William F. Howes, Jr., a longtime Baltimore & Ohio, Chessie System and CSX official, author, and president of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society from 1994 to 2003, died in Jacksonville, Fla., on July 30 at the age of 83. In his career with B&O and Chessie System, he enjoyed a front-row seat at one […]
The Iowa Interstate Railroad has reactivated SD38-2s Nos. 152 and 153 after three of its General Electric ES44-AC locomotives suffered damage in grade crossing accidents. The locomotives handed train PESI (Peoria-Silvis, Ill.) on Sunday, July 31, with ES44AC No. 508, pulling 90 grain empties and two steel loads. The non-turbocharged, normally aspirated engines are fan […]
Building your first kitbash I’ve worked for Model Railroader for about six months now with no previous hands-on experience with model railroading. When an opportunity came up for me to enter a kitbashing “contest” among fellow Model Railroader employees, I plunged right in. Note: Fellow employees have been modeling for years. My skill level is […]
BOSTON — The Massachusetts legislature has passed a transportation bill including $275 million in funding for the East-West Rail project, which would extend existing rail service west from Worcester to Springfield and Pittsfield, Mass. The Boston Globe reports the $11.3 billion transportation and infrastructure bill was part of a flurry of legislation passed late Sunday […]
Working mountain Alco locomotives: Nestled in the wide rolling hills on the western edge of New York’s Southern Tier lies the formerly two-railroad town of Olean, N.Y. A quaint, unsuspecting town of 13,000 residents located along the placid Allegheny River was once a railfanning destination, that is — until the formation of Conrail. Dozens of […]
WASHINGTON — Amtrak’s has specially wrapped one of its ACS64 electric locomotives to promote a National Geographic exhibit on King Tut in Boston and Washington. This is not the first time Amtrak and King Tut have been linked. An Amtrak Cascades F59PHI was wrapped to promote a King Tut exhibit at the Pacific Science Center […]
ALBANY, N.Y. — A bus bridge was hastily set up Friday to ensure the inaugural run of the Ethan Allen Express from its new northern terminus of Burlington, Vt., wouldn’t have to be cancelled. But getting travelers past a crumbling warehouse adjacent to the tracks that carry the Ethan Allen, Lake Shore Limited to […]
VERGENNES, Vt. — The inaugural run of Amtrak’s Ethan Allen Express from Burlington, Vt., arrives at the Ferrisburg-Vergennes station on Friday, July 29, 2022. The train had previously originated and terminated in Rutland, Vt. The station — added to the National Register of Historic Places in May 2021 — is a Rutland Railroad building dating […]
BOSTON — The Federal Transportation Administration on Friday ordered ‘an immediate safety standdown” for Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority workers dealing with out-of-service trains in the wake of three recent runaway-train incidents, the latest of which happened last week. The Boston Globe reports the order, effective at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, requires worker operating or securing out-of-service […]
WASHINGTON — The question of how Canadian National should receive incentives or penalties for handling of Amtrak trains has no doubt chalked up hundreds — maybe thousands — of billable hours for the companies’ attorneys. The inability of the two sides to reach a new operating agreement first came to the Surface Transportation Board in […]
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. — The status of Amtrak service on the Gulf Coast remains very much undetermined, but that’s not stopping the city of Bay St. Louis: It plans a ceremony today to mark “reactivation” of its Amtrak station, idle since passenger service was halted after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Al.com reports U.S. Department […]
COOK, Minn. — Fourteen cars of a Canadian National train derailed Saturday night north of the town of Cook, KMSP-TV reports. The St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office reported the accident occurred about 7:45 p.m. and involved a 123-car northbound train. A county emergency management team responded because some of the cars involved contained hazardous materials, […]
