Western Pacific Railroad: A railroader’s history

Streamlined diesel locomotive on freight train as seen from dome car of passing passenger train

Western Pacific Railroad history The Western Pacific Railroad almost “had it all.” It ran passenger and freight trains, in mountain and desert scenery, behind vintage steam engines that survived World War II and hauled excursions, and then colorful diesels, from early green-and-yellow FTs through orange-and-silver Fs and Geeps to dark-green second-generation EMDs and GEs. It […]

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STB accepts CSX Transportation’s Pan Am merger application

Front of a train

WASHINGTON – The Surface Transportation Board has accepted CSX Transportation’s beefed up Pan Am Railways merger application and established a schedule for reviewing the deal that would expand CSX’s presence in New England. If the board approves the deal, Pan Am would become a fallen flag on May 1, 2022. Comments on the merger are due […]

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Veteran journalist Dan Machalaba, Trains author, dies at 72

Head and shoulders of man with white hair and glasses

For veteran business writer and Trains author Dan Machalaba, there was virtually nothing about transportation that wasn’t fascinating. Big-rig trucks, coal-hauling unit trains, bush planes, container ships — all of them drew his scrutiny at one time or another in a journalism career that spanned more than four decades, including 33 years at the Wall […]

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Canadian Pacific asks KCS stockholders to vote against merger with CN

Logos for Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, and Kansas City Southern

CALGARY, Alberta — Canadian Pacific is asking Kansas City Southern stockholders to vote against the railroad’s proposed merger with Canadian National. The railroad filed a proxy statement to that effect on Thursday, with Canadian Pacific CEO Keith Creel saying his railroad would have preferred not to appeal to the KCS shareholders, but that with a meeting […]

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Keeping an even keel

A man shovels grain in a boxcar

Keeping an even keel It was important for boxcar loads of grain to be level. Sometimes workers had to enter the cars and level the loads by hand, as with this carload of wheat. Jeff Wilson collection […]

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Shipper coalition urges federal regulators to permit reciprocal switching

Surface Transportation Board logo

WASHINGTON – A coalition representing a broad range of rail shippers has asked the Surface Transportation Board to increase competition among railroads by finalizing rules that would permit reciprocal switching. “Given the dramatic concentration of market power in the railroad industry, rethinking policies designed for a different era is both timely and smart. Reciprocal switching […]

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BL2 diesel locomotive: An EMD diesel that didn’t.

Red and yellow semi-streamlined diesel locomotive

The BL2 was a mistake at diesel locomotive leader EMD EMD’s BL2 diesel locomotive was a mistake of historic proportions. During the 1930s and ’40s — when diesel-locomotive sales grew from smoldering embers to white-hot inferno — Electro-Motive Corp. (after 1940, General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division) seemingly could do no wrong. With the technical and marketing […]

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