WASHINGTON — BNSF Railway and Navajo Transitional Energy Co. have reached a settlement that will end the coal miner’s common carrier complaint against the railroad. The companies today asked the Surface Transportation Board to suspend the case until Jan. 8, 2024, which is when BNSF and NTEC expect to conclude their settlement process. In an […]
In the spring of 1936, industrial design guru Raymond Loewy came up with a streamlined winner for the Pennsylvania Railroad’s glamorous Broadway Limited passenger train. Sleek, bullet-nosed, and skirted, Loewy’s upgrading of conventional K4 Pacific 4-6-2 No. 3768 captured the public’s imagination. People lined up to see the locomotive, which was dubbed the “Torpedo.” Learn […]
In 1938, toy maker A.C. Gilbert purchased the American Flyer Manufacturing Co. Production was moved from Chicago to Connecticut (Gilbert was based in New Haven). Gilbert turned the Flyer line upside down in the name of realism. Gone were sheet-metal steam and electric-profile locomotives with brassy trim and oversized features. They were replaced by realistic […]
Four years after the Budd Co.’s Rail Diesel Car made its debut in 1949, Auburn Model Trains announced the first O gauge model. This firm traveled the simplest path in 1953 when it installed a motor inside the shell of one of its streamlined passenger cars. AMT released Rail Diesel Cars in four road names. […]
MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Wednesday that he will issue a decree requiring the nation’s freight rail operators to offer passenger service or to allow government-operated passenger trains to run on their routes. Reuters reports Lopez Obrador made the announcement at a Wednesday press conference. A clause in the concession […]
NEW YORK — Delays in launching Amtrak’s next-generation Acela fleet have cost the passenger company $140 million so far, and the figure continues to grow, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday in a paywalled article. The figure includes the growing maintenance costs of keeping the current Acela trainsets — the first of which entered service […]
ROXBURY TOWNSHIP, N.J. — An NJ Transit mechanical employee has been arrested and charged with stealing 32 locomotive horns, the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General has announced. In a press release, the Office of Inspector General said Jeremy Hayes was charged on Oct. 17 in Roxbury Township Municipal Court with having stolen, […]
NEW YORK — The New York Transit Museum has set its annual Holiday Nostalgia Train operation with vintage subway equipment for every Saturday in December. Trains will operate Dec. 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30, between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., and are available for the cost of a regular subway fare. They will operate […]
WASHINGTON — Weekly U.S. rail traffic again showed a slight drop for the week ending Nov. 4, the second straight week in which a slump in carload traffic led to an overall decline. According to statistics from the Association of American Railroads, overall traffic was 484,757 carloads and intermodal units, down 1.7% from the corresponding […]
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board received numerous comments on its proposed reciprocal switching rule this week, with predictable results: Railroads say the rule goes too far. Shippers say it doesn’t go far enough. And rail labor says reciprocal switching threatens their seniority rules. The proposed rule, which regulators released in September, sets minimum service […]
ROANOKE, Va. — In its second homecoming for 2023, Norfolk & Western steam locomotive No. 611 tied down for the winter at Roanoke’s Virginia Museum of Transportation by around 11 p.m., on Nov. 7. This comes after a nearly 2-month stay at the Buckingham Branch Railroad as part of the Virginia Scenic Railway’s fall excursions. […]
HAGERSTOWN, Md. — The last surviving conventional Western Maryland Railway steam locomotive, Class K2 Pacific No. 202, will be repositioned in Hagerstown City Park, receive a new protective structure, and be refurbished, the Hagerstown Herald-Mail reports. Hagerstown has hired Frederick, Md., firm Proffitt & Associates Architects to oversee the project. Senior Project Architect Kevin Kneer […]
