I don’t keep bucket lists, but one thing I’d been hoping to visit one day was the famed Oyster Bar, the historic restaurant that’s been operating in the catacombs of New York City’s Grand Central Terminal nearly continuously for 110 years. I finally got my chance a couple of weeks ago during a short research […]
Metra’s new six-axle power CHICAGO — Metra has used one of its SD70MACH locomotives to lead a revenue service train for the first time, with locomotive No. 507 powering train No. 2135 on the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 29, from Chicago Union Station to Fox Lake on the Milwaukee District North line. Metra F59PHI No. […]
Mark Gurries, a noted expert in the use of NCE’s DCC system, passed away on November 25, 2023, after health complications. He was 62 years old. Contributing editor Tony Koester had this to say about his passing: “Mark was a very bright and extremely helpful individual who helped many of us with thorny little, sometimes […]
WASHINGTON — More than 28 million passengers rode Amtrak in its 2023 fiscal year, the company today in announcing results for the year that ended Sept. 30. “Amtrak ridership continues to set post-pandemic records thanks to our customers who were anxious to travel again and attracted to the many benefits of train travel,” CEO Stephen […]
Lionel brass hybrid Strasburg 90 2-10-0 The history of Strasburg RR No. 90 starts with the Great Western RR, which purchased the standard light 2-10-0 Decapod from Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1924. After 40 years of traveling through the mountains of Colorado, the steam engine was sold to the Strasburg RR in 1967 for $23,000, […]
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Amtrak Cascades service between Seattle and Portland, Ore., will expand by two daily round trips as of Monday, Dec. 11, increasing service to six daily round trips between the two cities, as well as changes to service to Eugene, Ore., and Vancouver, British Columbia. Under the new schedules, the first trains each […]
NEW YORK — The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate a Wednesday accident in the New York Subway system that killed a track worker, the agency said in a social media post. Hiliarian Joseph, 57, was serving as the flagger at a track project near the 34th Street-Herald Square subway station when he was struck […]
MOOREFIELD, W.Va. — OmniTRAX will take over management of West Virginia’s South Branch Valley Railroad this Friday, Dec. 1, the company has announced. The transportation affiliate of The Broe Group said Wednesday that it had entered into “a definitive agreement with the West Virginia Deparment of Transportation to operate and grow” the 52.4-mile railroad, a […]
WASHINGTON — Weekly U.S. rail traffic again was up for the week ending Nov. 25, the third straight week with a volume increase over the same week in 2022. According to statistics from the Association of American Railroads, total traffic was 415,332 carloads and intermodal units, up 2.4%. That included 195,948 carloads, down 2.5%, and […]
WASHINGTON — Austin, Texas, Mayor Kirk Watson expressed strong support for expanded rail service in the San Antonio-Dallas-Houston “Texas Triangle” at a hearing of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s rail subcommittee in Washington today (Wednesday, Nov. 29). The session, however, primarily provided a platform for critics of the California High-Speed Rail Authority to […]
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific will open an intermodal terminal in Phoenix early next year to handle international traffic moving to and from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The terminal will be located in UP’s downtown yard, which has capacity to allow expansion of the terminal as demand warrants, UP said today. […]
All of the Class I railroad CEOs say that providing more reliable and consistent service is the key to volume growth. So did they applaud when federal regulators proposed minimum service standards that railroads would have to meet in order to avoid potential reciprocal switching orders? Not exactly. In a nutshell, the Association of American […]
