News photos: Reading & Northern hosts RDC excursion

Rail Diesel Car exiting tunnel

PORT CLINTON, Pa. — Mileage from four of the railroads which helped form today’s Reading & Northern were featured on a Saturday, April 23, excursion by R&N Rail Diesel Car. Trackage from the Reading Co., Central of New Jersey, Lehigh Valley Railroad, and Lehigh & New England were included in the fundraiser for the Railroad […]

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New Colorado passenger rail board holds first meeting

Logo of the Front Range Passenger Rail District

DENVER — The effort to develop rail service along a corridor between Fort Collins and Pueblo, Colo., entered a new phase on Friday with the first meeting of the Front Range Passenger Rail District board, created by legislation in 2021 to plan, develop, finance, and operate rail service in that corridor. Colorado Newsline reports state […]

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Trains return to California’s Santa Clara River Valley

Silver and blue cab-unit diesel on train

FILLMORE, Calif. —  Sierra Northern Railway’s Ventura Division began another step to introduce itself to local communities by operating a photo freight from Fillmore to Santa Paula and return. The train, powered by EMD F7A 100, consisted of a variety of freight cars with a heavyweight coach bringing up the rear. The railroad is aggressively […]

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1950s EMD customer relations — a different take

Locomotive at the head of a freight train.

1950s EMD customer relations: At the height of dieselization circa 1950, the volume of orders pouring into Electro-Motive Division was sufficient to require three production locations: La Grange, by far the largest; Plant 2, a former Pullman Co. facility in South Chicago; and Plant 3, the ex-Cleveland Engine Corp. facility in Cleveland, Ohio. However, by […]

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The Shay Locomotive: An Illustrated History book review

The Shay Locomotive book review

The Shay locomotive was a widely used North American geared steam locomotive, built to the patents of Ephraim Shay, who is credited with the popularization of the concept of a geared steam locomotive. Shay’s early locomotives differed from later ones, but there is a clear line of development that joins all Shays. Shays were especially […]

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STB seeks to amend rules on emergency rail service

Surface Transportation Board logo

WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation is proposing to amend its emergency service regulations to allow immediate relief for shippers in situations requiring such action, including clarifying that the board may act on its own initiative to require emergency service. “The rail service challenges shippers are currently experiencing are amplified by certain recent conditions but are […]

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How to buy a toy train

Yellow diesel toy train set

How to buy a toy train is a subject I’m frequently asked about. My focus is on trains and accessories from the post-World War II era, but I venture into the prewar and modern periods, too. In the past 25 years, Atlas, K-Line, Lionel, MTH, Williams, Weaver, and others have produced locomotives and rolling stock […]

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Viewliner II Sleeping Cars — pluses and some minuses

Exterior view of pasenger car with two rows of windows

ABOARD THE SILVER STAR — It took almost 10 years to complete Amtrak’s latest sleeping-car order. The 25 Viewliner II cars, manufactured by CAF USA in Elmira, N.Y., faced issues with meeting construction specifications before Amtrak agreed to accept them. But the latest arrivals are now operating alongside what had been the newest rolling stock […]

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