Remembering the Seaboard Air Line Railroad

History of the Seaboard Air Line The Seaboard’s beginnings date to 1832, when the Portsmouth & Roanoke was chartered to build from Portsmouth, Va., to Weldon, N.C. Opened in 1834 the companies’ backers saw great potential to link the North with the South’s agricultural and forest products and with its developing potential for industry. P&R […]

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Trailers catch fire during cleanup of Normal, Ill., derailment

Two trailers involved in Saturday’s derailment of a Union Pacific intermodal train in Normal, Ill., caught fire Sunday morning, requiring a multiple-alarm response from the Normal Fire Department because of extreme cold and accessibility issues. Normal Fire Department Chief Mick Humer said the fire was caused by the refrigeration unit during salvage work one of […]

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Winter storms batter Amtrak from coast to coast

CHICAGO — The Union Pacific stack train derailment just south of the Normal, Ill., Transportation Center early Saturday kicked off a challenging Presidents Day weekend for Amtrak trains across the country. That derailment led to cancellation of Lincoln Service trains and a reroute of the Texas Eagle between St. Louis and Chicago [see “Digest: UP […]

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Analysis: Amtrak CEO Flynn sets company priorities for legislation

WASHINGTON —Amtrak CEO William Flynn has outlined his company’s “top five priorities that we ask Congress to address” in a letter sent to legislators last week. The letter, released by Amtrak, says those priorities are: — Emergency funding: $1.541 billion of COVID relief this year “to sustain and restore operations and recall employees” through September 30 […]

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California corridors ask Congress to revise Amtrak cost formulas

WASHINGTON — The agencies overseeing state-sponsored Amtrak trains in California have asked Congress to address the national passenger railroad’s method of charging them for operations, focusing new attention on a long-simmering dispute. A Nov. 30 letter by San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission Executive Director Stacey Mortenson, obtained by Trains News Wire, urges “that states only […]

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Onboard analysis: ‘Coast Starlight’ is busy overnight

Third in a series OAKLAND, Calif. — The Los Angeles-Seattle Coast Starlight was a 1971 Amtrak concoction cobbling together three trains: Southern Pacific’s Coast Daylight and overnight Cascade, even though the SP trains hadn’t connected at the time, and the unnamed Portland, Ore.-Seattle Burlington Northern or Union Pacific “pool trains.” Originally, and ambitiously, the south […]

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