The Washington Central Railroad’s Spirit of Washington dinner train started running in 1989. Originally, it operated for a few years along the Yakama River Canyon in Eastern Washington, before moving to the east side of Lake Washington to run on Burlington Northern’s Woodinville Subdivision. The 44-mile round trip to the Columbia Winery in Woodinville departed […]
OMAHA Neb. — Union Pacific has reached a tentative agreement on paid sick leave with the union representing conductors over paid sick leave, the railroad announced today (Sunday, June 9). The agreement, which will cover about 5,900 employees, means UP now has tentative or ratified sick-time agreements with all 13 of its labor unions. The […]
F125 “Spirit” commuter locomotive The F125 “Spirit” commuter locomotive offers something different at Southern California commuter stations. While a modern fleet of homogenized locomotives is great for the financial bottom line, and certainly easier for the maintenance workers who care for them, aren’t you secretly hoping it will not be business as usual behind that […]
Signaling has entered a golden age in the hobby. More options exist now than have ever existed before for modelers to add signals to their railroads. Resources and online groups allow access to information and photographs at an unprecedented level. Possibilities cover the full range of options from a single stand-alone manual signal to a […]
BOONTON, N.J. — NJ Transit has donated ALP-44M electric locomotive No. 4424 to the United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey for preservation, the URHS has announced. The first public display following the donation, made by NJ Transit to commemorate its 40th anniversary, will be Sept. 24 at the URHS Railroad Museum [For A Day] […]
MONTREAL — The first segment of Montreal’s Réseau express metropolitan light rail system will open on July 31, construction contractor CDPQ Infra announced Friday. The initial five-station, 16.6-kilometer (10.3-mile) segment will operate between the South Shore community of Brossard and Central Station (Gare Centrale), with a trip taking less than 18 minutes. The much-delayed service […]
NEW DELHI — Three employees of Indian Railways have been arrested over the three-train collision in June that killed almost 300 people, Agence France-Presse reports. The country’s Central Bureau of Investigation said the men — two signal engineers and one technician — have charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and destruction of evidence. […]
ELLISTON, Va. — The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the derailment of a Norfolk Southern coal train Thursday night near Elliston, the Associated Press reports. The NTSB confirmed its investigation plans in a Twitter post this evening (July 7). Nineteen cars derailed but stayed upright in the incident, which came after the train crew […]
REED POINT, Mont. — The Montana Rail Line main line remains closed at the site of the June 24 bridge collapse and derailment that sent 10 freight cars into the Yellowstone River, but work is continuing “around the clock” to restore normal operations as soon as possible, according to the latest update from the Unified […]
ALTOONA, Pa. — Work to construct a new $425,000 firebox for Pennsylvania Railroad Class K4s steam locomotive No. 1361 (PRR Juniata Shops, 1918) is moving along rapidly, with the inner wrapper sheets scheduled to be assembled late next month or in early September. The locomotive is in the midst of a $2.6 million restoration to […]
How to keep N scale piggybacks on track: My N scale Tehachapi Pass layout is set in 1985. Intermodal railroading was well established, but on nothing like the scale we see today. Most intermodal traffic in the pass was TOFC (trailer-on-flatcar), more commonly called “pigs,” short for piggybacks. For my money there’s nothing much less […]
Lifelong O gauge modeler Russ Boersma took his accumulated knowledge and roster of postwar and modern-era trains to develop a great new layout. While the trains might be up to date, the display has a fun and retro vibe. Check it out in the September-October 2023 issue! […]
