Digest: FBI agent charged in shooting onboard DC Metro train

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FBI agent faces attempted murder charge for shooting on Metrorail train An FBI agent has been charged with second-degree attempted murder as a result of a 2020 shooting aboard a DC Metro subway train. The Washington Post reports Eduardo Valdivia, 37, was also charged with first-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and use of a firearm in […]

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Before the whiteout

Black, red, and yellow diesel locomotive on passenger train

Before the whiteout Wearing the handsome yellow, black, and red Kansas City Southern passenger-diesel livery, E8 No. 28 is at Sallisaw, Okla., with the New Orleans-Kansas City Southern Belle in June 1962. KCS began using a version of this paint scheme, introduced with the Belle in 1940. The railroad later went to all-red and all-white […]

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Digest: NJ Transit announces additional commuter rail service

Electric locomotive hauls commuter train through S curve

NJ transit adds weekday trains, weekend Gladstone Branch trains, North Jersey Coast shuttles NJ Transit announced it would add 60 trains to its commuter rail schedules as of June 6, including select weekday trains throughout the system, weekend Gladstone Branch trains, and additional Long Branch-Bay Head shuttle trains on the North Jersey Coast Line. Weekday […]

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How to visit Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum

steam passenger train in Tennessee

Visiting Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum If you took a major Class I railroad in the early 1950s, shrunk it, and set it aside to show people today what a section of big-time, steam-era railroading was all about, you’d create Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. Set on a portion of Southern Railway’s original main line into Chattanooga, […]

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Model railroad locomotive, freight car, structure, detail, tool, and book announcements for June 3, 2021

Rapido AutoFlood III coal hoppers in varying paint schemes.

HO scale locomotives  Electro-Motive Division GP7 diesel locomotive. New paint schemes: Burlington Northern (green and black), Chicago & Eastern Illinois (black and orange), Conrail (blue and white with small or large lettering, one road number each), and Reading Co. (Pullman Green). New paint schemes: Florida East Coast (yellow and blue), Guilford Rail System (Springfield Terminal […]

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News & Products for the week of June 3, 2021

Excel Pull Saw Blade available from the Kalmbach Hobby Store

Tools  Pull saw blade. 1.5” blade depth. 30 teeth per inch. Hardened serrated steel blade with soft metal backer. Use with wood, plastic, metal, resin, plaster, and foam. For use with Excel K2, K5, and K6 handles; will fit Xacto saw handles. $6.99. Produced by Excel Blades, available from Kalmbach Hobby Store, KalmbachHobbyStore.com Pliers. Wire […]

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News & Products for the week of June 3, 2021

Excel Pull Saw Blade available from the Kalmbach Hobby Store

Tools  Pull saw blade. 1.5” blade depth. 30 teeth per inch. Hardened serrated steel blade with soft metal backer. Use with wood, plastic, metal, resin, plaster, and foam. For use with Excel K2, K5, and K6 handles; will fit Xacto saw handles. $6.99. Produced by Excel Blades, available from Kalmbach Hobby Store, KalmbachHobbyStore.com Pliers. Wire […]

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VIA Rail Canada annual meeting offers few forward-looking details

New blue, yellow, and silver locomotive

MONTREAL— Against a backdrop assuring continued service interruptions, VIA Rail Canada released its annual pre-recorded public meeting last week, with brief reports from Chairman Francoise Bertrand, President and CEO Cynthia Garneau, and Chief Financial Officer Marie-Claude Cardin. The meeting came as the Canada-U.S. border remains closed through at least June 21, Canadian vaccinations are lagging, […]

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Digest: Transport Canada issues new rules on track maintenance

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Transport Canada issues series of new rules on track maintenance Transport Canada issued new rules on track inspection and management on Monday updating the agency’s Rules Respecting Track Safety on a number of fronts, to be addressed in three stages. As outlined in a ministerial order, the first stage addresses training, verification, and record-keeping for […]

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Two railfan friends take a great F-unit safari

Five road-switcher and one streamlined diesel locomotives on freight train

  By the mid-1960s, the appearance of F units on freights along Union Pacific’s main line through southern Wyoming was rare to nonexistent at best. All of the road’s F3s and F7s had been traded to EMD by the end of 1964 for replacement units in the form of GP30s, GP35s, and DD35s. However, there […]

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