WASHINGTON — Amtrak has finalized an order for 50 additional Siemens Charger locomotives for long-distance passenger service. The deal was originally reported by Trains News Wire in February [see “Amtrak to order 50 more …,” News Wire, Feb. 8, 2022]. The latest order will bring to 125 the number of ALC42 locomotives purchased by Amtrak. […]
Electro-Motive Division SD50 diesel locomotive Scale: HO (1:87.1) Price: Direct-current model, $149.98; with dual-mode ESU sound and Digital Command Control, $209.98. Era: 1984 to present Manufacturer: Wm. K. Walthers Inc., 5601 W. Florist Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53218, walthers.com Electro-Motive Division SD50 diesel locomotive features: Upgraded power trucks with HT-C sideframes See-through steps Detailed dynamic brake […]
WASHINGTON — Three of the Federal Maritime Commission’s five members have urged the Surface Transportation Board to reject the proposed Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger, saying the deal would hurt U.S. ports. Canadian ports — particularly Vancouver and Prince Rupert in British Columbia — have been gaining market share for containerized traffic that’s ultimately bound […]
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen will hold a strike authorization vote, the organization’s president announced in a Wednesday conference call with other union officials. Even if members authorize a strike, a walkout is not likely to occur soon. Unions and railroads entered a 30-day cooling-off period on June 17, after […]
SAFE HARBOR, Pa. — Where electric-powered freight trains once rumbled high above the Susquehanna River en route between the East Coast and Midwest, hikers, bikers, and runners now catch breathtaking views of soaring bald eagles from the 150-foot-high Safe Harbor trestle. Opened earlier this month to public use as part of the planned 29-mile-long Enola […]
CHICAGO — The family of a Metra passenger killed in a May 11 grade-crossing accident has filed suit against the commuter agency and BNSF Railway, as well as the moving company whose truck was involved in the accident and the driver of the truck. The Daily Herald reports the suit filed Wednesday in Cook County […]
CHICAGO — CSX Transportation has begun work on expansion of its Chicago intermodal facilities, breaking ground earlier this week on a container storage facility at 63rd Street in the city’s Englewood neighborhood. When completed, the project, projected to cost more than $25 million, will provide additional storage for the railroad’s 59th Street and Bedford Park […]
WASHINGTON — Carload traffic moved back above 2021 levels by a slight margin in the latest weekly statistics from the Association of American Railroads, while overall traffic remains down — albeit to a lesser extent. For the week ending June 18, U.S. railroads moved 232,921 carloads, a 0.4% increase over the same week in 2021. […]
WASHINGTON — Mai Dinh has been named director of the Office of Proceedings at the Surface Transportation board, a position in which she oversees development of the public record of STB proceedings and manages the office’s legal and administrative sections. Dinh was appointed by STB Chairman Martin Oberman, with the approval of the rest of […]
Fifty Years of Amtrak Trains is a beautifully crafted 256-page, all-color hardbound volume. It is a time capsule of relevant information on the first 50 years of Amtrak’s existence, including a comprehensive survey of Amtrak routes between 1971 and 2021. The volume accounts for all Amtrak routes and trains (the book is divided into state […]
WASHINGTON — A major grain shipper opposes Canadian National’s effort to force Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern to divest the KCS line linking Springfield, Ill., and Kansas City. Earlier this year CN asked the Surface Transportation Board to condition approval of the CP-KCS merger on divestiture of KCS’s Springfield Line. CN promises to spend […]
53-foot FedEx intermodal containers Scale: N (1:160) Price: Two-pack, $33.95 Era: Present day Manufacturer: Jacksonville Terminal Co., jtcmodeltrains.com 53-foot FedEx intermodal containers features: Injection-molded plastic Prototype-specific door styles and placard holder location Inter-box connecting pins Magnetic connection system (three magnets on bottom and metal plate on top) 8-55-8 corrugation pattern Road names: FedEx MultiModal (blue, […]
