Canadian National and Canadian Pacific, which are under investor pressure to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, are exploring the use of alternatives to the diesel-electric locomotive. The Canadian Class I railroads have been working with the Railway Association of Canada and Transport Canada on a range of ways to reduce emissions, including electrification and using […]
More Tuesday morning rail news: LA Metro sets online meeting on Union Station project LA Metro will hold an online meeting as part of the scoping process for the Link US project — which would turn LA Union Station into a run-through facility for passenger and commuter trains, instead of the current stub-end terminal alignment […]
By G. Mac Sebree History of the Pacific Electric Railway By any standard, the Pacific Electric was the largest interurban electric railway in the United States. It boasted more than 1,000 miles of track and had 1,000-plus cars. It played a major role in building up the vast open areas surrounding Los Angeles. The cities […]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Quick and coordinated action by the president of the Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society, the Southern Pacific Railroad History Center, and the California State Railroad Museum has saved a former Central Pacific coach that was at the driving of the Golden Spike in Promontory Summit, Utah, in 1869. The car, Central […]
WASHINGTON — A coalition of unions and passenger groups has filed a statement with the Surface Transportation Board supporting Metra’s request for a preliminary injunction to require Union Pacific to continue operating commuter service on three Chicago-area routes. The statement filed Tuesday notes that the STB has said it will hold ruling on Metra’s quest […]
History of the Texas & Pacific What grew to become the 20th century’s Texas & Pacific Railway sprouted from some of Texas’s earliest railroads. The Lone Star State’s pre-Civil War network included 11 operating companies. One of the earliest was the Texas Western Railroad, chartered in 1850 and soon renamed Vicksburg & El Paso. In […]
T&P’s 70 2-10-4 Texas type steam locomotives, built by Lima 1925-29, were the road’s biggest, most numerous, and best-known power. No. 636 rolls an extra east near Mineola, 79 miles east of Dallas, in 1951. R. S. Plummer History of the Texas & Pacific What grew to become the 20th century’s Texas & Pacific Railway […]
Wednesday morning preservation and railfan news: Northwest Railway Museum fires up Northern Pacific 0-6-0 The Northwest Railway Museum has fired up Northern Pacific No. 924, an 0-6-0 built in 1899 by Rogers Locomotive Works for the St. Paul & Duluth Railroad. The locomotive returned to steam on May 18, operating under its own power in […]
A pair of Metrolink trains depart from L.A. Union Station via the five-track station throat to be modernized as the first part of a project to make the station a pass-through, rather than stub-end, facility. TRAINS: David Lassen An LA Metro light rail train passes a waiting Metrolink train at LA Union Station. Right now, […]
Labor unions representing rail and transit workers have asked the Federal Railroad Administration for two emergency orders to address the dangers in their work environments amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The orders, requested March 20, are requested for Class I railroads and for Amtrak and passenger operators. “Currently, the railroads have made very little effort […]
WASHINGTON D.C. — A federal judge has decided that crew size will be part of the debate during the upcoming round of national bargaining set to begin this week, and unions say they will work together to protect two-person crews. Late last year, eight major freight railroads filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in […]
OTTAWA — Freight and passenger traffic on a large part of the Canadian rail system are at a standstill today as groups protesting the construction of a natural gas pipeline in northern British Columbia continue to block rail lines from coast to coast. On Thursday, Canadian National announced it was shutting down all of its […]
