DOVER, N.J. – Railroader, editor, and writer Michael Del Vecchio, 63, died Thursday, Aug. 31, after a lengthy battle with cancer. He is best known as an associate editor at Railfan Magazine, and later at the industry publication Railway Age. Prolific at any endeavor he set his mind to, his booming voice and New Jersey […]
WASHINGTON — The Association of American Railroads has filed a friend-of-the-court brief backing BNSF Railway in its appeal of the Surface Transportation Board’s decision ordering the railroad to haul more export coal from a Montana mine to tidewater in British Columbia. The brief, filed yesterday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, […]
WASHINGTON – Federal regulators have put a hold on their final environmental assessment of Union Pacific’s proposed 6-mile branch to a new industrial park being built outside Phoenix. The Surface Transportation Board’s Office of Environmental Analysis, in a decision released on Thursday, said it was delaying a decision indefinitely due to the discovery of “significant […]
HYANNIS, Mass. — A Massachusetts legislator has announced plans for a bill that would revive daily commuter train service to Cape Cod, currently served by the summer-weekend-only CapeFlyer service. The Cape Cod Times reports state Rep. Dylan Fernandes said this week that the service would ease congestion on the Cape’s major roadways and bridges across […]
Mid-Continent Railway Museum NORTH FREEDOM, Wis. — Mid-Continent Railway Museum celebrated its 60th anniversary earlier this year, marking the milestone with special events as well as reminiscences of the Wisconsin museum’s growth from a fledgling museum to one with some 500 volunteer members who share their interest in and knowledge of the “Golden Age of […]
Pan Am Southern quietly wrapped up operations on Thursday. Shown is one of the final trains, EDBF, making a late-afternoon departure from the former Boston & Maine yard at East Deerfield, Mass., for to Bellows Falls, Vt. Effective today (Sept. 1, 2023), Pan Am Southern lines in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York […]
NEWARK, N.J. — NJ Transit engineers have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a strike, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen has announced. The union said in a Thursday press release that 81% of those eligible to vote returned their ballots, and 100% of those ballots supported a strike authorization. The exact breakdown: 494 members […]
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The worker who died in an Aug. 4 accident on state-owned tracks in Great Barrington was operating a leaf blower on those tracks when he was struck by a maintenance-of-way machine, the National Transportation Safety Board said in its preliminary accident report issued on Thursday. The accident victim was identified in […]
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Caltrain has energized the second traction power substation for the electrification of its San Francisco-San Jose main line, another step toward the planned launch of electrified operation in fall 2024. The agency announced the substation, built by Balfour Beatty and its partners had been powered up by Pacific Gas & […]
In its rich 150-year history, the Georgia Railroad was touched and torched by the rich and famous. During the process, the company morphed from a railroading pioneer and leader in the Peach State to an interesting combination of Class I and short-line operation. Started as The Georgia Railroad in 1833, the ambitious company hired […]
If you have LEGO trains, you probably have LEGO train track. Different kinds of LEGO train track have appeared in train sets from the very beginning and have evolved to the gray track that we have today. What parts can you buy in the store today? Come along on this journey as I share all […]
A Frisco caboose ride provided a much needed railfan break during my military assignment near Kansas City. My spirits fell when I received orders for my first U.S. Air Force permanent-duty assignment, at the Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base just south of Kansas City, Mo. I had hardly been west of the Appalachian Mountains, and […]
