Stephen Lane is shown posing with his Tuscarora Valley combination baggage-coach car at Rockhill Furnace, Pa. The car is being stored there until it can find a more permanent home. Lawrence Biemiller, Friends of the East Broad Top ROCKHILL FURNACE, Pa. — While operations at the historic narrow-gauge East Broad Top Railroad in central Pennsylvania […]
Read More…
SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — Technical difficulties brought Metrolink’s plans to unveil a new Tier 4 locomotive to a halt. On Nov. 18, crowds and officials gathered at Metrolink’s Southern California Newhall Station in anticipation of seeing the first locomotive in a $280 million-order from builder Progress Rail. By 5 p.m., some 70 minutes after the […]
Read More…
WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. — Canadian Pacific’s business train passes through the scenic Wisconsin Dells area in south central Wisconsin this week. The train is just west of Kilbourn siding on CP’s Tomah Subdivision and is passing high above the Wisconsin River. The train is making a round trip from Calgary, Alberta, to Kansas City, Mo., […]
Read More…
Tesla Semi Tesla Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk says his company’s battery-powered big rig, unveiled last week, will be 20 percent cheaper to operate than diesel trucks and represents “economic suicide for rail.” But reports of rail’s impending death may be exaggerated. “Is this going to be a game-changer? No, not yet anyway,” says […]
Read More…
The cab of Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-2 awaiting restoration in July 2015. TRAINS: Jim Wrinn CUMBERLAND, Md. — A lack of money is forcing the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad to stop all work on restoring Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-2 No. 1309. “A lot of our visitors have the idea that we should throw all of […]
Read More…
New GE locomotives take shape in the high-bay portion of the Fort Worth, Texas, plant in May 2013. Chris Guss ERIE, Pa. — GE Transportation will soon be sold or partnered away from the parent company. Wall Street analysts even seem to notice, along with historians, that the move brings an end to one of […]
Read More…
Churchill, Manitoba Google Maps OTTAWA, Ont. — The Canadian federal government has launched an $18-million dollar lawsuit against Omnitrax, the U.S.-based shortline operations company. The lawsuit alleges that Omnitrax allowed tracks leading to the isolated community of Port of Churchill, Manitoba, to fall into disrepair after flooding washed away portions of the tracks. If proven […]
Read More…
Looking for a great movie featuring a train? If so, then consider avoiding the cost of a theater ticket for the most recent incarnation of “Murder on the Orient Express.” See the film if you were going to see a movie anyway, because there are high points and good acting, but it lacks greatness. A […]
Read More…
A Talgo car body on a flatbed truck headed from Seattle to Milwaukee, Wis., for repairs. J. Johnson The Talgo trainset stayed mostly upright and did not jackknife when train 502 derailed on July 2, 2017, thanks to the semi-permanent couplings and steering linkage, shown here between the first and second units behind the locomotive. […]
Read More…
Amtrak ACS64 No. 627 shortly after it crashed into a maintenance-of-way backhoe that was fouling a track on the Northeast Corridor near Chester, Pa., in April 2016. National Transportation Safety Board WASHINGTON — If Amtrak had deployed a familiar device that trips “stop” signals, it could have avoided an accident at Chester, Pa., on April […]
Read More…
A cosmetically restored Chesapeake & Ohio 2-8-4 No. 2700 as it now appears in Dennison, Ohio. Jason Johnson Workers install boiler jacketing on C&O No. 2700. Jason Johnson DENNISON, Ohio — The first example of Chesapeake & Ohio’s fleet of 2-8-4s has been cosmetically restored by the Dennison Railroad Depot Museum. C&O No. 2700 was […]
Read More…