STB adopts streamlined emergency temporary trackage rights rule

Surface Transportation Board logo

WASHINGTON – Federal regulators have adopted a final rule that will streamline the process railroads follow when applying for emergency temporary trackage rights. The new Surface Transportation Board rule, adopted in a decision today, eliminates a required 30-day notice period. Instead, the trackage-rights exemption would become effective within five days. The rule will make it easier […]

Read More…

Union Pacific N Scale and HO Scale inspiration gallery

Yellow Union Pacific locomotives lead an intermodal train over a double-track bridge.

Union Pacific N Scale and HO Scale inspiration gallery Union Pacific N Scale and HO Scale layouts offer model railroaders the option to create wide-open plains, vast rail yards, and craggy mountain canyons. Sometimes, these features appear on the same layouts.   This photo gallery blends top images from Daryl Kruse‘s N Scale Geneva (Illinois) […]

Read More…

CN main line in British Columbia shut down again

Canadian National logo

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Canadian National has shut down service on its route to Vancouver as additional rain, flooding, and landslides continue to plague a hard-hit area in British Columbia’s interior. The CBC reports CN moved seven trains over the weekend before it elected to “proactively close its network” as rain was causing increased debris, […]

Read More…

STB grants Amtrak access to CSX yard in Mobile, Ala.

Surface Transportation Board logo

WASHINGTON — Score one small win for Amtrak in its ongoing effort to launch service along the Gulf Coast. The Surface Transportation Board on Monday issued a decision honoring Amtrak’s request for an order allowing it access to CSX Transportation’s Choctaw Yard in Mobile, Ala., to conduct a survey to determine a possible site for […]

Read More…

Union Pacific to donate artwork to Pullman National Monument

Poster with Pulllman National Monument main building, porters, and sleeping car

CHICAGO — Union Pacific is donating the original artwork it commissioned for the grand opening of the Pullman National Monument to the National Park Service for permanent display. The poster, created by Chicago artist Joe Nelson, is in the style of UP national park travel posters of the 1900s and honors the resilience and strength […]

Read More…

Oklahoma troop train

Steam locomotive on passenger train

Oklahoma troop train Santa Fe 4-6-2 1311 rolls east with a 13-car troop train near Quinlan, Okla., on Mar. 16, 1946. The train consists of 5 standard sleepers, 6 troop sleepers, and 2 troop kitchen cars, plus a caboose at the rear. R. H. Kindig photo […]

Read More…

Australian infrastructure fund to acquire RailUSA

Red, white, and blue locomotives pulling train across low bridge

WASHINGTON — A global infrastructure fund based in Australia will acquire RailUSA, the holding company that operates the 430-mile Florida Gulf & Atlantic and the 228-mile Grenada Railroad in Mississippi. Macquarie Infrastructure Partners reached a purchase agreement with RailUSA on Nov. 23, according to a regulatory filing with the Surface Transportation Board last week. The […]

Read More…

CSX executive Mark Wallace dies

Man with glasses in coat and tie

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX Executive Vice President Mark Wallace, who joined the railroad during Hunter Harrison’s tenure as CEO after serving as Harrison’s chief of staff at both Canadian National and Canadian Pacific, has died, the railroad has announced. Wallace, 50, died Sunday after a battle with cancer. “The entire CSX organization is mourning Mark’s […]

Read More…