Smithville Area Chamber of Commerce SMITHVILLE, Texas – A fire destroyed the building that housed a railroad museum and the Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center in Smithville on March 24 in a blaze that officials said was likely started by an arsonist. The museum displays included old timetables, photographs, uniforms, and tickets that had […]
Work continues on the first phase of LA Metro’s overhaul of its Blue Line, oldest in the light rail system. This work is near the Pacific Coast Highway station in Long Beach. LA Metro LA Metro’s overhaul of its Blue Line is taking place in two phases, each closing half the system. Work is scheduled […]
Decatur & Eastern Illinois’s Paris to Decatur, Ill., road job creeps north at 10 mph passing an old elevator at a spot known as Harris Spur. At Chrisman, Ill., the crew on this train will swap trains with the Decatur-Paris job. Kim Heusel DECATUR, Ill. — Barely six months since taking over 126 miles of […]
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern, joined by Georgia state and city leaders, today held a groundbreaking ceremony to launch construction of its new corporate headquarters building in Atlanta. “This is an exciting day for Norfolk Southern: We break ground on a new headquarters building, and equally important, begin a new chapter of our railroad’s proud history […]
The National Railway Historical Society has awarded $48,000 to nine recipients of its annual Heritage Grants Program. The recipients are nonproft organizations, including historical societies, museums, and an NRHS chapter. This year’s grants were awarded to the following recipients: $8,000 to the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation in Portland, Ore., towards the refurbishment and installation at […]
Climax No. 9 will star in a Trains magazine photo charter in November. John Krause photo, Tim Martin collection CASS, W.Va. — Trains Magazine, in conjunction with Sigma Corp. of America, will sponsor a special Climax steam locomotive Centennial Homecoming photo charter at West Virginia’s famous Cass Scenic Railroad Nov. 2-3, 2019. Moore-Keppel 70-ton, three-truck […]
Flooding of the Platte River, south of Omaha, Neb., has destroyed spans of BNSF Railway’s Omaha Subdivision, along with the Union Pacific’s Fall City Subdivision. On Tuesday morning, a Union Pacific crane was working on removing a log jam on the upstream side of the bridge. Steve Smedley Three truckloads of rock are being dumped […]
SEATTLE — Positive train control is now fully operational on the route of the Amtrak Cascades, the Washington state Department of Transportation has announced. However, there is still no date for returning Cascades trains to the Point Defiance bypass south of Tacoma, Wash. Seattle TV station KIRO reports PTC equipment is now in place from […]
Union Pacific SD60 No. 2181 is on the point of a welded rail train tucked into the storage siding at Woodford, Calif., for the weekend in March 2002. TEH-12131-6 Howard Ande Question: Is Union Pacific the only U.S. rail carrier to use long rail? What exactly is long rail? Periodically, I see ocean bulk carriers bringing […]
Union Pacific Big Boy 4-8-8-4 No. 4014 as it slowly departs Pomona, Calif., in 2013. TRAINS: Jim Wrinn Question: Reportedly, Union Pacific had a name picked out for it’s 4-8-8-4 Big Boy steam locomotive but someone at American Locomotive Co. in Schenectady, N.Y., beat them to the punch by writing the name “Big Boy” on […]
BNSF Railway ES44DC No. 7765 leads an intermodal train through a curved main line at Siberia, Calif., in September 2008. 08357-7 Steve Schmollinger Question: In many photos taken on open land in the West and Midwest, you can see curvature in the tracks even though there are no visible obstacles such as rock cuts, rivers, […]
LOS ANGELES — The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California has filed a lawsuit it hopes will shed light on alleged operations conducted between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Union Pacific Railroad Police. According to a statement issued by the SoCal ACLU, the lawsuit is based upon alleged violations by ICE of the […]
