What’s our Back on Track series host Gerry Leone up to these days? More work on the upper deck of his new HO scale Bona Vista layout, of course! Following the previous episode, Gerry finalized more of the track plan, added plywood subroadbed to the upper level, and even laid some track into place. But […]
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WASHINGTON — Travelers already booked on some Amtrak long-distance trains in April and May are being advised today (Thursday, March 3) to rebook their trips as the passenger carrier extends its frequency reductions on seven routes. Amtrak had cut service from daily to five days a week on most of its long-distance routes in January, […]
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Railfans fill the five cars of a Philadelphia Chapter, NRHS, excursion on the Baltimore & Annapolis. The train is southbound between Baltimore and Linthicum Jct. on Apr. 7, 1940, a decade before the interurban ended passenger service. William M. Moedinger photo […]
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Q: My wife and I are discussing purchasing our forever home and there are questions about including room for, and the cost of, a MRR layout. I have Parkinson’s Disease, so HO scale is the smallest I can imagine modeling. That scale (or larger) will require a good bit of layout space, plus working space. A […]
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Duplainville, Wis., about 18 miles west of Milwaukee, was developed around 1848. A predecessor of the Milwaukee Road began building a new main line west toward Portage, Wis., running through Duplainville about 1855. The Wisconsin Central (Soo Line) built south from Rugby Junction to Chicago in 1885, crossing the Milwaukee Road at Duplainville. The crossing […]
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Amtrak has added to its previously announced list of storm-related cancellations for today (Thursday, Feb. 3; see “Winter storm brings cancellations …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 2, 2022), while also modifying schedules for trains in New England today and Friday and adding one Friday cancellation in the Midwes Added to the previously list of cancellations […]
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One of the North Shore Line’s two Electroliner trains pauses at the North Chicago station on a southbound run one snowy night in the 1950s. William D. Middleton photo […]
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WASHINGTON — With a major winter storm predicted, Amtrak has cancelled all service on Saturday, Jan. 29, between New York and Boston, as well as all New Haven-Springfield, Mass., shuttles and the Vermonter. Forecasts call for up to 2 feet of snowfall for the Boston area and lesser but uncertain amounts further south through Rhode […]
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Q: What locomotives are currently used to pull Amtrak’s Auto Train? And does anyone offer them in N scale? – David Feitelson, Ocala, Fla. A: Though people today are most familiar with Auto Train as an Amtrak offering, the unique service began in 1971 under the auspices of a private company, the Auto-Train Corporation. Using […]
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ORLANDO, Fla. — Travelers planning to take Amtrak between Washington, D.C., and Florida now have two choices: The Miami-New York Silver Star, which also serves Tampa and Orlando, and Auto Train, operating from Sanford, Fla. (near Orlando), and Lorton, Va., just south of the Nation’s Capital. A third choice, the Miami-New York Silver Meteor, has been […]
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WASHINGTON — A record U.S. Department of Transportation investment to modernize bridges will keep public transit and railroads moving, as the launch of the Federal Highway Administration’s bridge program invests more than $27 billion to repair 15,000 bridges nationwide. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs act, includes an incentive for states […]
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Revised Amtrak long-distance service schedules, announced Jan. 14 WASHINGTON — When Amtrak cut back most of its long-distance trains from daily operation in October 2020, in anticipation of reduced demand and a lack of federal funds to keep its network intact, the only day a traveler from Florida could connect to the Capitol Limited or […]
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