RALEIGH, N.C. — A dozen North Carolina short lines will receive approximately $12 million for infrastructure improvements under the state’s Freight Rail and Rail Crossing Safety Improvement Program, the N.C. Department of Transportation announced Wednesday, Dec. 7. The recipients match the state funds, leading to approximately $24 million in work to support improvements to 52 […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. rail traffic dropped by 3.3% in November — a total of 80,544 carloads and intermodal units — with carloads down 0.9% and intermodal traffic down 5.4%, according to the latest statistics from the Association of American Railroads. Meanwhile, the latest weekly traffic, for the week ending Dec. 3, was down 6% from […]
CARY, N.C. — Rail data provider Railinc is adding enhanced information on the location and status of railcar cushioning devices to its Component Tracking program, the company has announced. “Since its inception in 2013, the industry has implemented component tracking for hundreds of millions of critical railcar components including wheelsets, side frames, bolsters, and couplers,” […]
WATERTOWN, N.Y. — New York Air Brake’s DB-60 II brake control valve with Brake Cylinder Maintaining (BCM) has received unconditional approval from the Association of American Railroads for the BCM feature, becoming the only supplier granted full approval for the technology. BCM is a patented feature that improves braking performance by replenishing air pressure when […]
Chesapeake & Ohio 3039, seen at Cotton Hill, W.Va., in 1950, was the last of 40 big class T-1 2-10-4s the road received from Lima in 1930. Their 69-inch drivers set them apart from earlier, slower Texas types. Richard J. Cook photo […]
BEAUMONT, Texas — The National Transportation Safety Board will focus on switching procedures for contract rail switching operator PSC Group and refinery facility upkeep as it continues its investigation into a fatality at the ExxonMobil refinery in Beaumont, Texas, on Oct. 28, 2022, according to the NTSB’s preliminary report released today (Wednesday, Dec. 7). The […]
ATLANTA — The strategy shift that Norfolk Southern announced yesterday — focusing on providing consistent service and volume growth rather than on costs and the operating ratio — received a generally positive reception from Wall Street analysts. But they also said that to win over skeptical investors NS will have to prove that it can […]
Large scale boxcars and graffiti in an art exhibit: The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (MOCA) opened its Art in the Streets show on April 17, 2011. It is the first major US museum exhibition on the history of graffiti and street art, tracing its development from the 1970s to the global movement […]
LOS ANGELES — The LA Metro board has submitted a package seeking $1.9 billion in funding from the state of California for three light rail projects, Metro announced today (Wednesday, Dec. 7). The funds would come from the state’s Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program. Funding from that program is expected to be awarded on […]
Handy tools for DCC wiring projects: I talked about soldering irons, solder, heat sinks, tip cleaners and other handy tools for DCC wiring in the August 2017 DCC Corner column. I’m not going to repeat that, but I want to provide an update. Some soldering irons can leak current through their tips if they’re not […]
WASHINGTON — Almost $2.3 billion in funding is now available for intercity passenger rail capital projects through a Federal Railroad Administration grant program now accepting applications for fiscal 2022. The Notice of Funding Opportunity issued today (Wednesday, Dec. 7) is for the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Grant Program. The program has previously funded […]
WASHINGTON — Trade groups representing chemical manufacturers, mining companies, energy producers, and agricultural interests, plus several individual shippers, and railroad labor unions all plan to participate in next week’s Surface Transportation Board hearing on Union Pacific’s increased use of embargoes as a way to manage congestion. Trade groups including the American Chemistry Council, The Fertilizer […]
