Analysis: New reciprocal switching rule offers carrot and stick for better rail service

Freight train passing Metra station at BNSF Cicero Yard

If it works as intended, the Surface Transportation Board’s proposed reciprocal switching rule just might — emphasis on might — lead to better service for Class I railroad carload customers. Earlier this month the board unveiled the long-awaited rule, which for the first time proposes service standards for railroads. If a railroad fails to meet […]

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News & Products for the week of September 18th 2023

A set of five model freight cars

News & Products for the week of September 18th 2023   Model railroad operators and builders can get the latest information about locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, tools, track, and more by reading Model Railroader’s frequent product updates. The following are the products Model Railroader editors have news on for the week of September 18th […]

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Rail Safety Week: Together, We Can Stop Track Tragedies

Red safety logo shaped like a STOP sign.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today marks the start of Rail Safety Week across North America. While rail remains the safest way to move goods over land, according to the Association of American Railroads, this week, railroads and other safety advocates are intensifying their efforts to enhance public safety near railroad tracks — the single largest, most […]

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Genesee & Wyoming upgrades fleet

Genesee & Wyoming is undergoing the largest-ever transformation of its corporate locomotive fleet. A consent decree announced in January between the Environmental Protection Agency and G&W requires the company to remove and destroy 88 older locomotives, replacing them with locomotives meeting EPA emission standards [see “Genesee & Wyoming agrees to settlement …,” Trains News Wire, […]

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Former New York Central boxcar saved

rusty boxcar number

PORTSMOUTH, R. I. — A 1952 vintage New York Central boxcar was saved thanks to quick action by the Newport & Narragansett Bay Railroad. The car had been sitting in an abandoned state for decades in Millis, Mass., on a siding on the Bay Colony Railroad. The property owners wanted the car removed, so it […]

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Cape May Seashore Lines acquires predecessor diesel

black train on track

RICHLAND VILLAGE, N.J. — Cape May Seashore Lines is going “back to the future” with its recently acquired GP38 No. 2000. The unit once belonged to predecessor railroad Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Lines. It joins two other ex-PRSL GP38s the railroad is leasing: GMTX 2661 (former PRSL Nos. 2011) and LLPX 2014 (PRSL 2012). Pennsylvania – […]

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