Little money for rail in 2024 RAISE grants (updated)

Blue, teal, and white diesel multiple-unit passenger train arrives at station platform

WASHINGTON — Rail projects received a miniscule amount of the $1.8 billion in 2024 Rebuilding America’s Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grants announced Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Although 148 projects were awarded funding for construction or planning, most of the money was directed to street realignment to enhance safety for motorists, […]

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A Milwaukee Road 4-6-4 welcomed you to Kalmbach

Steam locomotive wheel on wall-sized mural

If you’re reading this, you’re undoubtedly aware of what’s been going on with Kalmbach Media, and how it has sold most of its magazine titles, including Trains and Classic Trains, to Chattanooga-based Firecrown Media. Concurrently, Kalmbach has decided to liquidate over the next couple of months, bringing an end to approximately 90 years of continuous […]

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CSX unveils Georgia Railroad heritage locomotive

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX’s 16th heritage locomotive honors the Georgia Railroad. The unit, No. 1834, was released yesterday at the railroad’s paint shop in Waycross, Ga. “Here is our 16th CSX Heritage Locomotive – the Georgia Railroad #1834. Founded in 1833, the company was originally the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company and the banking side […]

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Young Guns in Preservation: Kyle Colley

Black-and-white photo of young mechanic inside a steam locomotive

Kyle Colley has been part of the heritage railroad industry since birth, literally. The Durango, Colo., native was born to parents who both worked at the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. After a childhood spent on and near the famed tourist train, Colley used the knowledge he gained to purchase a narrow-gauged Railway Post […]

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Concrete tie maker to open plant in North Las Vegas

Logo of PCM Railone AG

NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A German manufacturer of concrete railroad ties will open a factory in North Las Vegas to help supply the Brightline West project, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. PCM Railone AG, which production facilities in 12 countries, specializes in track systems and concrete ties for projects that go 186 mph or […]

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Hydrogen trainset arrives in San Bernardino, Calif.

Passenger train next to ornate Spanish-style station at night

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — More than 20 months after it was unveiled in Berlin and nine months after its U.S. debut, the first Stadler hydrogen-fuel-cell powered FLIRT H2 trainset has arrived in San Bernardino, where it will operate on Southern California’s Arrow commuter rail line. The first-of-its-kind trainset arrived on June 21, after leaving Pueblo, […]

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Why do railroads use towers?

An HO scale model of a railroad interlocking tower with boarded-up windows stands next to a track as a red-nosed Canadian National wide-nose Alco M420 approaches from the right

What are railroad tower operations? Railroad tower operations can have at least two meanings. One is what happens inside a tower, or more specifically, an interlocking tower. The other is a way of running a railroad, by using the operators in interlocking towers to control traffic through specific points of the railroad. So, why do […]

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In memoriam: Skip Natoli

In memoriam: Lionel enthusiast and historian Fred “Skip” Natoli died on June 17, 2024. We at Classic Toy Trains remember him with gratitude for sharing his O gauge layout with our readers and offering insights on how to model New York City during the post-World War II decades with elegance and wonder. A native of […]

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