Repowering locomotives to meet a railroad’s needs

Color image of a green-painted and unusual cab locomotive.

Repowering locomotives is essential for a railroad to meet its needs. This is installment, number three, on our quest to find mishmashed locomotives, which reinforces the notion that railroaders will do anything and everything necessary to keep the daily routine fluid. Sometimes they ask a builder to create what they need, other times they make […]

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More rail strikes called in Britain

Silver train with blue trim approaches station

LONDON — Britain is bracing for additional rounds of rail strikes after unions announced planned strike dates later this month and in August. The Guardian reports the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers (RMT) has called strikes for August 18 and 20; those strikes will involve about 40,000 RMT members at infrastructure company […]

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Athearn 40-foot double-door express boxcar

blue with gray stripe boxcar illustration

40-foot double-door express boxcar Scale: HO (1:87.1) Price: $36.99 Era: 1940s+ to 1960s+ (varies depending on paint scheme). Manufacturer: Athearn Trains, 2904 Research Rd., Champaign, IL 61822, 800-338-4639, athearn.com 40-foot double-door express boxcar features: 33” machined metal wheels with RP-25 contours Body-mounted McHenry scale couplers Double Youngstown doors Injection-molded plastic body Minimum radius: 18” Separate, factory-applied brake wheel […]

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CP and KCS say their merger should get green light from regulators

Train with red, yellow, and black locomotives

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 […]

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Transportation Secretary to appear before House transportation committee

Logo of House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will appear before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on Tuesday, June 19, as part of a hearing on implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, committee chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) has announced. The hearing will be held at 10 a.m. EDT at the Rayburn House Office […]

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Atlas American Car & Foundry 50-foot Precision Design boxcar

brown boxcar illustration

American Car & Foundry 50-foot Precision Design boxcar Scale: N (1:160) Price: $30.95 (undecorated, $23.95) Era: 1972 to present (varies depending on paint scheme) Manufacturer: Atlas Model Railroad Co., 378 Florence Ave., Hillside, NJ 07205, 908-687-0880, shop.atlasrr.com American Car & Foundry 50-foot Precision Design boxcar features: 70-ton roller-bearing trucks Accumate couplers Die-cast metal underframe Separate brake system Scheduled for […]

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Train derailment disrupts Canadian air travel

Canadian Pacific Railway beaver logo

CALGARY — Wednesday’s derailment of a Canadian Pacific train in Bassano, Alberta, had an unexpected transportation impact— disruption of flight operations in Western Canada, particularly by Canadian airline WestJet. The CBC reports that flights from Calgary International Airport on Thursday were disrupted when a portion of the air navigation system was knocked out by loss […]

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Carload Considerations: Filling Class I railroad jobs in rural locations will help customers everywhere

Freight train with two yellow locomotives rounds curve

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 […]

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Center for Railroad Photography & Art to offer online preview of Steinheimer collection

Four people with boxes in truck

MADISON, Wis. — The Center for Railroad Photography & Art will offer an online look at its newly acquired collection of the works of rail photography legend Richard Steinheimer on Aug. 2. The event, free but exclusive to CRPA members, will be held on Zoom at 7 p.m. CDT, and will provide the first look […]

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Canadian government announces funding for Saskatchewan rail projects

Transport Canada logo

REGINA, Saskatchewan — The Canadian government will provide $18.3 million for four rail infrastructure projects in Regina and southern Saskatchewan, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra announced Thursday. Projects and funding planned include: — C$13.5 million for a grade stabilization project on the Canadian Pacific interchange near Eston, Sask.; Last Mountain Railway, an 85-mile short line between Regina […]

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Amtrak plans ‘statewide celebration’ for return of second Missouri River Runner

Amtrak logo.

The resumption of two daily round trips on the St. Louis-Kansas City, Mo., Missouri River Runner will be marked with ceremonies at cities along the route, Amtrak says. The second round trip, restored through funding approved by the Missouri General Assembly and Gov. Mike Parson, resumes Monday, July 18 [see “Second ‘Missouri River Runner’ to […]

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Electric Railways of North America in Color, Vol. 1 book review

Electric Railways of North America book cover

Electric railroads served a variety of purposes in North America: carrying commuters, industrial switching, and mainline freight and passenger service. From coal-hauling, six-axle, red-white-and-blue motors in British Columbia to plain green electric m.u. cars in New Jersey, there can be broad interest in electric railroads.   Noted railfan Matthew Herson has lended his photographic collection […]

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