First of two parts EFFINGHAM, Ill, —What happens when electrical current connected with signal systems doesn’t reliably travel from one rail to another when a train passes? Dispatchers “lose” the train — it disappears from their screens — and warning lights don’t flash or gates don’t lower at highway crossings as the train approaches. The […]
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CHICAGO — Norfolk Southern has made a $250,000 contribution to help create an interactive exhibit at the Pullman State Historic Site and Pullman National Historical Park that will give visitors a chance at a close-up experience with historic railcars, including those once manufactured at the site. The Historic Pullman Foundation and Illinois Department of Natural […]
A Frisco caboose ride provided a much needed railfan break during my military assignment near Kansas City. My spirits fell when I received orders for my first U.S. Air Force permanent-duty assignment, at the Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base just south of Kansas City, Mo. I had hardly been west of the Appalachian Mountains, and […]
LOMBARD, Ill. — Union Pacific trains, as well as those on Metra’s UP West Line, were halted from passing Villa Park, Ill., this evening (Aug. 30) after suspects from a robbery a few miles away in Benseville crashed a vehicle and fled the scene near UP’s tracks on the east side of the town of […]
NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. — A D&I Railroad train derailed on BNSF Railway trackage in North Sioux City today (Aug. 30), damaging a bridge and leaving derailed cars suspended over a roadway. KCAU-TV reports the derailment occurred about 4 p.m., and that BNSF confirmed the train involved belonged to D&I, the subsidiary of concrete, paving, […]
FORT WAYNE, Ind. — The Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society has acquired seven cars built in 1941 for New York Central’s Empire State Express from New York’s Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum for use in its Indiana Rail Experience operation and future excursion use. Estimated cost of restoring the entire fleet of cars is […]
CHICAGO — No injuries were reported when a Metra Rock Island District train derailed Monday morning as it approached LaSalle Street Station, halting service on the route to Joliet, Ill., for almost five hours. The Chicago Sun Times reports inbound train No. 704 derailed near 14th Street, less than a mile from its destination, about […]
Dieselmotive Co, Inc. of Turlock, Calif., has purchased two former Gettysburg Railroad F7s last operated in 2013, with an eye toward returning the locomotives to freight service. The two units, last used by the Pioneer Lines short line in Gettsysburg, Pa., in 2013, are en route to a short line in Kansas for evaluation and […]
Asked who my main influence has been as a writer, my reflexive answer is always “David P. Morgan.” The great editor’s inspiring use of language is what, in my opinion, made Trains magazine so important to generations of readers. And although I’d never be foolish enough to compare anything I write to that of D.P.M., […]
CHICAGO — “Unforeseen mechanical issues” resulted in the cancellation of Amtrak’s westbound Cardinal out of New York on Wednesday, Aug. 23, despite the fact that the triweekly train’s equipment had arrived at the Big Apple’s Sunnyside Yard late Sunday. As has been recent custom, this resulted in the cancellation of its eastbound counterpart from Chicago […]
CHICAGO — Norfolk Southern has selected four teams of structural design consultants for the Belt Junction and 80th Street Junction Replacements, part of the CREATE program’s massive 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project on Chicogo’s South Side. The project, EW2 in the CREATE list of 70 projects to improve rail traffic flow in the Chicago area, […]
