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 […]
RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Department of Transportation is launching a feasibility study to consider the possibility of operating passenger rail service beween the Raleigh-Durham area and Greenville, N.C., the Charlotte Observer reports. The $250,000 study, to be funded by a federal grant, is one of several considering expansion of the state’s passenger service […]
WASHINGTON – The Livonia, Avon & Lakeville Railroad family is growing. Next month the New York state railroad will acquire a controlling interest in neighboring short line Ontario Midland Railroad, it said in a July 13 filing with the Surface Transportation Board. Ontario Midland operates 47 miles of trackage east of Rochester, N.Y., and connects […]
American Car & Foundry 2,970-cubic-foot capacity two-bay Center Flow covered hopper Scale: HO (1:87.1) Price: Single car, $49.99; three-pack, $124.99 Era: 1966+ through 1989+ (varies depending on paint scheme) Manufacturer: Athearn Trains, 2904 Research Rd., Champaign, IL 61822, 800-338-4639, athearn.com American Car & Foundry 2,970-cubic-foot capacity two-bay Center Flow covered hopper features: Body-mounted McHenry scale couplers Injection-molded plastic body […]
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 […]
Two more new trainsets to support Brightline’s expansion of service to Orlando, Fla., are on their way to the passenger operator. The Bright Pink 2 and Bright Green 2 trainsets, which departed Siemens’ Sacramento factory on July 8, were photographed Saturday, July 16, on CSX Transportation’s Henderson Subdivision (Evansville, Ind.-Nashville, Tenn.). Brightline had said it […]
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 […]
CHICAGO — Class I railroads appreciate moving large volumes of traffic across long routes. There’s efficiency and carload profitability gains by running fewer trains for longer distances on relatively consistent schedules. When this is successful, customers see their shipments make great strides across chunks of a Class I railroad’s network. But some customers’ locations aren’t […]
American Car & Foundry 2,970-cubic-foot capacity two-bay Center Flow covered hopper Scale: N (1:160) Price: Single car, $39.99; three-pack, $99.99 Era: 1966+ through 1989+ (varies depending on paint scheme) Manufacturer: Athearn Trains, 2904 Research Rd., Champaign, IL 61822, 800-338-4639, athearn.com American Car & Foundry 2,970-cubic-foot capacity two-bay Center Flow covered hopper features: New features include rubber trainline hoses; separate, […]
