RIVER GROVE, Ill. — Metra has recently accelerated testing of its SD70MACH locomotives, with the first test run with one of the remanufactured units leading a train taking place earlier this week. Unit No. 509, accompanied by F59PH No. 99, is shown at River Grove on Tuesday, Oct. 17, on a test run that took […]
BALTIMORE — The B&O Railroad Museum has announced plans to begin cosmetic restoration of Reading Co. 4-8-4 No. 2101 — maintained in the museum’s collection as American Freedom Train No. 1 for the role the locomotive played during the Freedom Train’s 1975-76 tour — and will begin that process by moving the locomotive from its […]
Irish national rail company Iarnród Éireann (IÉ) has announced plans to convert one of its EMD-built locomotives to burn hydrogen instead of diesel fuel. IÉ is working in partnership with Latvian rail engineering firm DIGAS to test the use of a hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine in an existing Class 071 diesel freight locomotive. Since earlier […]
PIERRE, S.D. — The South Dakota Railroad Board will support six of the eight projects which have applied for Federal Railroad Administration infrastructure grants, KELO-TV reports. Some $58.9 million is available for projects in the state under the Special Transportation Circumstances program, for states that lack intercity passenger service or are not connected to the […]
WASHINGTON — Amtrak announced today (Wednesday, Oct. 18) that it will be “soon” be reducing its fare categories from three to two, although details and effective dates have not been revealed. The bottom-tier and most-restrictive “Saver” fares are being eliminated, and the other two categories — “Value” and “Flexible” — are being redefined to allow […]
PUEBLO, Colo. — Southbound lanes of Interstate 25 reopened this afternoon (Wednesday, Oct. 18) at the site of Sunday’s derailment and fatal bridge collapse involving a BNSF Railway coal train, the Colorado State Patrol reported on social media. Northbound lanes are expected to reopen Thursday Meanwhile, BNSF says the rail line at the site of […]
LOWELL, Ark. – J.B. Hunt had its biggest intermodal volume week ever in September and demand remains strong this month in a potential indication that the intermodal doldrums are finally over. J.B. Hunt’s intermodal third-quarter volume entered positive territory for the first time in three quarters, executives said on the company’s earnings call on Tuesday. […]
WASHINGTON – Total U.S. weekly rail traffic eked out a 0.5% gain for the week ending Oct. 14, the Association of American Railroads reported today. Total carloads down 2% compared with the same week in 2022, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was up 2.8% compared to a year ago. Six of the 10 carload commodity […]
Menards has started offering starter sets, and their Track Inspection Set is one of the newcomers to that area. But instead of a locomotive and pieces of rolling stock in the box, you’ll find something a little different. This set includes a track maintenance truck and a track inspection vehicle, and no locomotives. Both vehicles […]
How to build a plywood train table: The train table is a means to an end. We want to build it carefully and well, but we also want to move on fairly quickly to running some trains. Good, straight, knot-free dimensional lumber (1 x 3s or 2 x 4s) has become expensive and difficult to […]
Locomotive air horn Throughout the United States, there are hundreds of thousands of railroad crossings that require sounding the horn. Federal law dictates that the engineer must blow the locomotive air horn with a sequence of blasts in the fashion of long, long, short, and long, no later than 15 seconds and as early as […]
MONTREAL — Canadian National today appointed two operations executives to take over for retiring Chief Operating Officer Ed Harris. Patrick Whitehead was named executive vice president and chief network operating officer, while Derek Taylor was named executive vice president and chief field operating officer. Both appointments are effective Nov. 15. Railroads traditionally have a lone […]
