UNION, Ill. — Under leaden skies, rainwater pools on the walkway of Progress Rail EMDX SD70ACe-T4 demonstrator No. 7723. On the passenger platform at the Illinois Railway Museum, a much earlier product of Electro-Motive Division rolls to a stop with the museum’s caboose train. Its rain-soaked carbody shining, SD24 No. 504, built in 1959 for […]
Amtrak Amfleet cars were the first of the National Passenger Railroad Corporation’s own passenger cars in the 1970s. They were and are, useful, flexible cars that have served the railroad for decades. Did you know these facts about Amfleet cars? The cars were initially billed as “the Amfleet,” but “the” was quickly dropped as trains […]
READING, Pa. — As promised, Reading & Northern’s restored Reading Co. T-1 4-8-4, No. 2102, saw action in freight service on Friday, Aug. 19, hauling a 28-car train (plus caboose) from Tamaqua to Reading after a light-engine move from Port Clinton, Pa., to Tamaqua. Photographer Gary Pancavage provides two shots of the action. […]
Mind-blowing Big Boy facts In the 1959 Union Pacific movie Last of the Giants the narrator comments, “ … There are no small parts on a Big Boy.” This is also true of the story that accompanies this colossus of the rails. As one digs into Big Boy’s details, everything — measurements, operating statistics, even […]
In every issue News p. 4 The Surface Transportation Board orders railroads to resubmit service plans Preservation p. 44 National Railroad Museum restores a unique hospital car Train-Watching p. 46 Hot spot: The small town of Fort Montgomery, N.Y. on the Hudson River has big-time train action […]
NEW YORK — Domestic intermodal service is running at historically low levels, with trains routinely arriving a day or two behind schedule, J.B. Hunt executives say. “We never saw numbers like this before the pandemic,” Darren Field, J.B. Hunt’s intermodal president, told an investor conference this week. “It’s really a labor and crew issue for […]
NEW YORK — Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation executives say their railroads are slowly on the mend as more conductors begin active duty and start to ease the crew shortages that have caused widespread service problems. Neither railroad has been able to handle freight demand and both have lost traffic to trucks as on-time performance […]
GAINESVILLE, Ga. — The Environmental Protection Division of Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources has ordered Norfolk Southern to remove soybeans that ended up a waterway because of a derailment, or face penalties as high as $50,000 a day. The Times of Gainesville, Ga., reports the agency informed the railroad in an Aug. 17 letter that […]
PERRIS, Calif. — The Federal Railroad Administration is investigating last week’s incident involving a leaking tank car that led to evacuations and closure of an interstate highway for about a day. The Riverside Press-Enterprise reports the FRA’s Hazards Materials Division will look at preparation and loading of the tank car, the car’s move from origin […]
BOSTON — With the 30-day closure of a primary rail rapid transit line set to begin this evening, the mayor of Boston has warned it will be “impossible to avoid chaos altogether.” The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Orange Line will close Friday at 9 p.m., leaving commuters to use a patchwork of commuter rail, other […]
Spain has added to its high-speed rail mileage this summer and is on track to reach 2,500 miles within the next year, maintaining its position as home of the world’s second-largest high speed rail network. China is No. 1 with a network eight or nine times bigger. As the Spanish network has grown, the government […]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California High-Speed Rail Authority board of directors has approved contracts for design of 52.4 miles of right-of-way that will extend the route north to Merced and south to Bakersfield, completing the initial 171-mile segment in the state’s Central Valley. The board awarded a $41 million design contract to Stantec Consulting Services […]
