Passenger pioneer Amtrak No. 583 is a 3,000-hp, six-axle EMD SDP40F. The model was the first new diesel locomotive purchased by Amtrak in the 1970s. It has a different side panel arrangement and lacks the front platform of the earlier FP45. Jim Hediger photo […]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Brightline and Siemens Mobility are celebrating the completion of Brightline’s newest trainsets, which will roll off the assembly line at the Siemens Mobility North American manufacturing headquarters and prepare to begin passenger operations. In the coming days, the newest train will depart the factory on a cross-country excursion to West Palm Beach, […]
JOPLIN, Mont. — BNSF Railway’s busy Hi Line Subdivision is open again following the derailment of Amtrak’s Empire Builder over the weekend. According to KHQ News, a local NBC affiliate, the first BNSF freight train to pass through the community of Joplin, Montana, since Saturday’s derailment arrived just after 4 a.m. Tuesday. The train is […]
JOPLIN, Mont. — The vice chair of the National Transportation Safety Board says Amtrak’s Empire Builder was traveling below its posted speed limit when it derailed and partially overturned over the weekend in rural Montana, killing three people. NTSB Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg told members of the media Monday afternoon that the eastbound Empire Builder […]
NEW ORLEANS — After first being turned back to Chicago at Memphis, Tenn., and later at Jackson, Miss., Amtrak’s City of New Orleans will finally make its grand entrance to the Crescent City one month after Hurricane Ida slammed into Louisiana with torrential rains and strong winds. The southbound train departing Chicago today and its […]
GALESBURG, Ill. — As the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners sets off on its annual trip and convention this week, the organization has released a statement on the weekend derailment of Amtrak’s Empire Builder in northern Montana. “It is horrifying to see the derailed and overturned rail cars. For many of us, rail […]
JOPLIN, Mont. — The passengers killed in Saturday’s deadly Empire Builder derailment have been identified as a tech engineer from Illinois and a husband and wife from Georgia. According to media reports, the three people killed when Amtrak’s westbound Empire Builder derailed Saturday afternoon in northern Montana have been identified as 28-year-old Zach Schneider, of […]
Tickets, please Passengers riding New York Central’s deluxe 20th Century Limited sleeper-observation car required two tickets, one for rail travel and one for the sleeping accommodations. Don Wood photo […]
WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration is launching its own investigation into the Saturday derailment of Amtrak’s westbound Empire Builder in northern Montana. Specifically, FRA has sent a team of 18 dispatched to the scene consisting of technical experts in track, motive power & equipment, signal and train control, and operating practices. The agency has […]
WASHINGTON — Amtrak CEO Bill Flynn has issued a statement on Saturday’s fatal derailment of the Empire Builder in Montana. “We are in mourning today for the people who lost their lives due to the derailment of the Empire Builder train Saturday, near Joplin, Montana, on the BNSF Railway, as well as the many others […]
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board have arrived at the site of Saturday’s derailment of Amtrak’s Empire Builder passenger train near Joplin, about 50 miles west of Havre. The NTSB is the lead agency in the investigation of the derailment, which occurred at about 3:55 p.m. Saturday in a remote […]
HAVRE, Mont. – Amtrak confirms three deaths in the Saturday derailment of the westbound Empire Builder near Joplin, about 50 miles west of Havre. The train, which originated in Chicago on Friday, had 141 passengers and 16 crew members onboard. The train consisted of two locomotives and 10 cars, with eight of those cars derailing, […]
