BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Carload and intermodal traffic has bottomed out and has started to rebound amid the COVID-19 pandemic, freight forecasting firm FTR Transportation Intelligence said today. “Weekly volume data from the Association of American Railroads and analyzed by FTR shows that rail volumes, in the intermodal and carload sectors, are likely near the bottom,” […]
Type of Train: Freight
Study places cost of restoring Vancouver Island rail line at up to $700 million
More Wednesday morning rail news: — It would take more than $700 million to restore the former Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway line on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, to operating condition suitable for a proposed commuter rail service, and another $600 million to launch such a service, according to a government report issued Tuesday. The Vancouver […]
InnoTrans rescheduled to April 2021 NEWSWIRE
More Monday rail news: — InnoTrans, the world’s largest rail trade fair, has been rescheduled to April 27-30, 2021, in Berlin. The event, held every other year, was postponed from its original date of Sept. 22-25 of this year when Berlin’s government placed a ban on events with more than 5,000 people through Oct. 24. […]
AAR data shows US rail traffic crash; automotive carloads down more than 88% NEWSWIRE
Association of American Railroads WASHINGTON — The Association of American Railroads this week reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending April 18, 2020. For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 403,283 carloads and intermodal units, down 23.3% compared with the same week last year. Total carloads for the week ending April 18 […]
Crash in oil prices could mean Canadian Pacific crude-by-rail traffic falls to zero NEWSWIRE
An empty Canadian Pacific oil train arrives at Bensenville Yard in suburban Chicago on March 8, 2020. CP could see crude by rail traffic drop to zero in light of the crash in oil prices. TRAINS: David Lassen CALGARY, Alberta — Canadian Pacific is bracing for the possibility that crude by rail volumes could drop to […]
Timeless Tennessee Pass
Running behind three Rio Grande GP40s and a GP30, this eastbound was working up the west side of Tennessee Pass near Red Cliff, Colo., on April 30, 1967. Out of sight are two F7 helpers on the rear. In the late 20th century Tennessee Pass had eight or more heavy trains climbing its 13 miles […]
Side-door versatility
Side-door cabooses were sometimes used for delivering less-than-carload shipments to branchline stations. This is at Chicopee, Mo., on the Frisco. Wayne Leeman photo […]
In Grande style
The Denver & Rio Grande Western, symbol of so much of Colorado railroading, had nowhere else to go for traffic. After laying tracks in search of gold and silver, it was coal that made the road. A westbound freight appropriately heads up Coal Creek Canyon west of Denver on the Front Range in 1972. Ron […]
Circus style
Trailers were loaded and unloaded at mid-century “circus style” by means of a ramp at the end of a track and retractable bridge plates between cars. Here, a Southern Pacific trailer moves along a string of flatcars. Robert Hale photo […]
Classic railway preservation
Colorado Railroad Museum founder Bob Richardson moves a three-way switch at the Narrow Gauge Museum south of Alamosa, Colo., in the mid-1950s. This was the initial gathering point for the collection before it moved to Golden in 1958. The Mears Junction sign is from the place where the Rio Grande’s Marshall Pass and Valley narrow […]
Double trouble
After doubling its train together at Clare Yard in Cincinnati, train 78 prepares to depart east for Portsmouth, Ohio, over the Peavine in December 1959. Doubling the train blocked the Pennsylvania’s main line diamond at Clare. Tom Smart, J. David Ingles collection […]
US Department of Transportation makes available $311.8 million for capital rail projects NEWSWIRE
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) on Friday for the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) Program. “We’re committed to addressing the unmet transportation needs of rural areas, which face unique challenges in safety, infrastructure condition, and passenger and freight usage,” said […]
