Amtrak ACS64 No. 627 shortly after it crashed into a maintenance-of-way backhoe that was fouling a track on the Northeast Corridor near Chester, Pa., in April 2016. National Transportation Safety Board WASHINGTON — If Amtrak had deployed a familiar device that trips “stop” signals, it could have avoided an accident at Chester, Pa., on April […]
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A steel mill at night, like this one in the Pittsburgh area, was an unforgettable sight. Baltimore & Ohio At night the atmosphere in many railroad yards was completely different than it is during the daytime. Although few railroaders would admit it, there were scenes that pleased both the eye and the psyche: The colors […]
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Amtrak’s southbound Saluki seen leaving Chicago from the City of New Orleans on an existing grade-separated, former Illinois Central right-of-way that could accommodate high speed trains. Bob Johnston CHICAGO — The Midwest High Speed Rail Association this week released a 50-page white paper which describes how a combination of high-speed trunk lines and upgraded feeder […]
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A Siemens Charger locomotive occupies the trailing position on a southbound Hiawatha train on Aug. 4. A battery caught fire in a Charger locomotive on a Hiawatha on Tuesday. Chris Guss CHICAGO — Siemens is investigating the cause of a battery fire in one of its Charger locomotives that halted an Amtrak Hiawatha train Tuesday […]
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Amtrak’s southbound ‘Saluki’ rolls past the Canadian National yard into Champaign, Ill., in Feb., 2015. Bob Johnston ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down a U.S. Surface Transportation Board attempt to provide metrics which measure host railroad on-time performance. The action follows a U.S. Supreme Court finding that […]
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Chicago-America’s Railroad Capital Kalmbach Publishing, P.O. Box 1612, Waukesha, WI 53187-1612. Approx. 60 minutes kalmbachhobbystore.com Generations of railfans have been impressed at the magnitude of railroad operations in and around the Windy City. Currently, the Chicago area sees 25 percent of US rail traffic and almost half of the nation’s intermodal shipments. Chicagoland, of course, […]
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A southbound VRE commuter train arrives at Alexandria, Va., in August 2013. Alex Mayes ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Managers at Virginia Railway Express have decided to table further studies on extending commuter rail service to Gainesville or Haymarket in northern Virginia, Inside Nova reports. Instead, the agency is shifting its efforts on a rehabilitation of its […]
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FULL SCREEN John Bjorklund, collection of Center for Railroad Photography and Art Santa Fe passenger train No. 1, the westbound ‘San Francisco Chief,’ is seen at Dearborn Station in Chicago in December 1970, just a few months before the creation of Amtrak. FULL SCREEN John Bjorklund, collection of Center for Railroad Photography and Art A […]
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MTH HO scale New York City subway cars The MTH model includes working headlight, marker lights, and local and express indicators. The lead car in the four-car set is powered and houses the Digital Command System and Proto-Sound 3.0 electronics. The unpowered cars have a rudimentary interior and overhead lighting. Next stop, Dyer Avenue! You […]
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Amtrak ACS64 No. 627 shortly after it crashed into a maintenance-of-way backhoe that was fouling a track on the Northeast Corridor near Chester, Pa., in April 2016. National Transportation Safety Board WASHINGTON — Faulty communication between maintenance workers appear to have played a significant part in last year’s fatal collision between an Amtrak train and […]
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Viewliner II dining car Annapolis deadheads on the rear of the southbound Silver Meteor at Kissimmee, Fla., on Nov. 18. Scott A. Hartley MIAMI — Amtrak employees will soon train in the newest dining cars on the continent now that the first of 25 new Viewliner II dining cars has arrived at Amtrak’s Hialeah Maintenance […]
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Progress Rail’s EMD Tier 4 emission compliant locomotives Nos. 1603 and 1604 are seen near Andover, Minn., moving south to Minneapolis on a daily train. BNSF Railway is helping to test the units. Steve Glischinski MINNEAPOLIS — Progress Rail and BNSF Railway have assigned two SD70ACeP4-T4 demonstrator locomotives to trains linking Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., and […]
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