CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Efforts by Class I railroads to hire more engineers and conductors are helping lift workforce numbers from record lows during the coronavirus pandemic. But other forms of railroad employment remain below pre-pandemic numbers, and overall employment is still dramatically lower than it was five years ago. According to the most recent Surface […]
MONTREAL — When a passenger operator is forced to survive on a budget insufficient to provide service capable of satisfying its country’s travel needs, while on-time reliability remains hamstrung by host railroads, it is almost impossible for the person in charge to make a difference. The abrupt departure of VIA Rail Canada CEO Cynthia Garneau […]
Locomotives and freight cars in fresh paint Locomotives and freight cars in fresh paint. Many modelers, myself included, enjoy accurately weathering locomotives and freight cars. I’ve written several articles on weathering for Model Railroader in my time with the magazine, including “How to weather with acrylics” in May 2016 and “How to weather a covered […]
O Gauge Imperial Railking SD70ACe O Gauge Imperial Railking SD70ACe: MTH’s RailKing line has long been a boon to operators who wanted new locomotion for their layouts that have O-27 or O-31 curves. Even though some of the earliest models appeared closer to S gauge than O (I’m thinking of my diminutive F3s from 1996), […]
FORT MACLEOD, Alberta — Forty-three cars of a Canadian Pacific potash train derailed Sunday morning, CTV News reports. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the incident occurred about 8:15 a.m. east of Fort Macleoad and about 170 kilometers (105 miles) south of Calgary. No injuries were reported and there was no public safety hazard from […]
WASHINGTON – The Class I railroads submitted their first batch of expanded performance metrics to federal regulators this week, including a snapshot of on-time performance data. The board on May 6 ordered the railroads to report the data beginning this week in response to shipper complaints and testimony delivered during two days of hearings last […]
Facts & features Name: MHO Junction Scale: HO (1:87.1) Size: 25 x 38 feet Prototype: 80 percent freelanced, 20 percent prototype (Canadian Pacific and Ontario Northland) Locale: Ontario and Quebec (between Ottawa and Montreal) Era: 1970s Style: walk-in Mainline run: 170 feet Minimum radius: 30″ Minimum turnout: Peco large radius (SL-88 and SL-89) Maximum grade: […]
KANSAS CITY — Canadian Pacific should file updated traffic data with the Surface Transportation Board pertaining to its planned merger with Kansas City Southern well ahead of a May 27 deadline, John Brooks, CP vice president and chief marketing officer, told the North American Rail Shippers conference on Wednesday. The STB requested updated baseline traffic […]
HARVEY STATION, New Brunswick — Ten cars of a New Brunswick Southern Railway train derailed early Thursday in the village of Harvey Station, blocking provincial Route 3, the CBC reports. Harvey Fire Department Chief Jerrard Swan said firefighters were informed of the accident about 5 a.m., and that 10 cars were involved. Only one was […]
Norfolk Southern CEO Jim Squires retired over the weekend, passing the baton to new NS President Alan Shaw effective May 1. Squires, who became chief executive in 2015, had an eventful tenure at the helm. Under Squires’ watch, NS fended off unwanted merger advances from Canadian Pacific, pared its Triple Crown RoadRailer service amid the […]
Amid lot of talk, just what is Precision Scheduled Railroading? It began with a simple lesson. In the late 1960s E. Hunter Harrison was working in the tower in Frisco’s Tennessee Yard in Memphis when Bill Thompson, the railroad’s operations chief, dropped by. Thompson pointed to the yard tracks, chocked full of freight cars, and […]
Scale: HO (1:87.1) Price: $239.99 (direct current with 21-pin NEM connector), $339.99 (with dual-mode SoundTraxx Tsunami2 sound decoder) Era: Early 2000s to present (varies depending on paint scheme) Manufacturer: Athearn Trains, 2904 Research Rd., Champaign, IL 61822, 800-338-4639, athearn.com General Electric ES44DC diesel locomotive features: See-through dynamic brake intakes Illuminated ditch lights Tinted cab windows GPS […]
