Ask Trains.com September 2023 compilation: Cody Grivno answers viewer questions regarding what railfans mean by the term “tri-clops,” industries that receive coal, modeling at-grade crossings between two railroads, why the HO scale Soo Line Red Wing Division is his favorite Model Railroader project railroad, and more! Are you looking to learn more about your model […]
UNION, Ill. — A few spaces remain for a night photo session set for Oct. 7 at the Illinois Railway Museum as part of its “Steam Into Fall” event, marking the end of the museum’s 2023 operating season. The session will feature Frisco No. 1630, the museum’s “Russian Decapod” built by Baldwin in 1918, and […]
In the early 1960s, The Alco C420 diesel locomotive hit the market, part of the builder’s Century Series, a line of diesel locomotives designed to answer any operating requirement railroads could imagine. One of the designs was the Century 420, a four-axle, 2,000-horsepower diesel locomotive built upon the years of experience gained from earlier RS2, […]
CASS, W.Va. — Cass Scenic Railroad operator Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad has acquired a two-truck Heisler locomotive, Builder’s No. 1589, from Stuart Thayer of Thomas, W.Va., bringing to three the number of Heisler locomotives on Cass and DGVR property. Built in September 1929 for Fisher Lumber Co. of Holly Grove, Ark., as its No. […]
WASHINGTON — The operator of a piece of maintenance-of-way equipment moved onto unprotected track for unknown reasons, the National Transportation Safety Board said in determining the probable cause of a July 2022 collision between a Union Pacific roadway maintenance machine and an Amtrak Capitol Corridor train in Oakland, Calif. The NTSB completed its final accident […]
CHICAGO — BNSF Railway reached a settlement last week in a biometric data privacy case in which it had initially been assessed a $228 million penalty, only to have that award thrown out on appeal. Reuters reports that the railroad reached a settlement with a group of truck drivers over claims that BNSF illegally collected […]
WASHINGTON — Amtrak received almost $200 million in the Federal Railroad Administration’s Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements grants announced Monday, a list of awards highlighted by the more than $178 million for the restoration of Gulf Coast passenger service [see “Federal Railroad Administration awards more than $1.4 billion,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 24, 2023]. […]
BOONTON, N.J. — With persistent rain canceling both the United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey’s annual Museum-for-a-Day event and the town’s street fair, the group quickly shifted on Sunday, Sept. 24, to a no-frills open house, showing off two newly painted historic diesel locomotives in their first public display. Live music and other attractions […]
Bullet train TOKYO — Since December 2022, the Central Japan Railway Co. has offered personalized “chartered car packages” on its Nozomi bullet trains of the Tokaido Shinkansen high-speed line. Designed to cater private events, such as graduation and employee trips, the new service has caught the attention of onboard wrestling, a world first. According to […]
ABOARD SWISS AIR FLIGHT 6 — Well, those were three remarkable weeks. But how could they be otherwise? When it comes to railroading, Switzerland is one remarkable place. I spent those three weeks meandering around the country by rail — solo at first, then as part of a small tour organized by Swiss Tourism built […]
ROCKHILL FURNACE, Pa. – The East Broad Top Railroad has won a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to fund an 18-month program for long-term protection of the road’s thousands of maps, drawings, photographs, and artifacts. The grant is one of 280 awarded nationally in the August round of NEH funding, totaling […]
History of track gauge: The gauge of a railroad is the distance between the inside vertical surfaces of the head of the rail. Standard gauge is 4 feet, 8-1/2 inches. This is the gauge used when steam railroading began. It became the common gauge of Britain, North America, and Western Europe — except for Spain, […]
