Responding to requests from Amtrak, NJ Transit, and New Jersey officials, the Coast Guard will no longer allow opening of the Portal Bridge during rush-hour periods. Russell Sullivan SECAUCUS, N.J. — The U.S. Coast Guard has changed rules regarding the opening of New Jersey’s troublesome Portal Bridge, reducing the risk of disrupted Northeast Corridor service […]
BALTIMORE — CSX Transportation trains are moving again through Baltimore after a Friday afternoon derailment closed the railroad’s main line and damaged an electric substation for the Baltimore Streetcar Museum. The Baltimore Sun reports that CSX crews worked Friday and Saturday to repair a line that leads to the Howard Street tunnel in the city. The […]
OMAHA, Neb. — Widespread flooding across the Union Pacific system has forced the railroad to announce a number of service embargoes. A UP notice to customers notes that flooding and track washouts have UP lines out of service in the Omaha, Blair, Columbus, Lincoln, and Falls City subdivisions, and that the widespread nature of the […]
WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration has denied Kansas City Southern’s request to shift a brake test from the International Railway Bridge in Laredo, Texas, to one of its yards in neighboring Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. For more than a decade, KCS has used an existing FRA waiver to conduct a Class III brake test on […]
WASHINGTON — The proposal to build a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River has once again received a low rating from federal regulators that makes it ineligible for a key source of U.S. government funding, the Associated Press reports. The Federal Transit Administration has rated the new tunnel between New York and New Jersey […]
Darrell Wendt BNSF lines out-of-service map as of March 15 BNSF Railway MILWAUKEE — Union Pacific and BNSF Railway are halting trains and assessing damage to hundreds of miles of rail lines threatened or damaged by rising flood waters in the Missouri River valley. Rapidly warming temperatures in the past two weeks have led to […]
The Hudson Yards project, looking east from the High Line Viaduct. The 30-track Long Island Rail Road Caemmerer Yard in the lower part of the photo will eventually be covered by the second phase of the project. Ralph Spielman Hudson Yards construction had just started when this picture was taken on April 2, 2015. The […]
HO scale locomotives Electro-Motive Division F59PHI diesel locomotive. Amtrak (“Stay off the tracks. I pack a punch.” slogan [one road number], “Stay off! Stay Away! Stay Alive!” slogan [one number], blue-and-silver scheme, and Cascades scheme), Metra (Cascades patchout in one number and blue-and-silver patchout), Metropolitan Transport Agency (Montreal), Utah Front Runner, and fantasy paint schemes […]
RUN FOR THE BORDER: The fully assembled and illuminated no. 279-4451 Taco Bell Restaurant brings a popular fast food chain to O gauge layouts. Mounted on a 101/2 x 111/4-inch landscaped base, the building features back-lit sign, illuminated interior, outdoor dining area with four figures, Jack the German shepherd figure, and two die-cast metal vehicles […]
WASHINGTON — Amtrak has difficulty in identifying and addressing issues of drug and alcohol use among its employees, “a longstanding challenge for the company,” Amtrak’s Office of Inspector General says in a new report. The report issued Wednesday summarizes the following issues with the company’s program for employees in “safety-sensitive positions:” — Testing requirements were […]
OTTAWA — Days after Canada’s two Class 1 railroads announced they would appeal a government order requiring the use of handbrakes on trains stopped on mountains grades, one of the county’s largest unions says it’s standing by the Crown. Last month, Transport Canada announced a new rule requiring the application of handbrakes on trains in mountainous […]
MANKATO, Minn. – Emergency crews are responding to a derailed Union Pacific coal train and subsequent fire in Ottawa, about 18 miles north of Mankato along the Minnesota River in southern Minnesota. The line, connecting the Twin Cities with Sioux City, Iowa, was previously part of the Chicago & North Western system. The derailment, which […]
