PEORIA, Ill. — Officials from Peoria and nearby communities have announced results of a feasibility study for a Chicago-Peoria passenger rail corridor over former Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific tracks that last saw passenger trains in 1978. The clear intent of last week’s announcement is to compete for $1.8 billion in the Federal Railroad Administration’s […]
Amazon has begun soliciting business from shippers interested in using space in the company’s fleet of 53-foot intermodal containers. The move, touted in a YouTube video posted this month, puts Amazon in direct competition with intermodal providers such as J.B. Hunt, Hub Group, and the intermodal marketing companies that fill rail-owned containers. “With intermodal for […]
GREENVILLE, S.C. — Three non-profit groups say they have made an offer to Norfolk Southern buy the right-of-way of the inactive Saluda Grade — when active, the steepest main line in America, averaging a 4.7% incline with a brief stretch of 5.1% grade — with plans to turn it into a 31-mile rail trail. The […]
ROCKHILL FURNACE, Pa. – “The newest passenger car in the United States.” That’s how Brad Esposito, general manager of the East Broad Top Railroad, described the rolling stock that arrived Tuesday, July 19, at the narrow gauge tourist line and National Historic Landmark. It is the railroad’s first new passenger coach in more than a […]
LAKE GENEVA, Wis. — Some of the more detailed metrics the Surface Transportation Board has begun collecting as it tracks the rail industry’s service issues could become part of the STB’s regular regulatory oversight, board member Patrick Fuchs said Tuesday. “I do think that some of the service numbers that we have collected are extraordinarily […]
CHICAGO — Inflation is still on the rise, reporting a 9% increase in June, driven in part by higher costs for energy and other commodities hauled by railroads. Updates to the nation’s consumer price index released for June earlier this week noted that inflation rose more than 1% from May as a result of elevated […]
Thrall Corp. TTX class TWF10 single-unit double-stack well car ClassOneModelWorks.com recently announced its first HO scale models. Leading things off is a Thrall Corp. TTX class TWF10 single-unit double-stack well car. The model will be offered in the as-delivered, intermediate, and late schemes in two to four numbers each. The ready-to-run car will feature formed, […]
Belt Railway of Chicago locomotives: I recently photographed an ex-Belt Railway of Chiacgo Alco in, of all places, Olean, N.Y., on the Western New York & Pennsylvania. That old Alco and I go back to the mid 1980ss when I first laid eyes on her and a stable of other exotic beasts at BRC’s Clearing […]
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has named Ira F. Jaffe to chair the three-member Presidential Emergency Board addressing the rail labor dispute, Reuters reports. Also named to the board were Boston College professor David Twomey and independent arbitrator Barbara C. Deinhardt. Jaffe has served on five previous emergency boards — four involving rail disputes and one […]
Electro-Motive Division GP40-2 diesel locomotive Scale: HO (1:87.1) Price: Direct-current model with factory-installed speaker and 21-pin plug, $169.99 Era: Early 1990s+ to present (varies depending on paint scheme) Manufacturer: Athearn Trains, 2904 Research Rd., Champaign, IL 61822, 800-338-4639, athearn.com Electro-Motive Division GP40-2 diesel locomotive features: 21-pin plug for Digital Command Control decoder (sold separately) 2,600- or 3,600-gallon fuel tank […]
WASHINGTON — Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern — responding to critics, skeptics, and opponents — told federal regulators this week that their proposed merger is in the public interest and should be approved. The railroads, in a three-volume, 4,374-page filing, argued that the first merger of Class I railroads in two decades should sail through […]
50-foot high-cube double-plug-door boxcar Scale: HO (1:87.1) Price: $34.99 Era: 1970s+ to 2000s+ (varies depending on paint scheme). Manufacturer: Athearn Trains, 2904 Research Rd., Champaign, IL 61822, 800-338-4639, athearn.com 50-foot high-cube double-plug-door boxcar features: Body-mounted McHenry scale couplers Injection-molded plastic body Machined metal wheels with RP-25 contours Minimum radius: 18” Separate, factory-applied brake wheel Underbody with brake system […]
