News photos: Cleanup continues from Sandusky derailment

Train with five locomotives passes cars waiting to be removed after derailment

SANDUSKY, Ohio — Cleanup continues but Norfolk Southern’s main line has been reopened though Sandusky following a derailment that led to reroutes and cancellations for Amtrak service. The Sandusky Register reports that the Columbus Avenue underpass, where derailed tank cars of paraffin wax fell to the railway below, remained closed as of Monday, Oct. 10, […]

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Amtrak Wolverine to Chicago delayed more than 13 hours

Passenger train approaching grade crossing

CHICAGO — Some details have emerged from an ill-fated Friday, Oct. 7, trip of Amtrak Wolverine No. 351, the morning departure from Pontiac, Mich., which arrived in Chicago more than 13 hours late. The trip, scheduled for a trip of 5 hours, 49 minutes with a 10:32 a.m. arrival finally reached Chicago Union station at […]

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City of New Orleans, Crescent resume seven-day operation

Passenger train on curve

NEW ORLEANS — Amtrak will finally restore daily service to and from New Orleans on the Crescent and City of New Orleans, among the last of the routes that have only offered five-day-a-week operations since service cuts in January. Saturday and Sunday service on both the Chicago-New Orleans City route and the New York-New Orleans […]

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MARS announces new scholarship to honor former president

Mars logo

CHICAGO — The Midwest Association of Rail Shippers is establishing a new scholarship, the Craig Longardner Scholarship, to honor its former president and long-time member. The Craig Longardner Scholarship, which will join other scholarships already awarded by the organization will be awarded to a single applicant pursuing a degree in logistics, transportation, or supply-chain management […]

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Springfield, Ill., marks completion of latest segment of rail project

Map of planned rail line improvements in Springfield, Ill.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday marked completion of the latest section of the Springfield Rail Improvements Project, a long-running effort to realign rail routes through the city to reduce traffic impacts. The State Journal-Register reports the ceremony was for completion of bridges and underpasses on Fifth and Sixth streets, known as Usable Segment […]

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Lenox Tower project complete, Illinois DOT announces

Freight train crosses tracks near building being demolished

  MITCHELL, Ill. — A $10.1 million project to reconfigure and modernize rail operations at Lenox Tower, a key rail junction northeast of St. Louis, has been completed, the Illinois Department of Transportation has announced. The joint federal and state project, also funded by Amtrak and freight railroads, was announced more than a year ago […]

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Design firm selected for CREATE Pullman Junction project

Map of rail junction in south Chicago

CHICAGO — Engineering and design firm Benesch has been selected by Norfolk Southern to handle final track design for Segment B of CREATE’s EW3 project, the Pullman Junction project on the city’s South Side. The project will involve track infrastructure in a 2-mile segment from the Belt Railway of Chicago’s Commerical Yard, in the vicinity […]

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C&NW 4-4-2 on a suburban train

Steam Chicago & North Western locomotives with passenger train in snow

Chicago & North Western 4-4-2 1316, a high-wheeled class D from the first decade of the 20th century — is at Glen Ellyn, Ill., with a train for Chicago in February 1944. It’s 5 degrees below zero, making for a lively display of condensing steam. Robert Nicholls photo […]

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C&IM coal drag

Chicago and Illinois Midland Railway 2-10-2

Chicago & Illinois Midland 2-10-2 No. 701, built new for the road by Lima in 1931, works up Petersburg Hill near Havana Ill., in May 1952. Ed Theisinger photo […]

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Hamilton, Ohio, station move could come in November

HAMILTON, Ohio — Relocation of the CSX train station in Hamilton, Ohio, which dates to the 1850s, could come as soon as November, reports the Journal-News of Middletown, Ohio. There have been several delays in moving the station, which actually consists of two buildings, one a single-story structure and the other of two stories. At […]

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