McCormack with Nickel Plate Road-painted PA1 No. 190 in 2014. Justin Franz PORTLAND, Ore. – Preservationist and steam locomotive engineer Doyle McCormack has stepped down as president of the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation after 15 years. McCormack, best known as the engineer aboard Southern Pacific 4-8-4 No. 4449, will remain on the board of directors […]
Zone & Region: Pacific Northwest
One Sound Transit board member now opposes dislocating fast food restaurant NEWSWIRE
KENT, Wash. — Sound Transit has begun taking public comment on a controversial proposal to build a maintenance base for light rail on the site of a popular local hamburger restaurant, but the idea has drawn fresh criticism from one significant voice: a board member of the regional transit agency. David Upthegrove, a King County […]
UPDATE: Union Pacific continues work on picking up Washington State rock slide NEWSWIRE
RITZVILLE, Wash. — Adding to the list of mid-March nature-related disruptions across its network, Union Pacific is cleaning up a derailment that has interrupted traffic on its Ayer subdivision between Spokane and Hinkle, Ore. A UP spokesman said a train with a Canadian Pacific locomotive derailed 23 rail cars of mixed freight near mile post […]
Oregon Joint Line updated layout tour
Check out the progress that’s been made on Dean Ferris’ N scale Oregon Joint Line layout. […]
Oregon Joint Line updated layout tour
Check out the progress that’s been made on Dean Ferris’ N scale Oregon Joint Line layout. […]
Union Pacific still recovering from recent Northwest snow storms NEWSWIRE
SEATTLE — Union Pacific and Amtrak are both working to put their West Coast networks back together after a late-winter snowstorm severed its line between Eugene, Ore., and the California border and left a passenger train stranded for more than a day. UP officials said Thursday the line was back in operation. It would not […]
A llama riding light rail? Even in Portland, Ore., that’s against the rules NEWSWIRE
“Caesar the No-Drama Llama” meets a fan at the Oregon Convention Center light rail station. The animal’s trip aboard a light rail train was against the rules, officials subsequently confirmed. From Caesar The No-Drama Llama’s Facebook page PORTLAND, Ore. — In a city known for such oddities as a unicycle-riding, fire-breathing bagpiper, a llama riding […]
BNSF Columbia River bridge reopens after fire NEWSWIRE
PORTLAND, Ore. — BNSF Railway’s bridge across the Columbia River was reopened about 5:30 p.m. Pacific time on Tuesday, after a late-morning fire closed the bridge to all traffic, TV station KOIN reports. The Oregonian newspaper quoted a Portland Fire & Rescue spokesman as saying the fire was started by workers using acetylene torches on […]
Fire reported on BNSF Columbia River bridge NEWSWIRE
PORTLAND, Ore. – A fire is reported Tuesday afternoon on BNSF Railway’s former Spokane, Portland & Seattle bridge over the Columbia River connecting Portland with Vancouver, Wash. The bridge, which parallels Interstate 5, hosts Amtrak Cascades and Coast Starlight services, as well as BNSF and Union Pacific freight traffic. Trains News Wire will continue to […]
Dick’s Drive-In supporters outraged over proposed Sound Transit maintenance base NEWSWIRE
Kent, Wash. Google Maps KENT, Wash. — Is there a hamburger powerful enough to stop a train? The Puget Sound region’s rail-transit agency and fans of a local hamburger chain may find out. Sound Transit, the regional authority building and operating a light-rail system in Seattle and its suburbs, recently issued a list of six […]
Washington state set to carefully demolish highway above BNSF main line NEWSWIRE
SEATTLE — One of the biggest construction projects in the Pacific Northwest in recent years is actually a demolition job — the removal of a two-mile double-decker elevated highway slicing between downtown and the Elliott Bay waterfront. And slicing under that highway structure is one of the region’s most important rail lines. BNSF Railway’s main […]
Union Pacific freight train crossing Powder River
Here’s a quick clip of a Union Pacific mixed freight train crossing the Powder River in Natrona County, Wyo. Video submitted by Brian Olson. […]