Railroad tell-tales At one time, railroad tell-tales were placed along the track on either side of low structures such as bridges and tunnels to warn crew members on top of the cars that they could not remain in a standing position while passing under the structure. Before the adoption of the air brake, and for […]
WASHINGTON — The Transportation Trades Division of the AFL-CIO today urged Norfolk Southern shareholders to reject an activist investor’s bid to gain control of the railroad. Ancora Holdings, which has been critical of Norfolk Southern’s response to the Feb. 3, 2023, hazardous materials derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, as well as the railroad’s lagging financial […]
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific will launch domestic intermodal service between its Inland Empire terminal in California and its Global 2 terminal in Chicago on April 1. “This service will provide access from the Los Angeles Basin’s busiest warehouse district direct to the heart of the Chicago metro, supplementing existing service between IEIT and Global […]
Modern day train operations are largely controlled by train dispatchers or control operators. A dispatcher directly controls all movements on a given piece of track, while a control operator typically handles movement on a smaller piece of trackage — operating under the direction of a dispatcher. Control operators can typically be found at interlockings, or […]
Travel Town On the eastern end of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley — wedged in between hills on one side and an endless sea of vehicular traffic from a nearby freeway on the other — lies a veritable island of railroad equipment open to the public. Created in the early 1950s, it is officially known […]
WASHINGTON — An official from the Transport Workers Union of America has written the Surface Transportation Board to oppose the nomination of a Metro-North Railroad executive for the STB’s new Passenger Rail Advisory Committee, citing the state of union relationships with Metro-North. In a March 6 letter to STB Chair Martin J. Oberman, John Feltz, […]
MARKHAM, Ontario — The Canadian government is providing more than C$13.5 million for 112 rail safety projects in the Toronto and Hamilton areas, as well as other regions of Ontario, Minister of Transport Pablo Rodriguez and Member of Parliament Paul Chiang announced Thursday, March 7, at the former Unionville station in Markham. The funding is […]
HOMEWOOD, Ill. — The Homewood station on Metra’s Electric District will close from April 1 to May 20 to replace the single stairway leading to the station platform, Metra has announced. The station has been undergoing a $20.7 million reconstruction since May 2023, and has remained open during the project, but must close during this […]
LONGMONT, Colo. — Using the idle equipment from Amtrak’s Winter Park Express, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, state legislators, and local officials rode an inspection train from Denver to Longmont today (Thursday, March 7). The 44-mile, 90-minute trip used the BNSF Railway route via Boulder that is proposed for passenger service that would continue north to […]
AKRON, Ohio — A federal court has ruled against Norfolk Southern in a suit seeking to share cleanup costs for the February 2023 East Palestine derailment with railcar owners and the maker of the vinyl chloride involved in the incident. In a decision filed Wednesday, Judge John R. Adams of the U.S. District Court for […]
CLEVELAND — Continuing attacks on current management at Norfolk Southern, board nominees of investor Ancora Holdings have issued a “white paper” on last Saturday’s three-train NS collision in Pennsylvania in which they outline what they say would be safety upgrades at the railroad and question the current operating culture. The investment group launched a proxy […]
RailPulse — the consortium of railroads, railcar manufactures, railcar owners, and other industry firms developing GPS and other telematics use — and rail telemetry vendor Nexxiot have announced an agreement to make it easier for car owners to access Nexxiot products and services and join the RailPulse platform. The agreement, announced today (March 7) but […]
