Intermodal and the Long-Haul Market

Intermodal car containers

    Yes it is, Brian. In fact, intermodal passed coal in 2013 as railroads’ biggest revenue source. In 2014, U.S. railroads tacked more than a half million intermodal loads onto their 2013 totals, notching a record 13.5 million shipments. Intermodal is likely to become even more significant in coming years as the industry spends […]

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Burlington Northern and the Grain Industry

A train going past a grain site

    Sure thing, Angela. Since the Baltimore & Ohio began hauling flour from Ellicott’s Mills to Baltimore in 1830 — grain, flour, and seeds have been an important part of railroading. Grain moved in boxcars for decades, but in the early 1960s, Southern Railway’s new, 100-ton — Big John — covered hopper revolutionized grain […]

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Steel: a Critical Building Block

Modern steel mill

    For an industry which hauls the heaviest, densest loads overland, no other material has proven itself more useful to railroads than that combination of iron, carbon, and trace minerals.  For more than 150 years, U.S. steelmakers have needed railroads to efficiently haul their heavy iron ore, taconite pellets, and coal, and also to transport […]

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The Persistence of Crude Oil

Tanker cars

    But this new source of revenue has a troubling side.   Rapid growth strains the capacity of railroads to move crude oil.   And, safety has become an even bigger issue following the tragic derailment of a crude oil train in Quebec in July 2013 that killed 47 people and leveled a town.   Other spectacular […]

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The Transportation of Lumber

Lumber being stored on a train

  Thanks, Jim.  Canadian National is the No. 1 lumber-hauling railroad in the U.S.   It takes particleboard out of British Columbia and moves it across the continent to where its needed.   If you see new homes or condos or apartments being built, chances are that the wood for them came by rail.   CN moves about […]

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Digest: Biden announces stimulus plan with $20 billion for transit

Train driving through the city

Friday morning rail news: Biden coronavirus plan includes $20 billion for transit Some $20 billion in “relief for the hardest hit public transit agencies” is part of a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan released by President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday, a wide-ranging legislative package including $1,400 per-person payments to most households, a national COVID-19 vaccination […]

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News Photo: New locomotive for NJ Transit

Train being carried off a ship

NEWARK, N.J. — The first of 25 new ALP-45A locomotives for NJ Transit has arrived at Port Newark, N.J. The Tier IV-compliant locomotives, built by Bombardier in Germany, was offloaded at the port’s Berth 17. The new engines will replace some of NJ Transit’s older locomotives, as well as some PL42s, according to the NJ […]

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Digest: MARC to suspend operations because of inauguration security

MARC commuter rail logo

More Friday rail news: MARC to suspend operations Jan. 17-20 because of inauguration security Maryland’s MARC Train commuter rail service will suspend operations on all three of its routes — the Penn, Camden and Brunswick lines — beginning Sunday, Jan. 17, in response to expanded security efforts associated with the upcoming Presidential inauguration, the Maryland […]

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BNSF’s Needles Division

TRN_locomotive_video_power_chapter_7_0121

This video was originally published by Trains as part of the Locomotive 2017 DVD. BNSF Needles Subdivision stretches from the Arizona/California state line at Needles west to Barstow, California across almost 170 miles of desert that tests man and machine every day in the struggle to keep the railroad moving. For the majority of its […]

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Canadian Pacific Railway on the shore of Lake Superior

TRN_locomotive_video_power_chapter_6_0121

This video was originally published by Trains as part of the Locomotive 2017 DVD. Canadian Pacific’s transcontinental mainline across Canada traverses a wide range of terrain, from the Rocky mountains in the west, across the plains in its midsection to the Canadian Shield in the east. One of the most beautiful and inaccessible locations is […]

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