issued Thursday, the STB also ordered the shipper, Sanimax, to provide evidence for damages allegedly incurred when UP unilaterally curtailed local service to three days per […]
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific will send Big Boy No. 4014 on a “Four Corners” tour of its system in 2024, the railroad announced today, including stops in Oregon, California, Texas, and Illinois. “As we move forward at Union Pacific, we remember where we came from; the Big Boy represents the history of Union Pacific […]
OMAHA, Neb. — A round of layoffs are under way today at Union Pacific headquarters as new CEO Jim Vena aims to streamline management and speed up decision making at the sprawling railroad. “Union Pacific is changing its culture and announced organizational changes to reduce layers, expand spans of control and focus on empowering employees […]
OMAHA, Neb. — The head of the track workers’ union has warned federal regulators that Union Pacific aims to furlough up to 1,350 maintenance-of-way employees next month and will push the remainder of this year’s planned trackwork projects into 2024 as a cost-saving measure. But the railroad says the move is nothing unusual. “This is […]
Trains spoke with Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena today after the railroad’s third-quarter earnings call. Vena, who served as UP’s chief operating officer in 2019 and 2020, rejoined the railroad as its chief executive on Aug. 14. Vena has pledged to make Union Pacific the safest railroad in North America and to grow volume faster […]
