NEW YORK — Canadian National, alone among the big Class I systems, is expanding its locomotive fleet to handle a surge of traffic and anticipated growth to come. CN is struggling to keep up with stronger-than-anticipated volume amid crew shortages and congestion, particularly on the railway’s key corridor linking Edmonton, Alberta, and Chicago. Locomotives also […]
ROANOKE, Va. — A Norfolk Southern local train once heralded as the future of trash hauling is likely to suspend service this coming summer. Known as the “Waste Line Express,” the train has hauled trash from Roanoke along a 4.5-mile spur to the Smith Gap Landfill for the past 25 years. Now, though, the Roanoke […]
WASHINGTON — The Department of Transportation late on Dec. 4 made it official, and rescinded a rule that tank trains carrying flammable commodities must be equipped with electronically controlled pneumatic brakes. The decision seemed inevitable after the Federal Railroad and Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety administrations reported in mid-October that the added safety benefits of […]
NEW YORK — Kansas City Southern’s latest growth opportunity — shipping gasoline, propane, and other refined petroleum products to Mexico — is beginning to take off as new distribution facilities open on KCS de Mexico lines. The Mexican government ended the state-run oil and gas monopoly in 2013, opening the sector to private investment and […]
Union Pacific Big Boy-type 4-8-8-4 No. 4004 as it appeared in a Cheyenne, Wyo., park in 2013. The City of Cheyenne is paying to cosmetically restore the locomotive during 2018. TRAINS: Jim Wrinn CHEYENNE, Wyo. — On Monday, Nov. 27, the Cheyenne City Council approved full funding for the cosmetic restoration of Big Boy No. […]
An aerial view of charred freight train in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, following the July 2013 derailment and fire. Transportation Safety Board of Canada SHERBROOKE, Quebec — The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic’s use of one-person crews in the months before the fatal Lac-Mégantic oil train wreck that killed 47 people has become the focus of the criminal […]
NASHVILLE — The Music City has the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Grand Old Opry, great food and impressive 21st century architecture. Many people move to this cultural metropolis every week, which contributes to a regional population of almost 2 million. While not currently served by Amtrak (The Floridian last stopped there in 1979), […]
Stephen Lane is shown posing with his Tuscarora Valley combination baggage-coach car at Rockhill Furnace, Pa. The car is being stored there until it can find a more permanent home. Lawrence Biemiller, Friends of the East Broad Top ROCKHILL FURNACE, Pa. — While operations at the historic narrow-gauge East Broad Top Railroad in central Pennsylvania […]
SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — Technical difficulties brought Metrolink’s plans to unveil a new Tier 4 locomotive to a halt. On Nov. 18, crowds and officials gathered at Metrolink’s Southern California Newhall Station in anticipation of seeing the first locomotive in a $280 million-order from builder Progress Rail. By 5 p.m., some 70 minutes after the […]
WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. — Canadian Pacific’s business train passes through the scenic Wisconsin Dells area in south central Wisconsin this week. The train is just west of Kilbourn siding on CP’s Tomah Subdivision and is passing high above the Wisconsin River. The train is making a round trip from Calgary, Alberta, to Kansas City, Mo., […]
Tesla Semi Tesla Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk says his company’s battery-powered big rig, unveiled last week, will be 20 percent cheaper to operate than diesel trucks and represents “economic suicide for rail.” But reports of rail’s impending death may be exaggerated. “Is this going to be a game-changer? No, not yet anyway,” says […]
The cab of Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-2 awaiting restoration in July 2015. TRAINS: Jim Wrinn CUMBERLAND, Md. — A lack of money is forcing the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad to stop all work on restoring Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-2 No. 1309. “A lot of our visitors have the idea that we should throw all of […]
