COCOA, Fla. — Brightline and local officials announced their intention Tuesday to build a station on over 40 acres of Brightline-owned land near the junction where its trains from Orlando International Airport join Florida East Coast Railway’s north-south main line. The planned Cocoa, Fla., station is 40 miles east of the company’s Orlando terminus, and […]
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota bill to limit the length of freight trains has cleared its first legislative hurdle, passing a committee of the state’s House of Representatives on Tuesday. HF3499, introduced by Rep. Jeff Brand (Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, St. Peter, Minn.), would limit trains to 8,500 feet, with penalties escalating from as little as […]
WASHINGTON — A CSX maintenance-of-way foreman was killed when he was struck by a ballast regulator while waiting for flaggers to arrive to protect a grade crossing, the National Transportation Safety Board said in the preliminary report issued Tuesday on an accident that occurred Feb. 13 in Roanoke Rapids, N.C. The accident description confirms details […]
I got a late afternoon call to be the rear brakeman on train No. 1/146/05 (South Pool, Seattle to Portland, Ore.) on Aug. 5, 1979. We were at our away from home terminal of Portland. My crew that day was conductor Duke D., engineer Les M., and head brakeman Pete T. I was working the […]
RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has vetoed the bill that would have required two-person crews for freight trains within the state, the news website Virginia Mercury reports. Youngkin said in a veto message issued March 8 that he took the action because the actions in the bill “appear premature and lack the necessary […]
VIDALIA, Ga. – Railroad labor union leaders today urged the Federal Railroad Administration to reject or at least severely restrict a proposal that would allow a pair of Genesee & Wyoming short lines to conduct intensive tests of Parallel Systems autonomous, self-propelled battery-electric freight cars. The Heart of Georgia and Georgia Central railroads last year […]
Seemingly bringing an end to a saga of uncertainty, Model Train Stuff is set to reopen under the Factory Direct Hobbies family. In a statement released by Factory Direct Hobbies President Joe Grubba, it was announced that M.B. Klein and Model Train Stuff will live on as a part of the Arden, North Carolina-based company. […]
Rails of Sheffield has announced that it has bought the Hattons brand, allowing the famed company’s legacy to live on for years to come. Per a statement released by Rails of Sheffield: “We are pleased to annnounce that we have now brought ‘Hattons Model Railways’ into the Rails family! It was a shock to the […]
CHICAGO — Upgrading speeds and capacity or simply keeping tracks well-maintained for passenger trains has tradeoffs that often compromise a rail corridor’s ability to provide meaningful mobility while the work is going on. An example will occur in Michigan beginning May 6, when Amtrak and the state of Michigan jointly made the decision to suspend […]
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Caltrain’s electrification process took another step forward the weekend of March 9-10, with successful testing of trains and catenary on the commuter line’s Redwood City-Mountain View segment, the agency announced Monday. Test runs beginning at 20 mph and increasing to the 79-mph speed limit were conducted, with a total of 25 […]
BOSTON — Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority work on the rapid transit Green Line in February and March removed 11 speed restrictions and made unnecessary a planned suspension of service on the C Branch this fall, the MBTA said on Monday. The C Branch outage this fall is no longer needed because work eliminated a slow […]
Canaan Union Depot The past The story of this historic building traces back to the 1870s, a busy time for American railroads. Across the nation new lines were being built between cities and towns, often crossing over one another. One of these crossings happened in the small town of North Canaan. Located in the northwest […]
