WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Transportation has named 24 people —representing transit agencies, unions, research groups, and other organizations — to the Federal Transit Administration’s Transit Advisory Committee for Safety. The group meets at least once a year and advises the Secretory of Transportation and FTA administrator on transit safety and other issues. “We […]
Pittsburgh & Lake Erie 2-8-4 No. 9401 leads a southbound freight through the station at Beaver, Pa., in June 1948. The seven P&LE Berkshires, delivered in May and June 1948, were Alco’s last steam locomotives. Richard J. Cook photo […]
Tangent Scale Models releases first O scale model Tangent Scale Models released its first O scale model, the General American 1928-design 6,000-gallon three-compartment tank car. The brass model, produced in the Republic of Korea by SamModel, is available in O scale and Proto:48 versions. Road names include Cosden & Co. Petroleum Products, Tulsa, Okla. (1929+), […]
Garden railroading in Hawaii: In late 2013, my wife set in motion a scheme that eventually became the Oberammergau, Ogden & Olomana Railroad – the Triple O. A few books, a GR subscription, and a year of study later, and we broke ground on what has become a family project to bring a stylized piece […]
Unless you’re modeling a flatland railroad – and maybe even if you are – your layout needs rocks. Building a level right-of-way through the ups and downs of natural terrain involves cuts and fills, exposing bare rock. A railroad with a mountainous setting, be it Appalachian or Rocky, calls for even more rocks. Between foam […]
The cab ride As the Production Editor for Trains Magazine, I got to participate in my very first cab ride, the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway steam locomotive No. 1309, located at the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad this past fall. If I had to describe the experience in only one word, I’d have to say — […]
Sun Tan Special People in Santa Cruz, Calif., still talk about the Sun Tan Special, and not just as an artifact. The Sun Tan Special was Southern Pacific’s beach train in Northern California. It ran on summer weekends and holidays during the 1930s to the 1950s, from San Francisco and San Jose to the coastal […]
Railroad signs Railroads, like highway systems, use a variety of signs, signals, and identification markers to convey information to railroaders along a route. Railroads have established mileposts – identified by signs, markers, or displays – to give the crew and dispatcher a quick method for identifying their location on a railroad in all weather conditions […]
INTERLAKEN, Switzerland — A concept the Swiss rail industry (and its passengers) has dreamed of for years became reality in mid-December with the debut of through trains from Montreux on Lake Geneva to Interlaken in the heart of the Alps. No new rail lines were needed but some modern railway technology was. The route includes […]
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineer and Trainmen President Dennis Pierce said today he will retire, avoiding a rerun of the union’s presidential election and clearing the way for Eddie Hall to become the union’s new president. In a statement on the BLET website, Pierce said the union’s Elections Protest Committee had determined that […]
ATLANTA — The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority unveiled its newest railcars on Friday, representing a $646 million investment to replace its aging fleet of 340 cars. The new CQ400 railcars will replace MARTA’s existing fleet of CQ310, CQ311 and CQ312 cars. In November 2019, MARTA’s board of directors approved the $646 million deal with […]
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific has paused its use of new embargoes to limit congestion. The move, announced today (Friday, Dec. 16), comes after two days of Surface Transportation Board hearings where shippers, rail labor, and regulators were critical of the railroad’s increasing reliance on embargoes since 2018, the year it adopted a Precision Scheduled […]
