SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Amtrak will move its Vermonter service to the “Knowledge Corridor” in northern Massachusetts Dec. 29, 2014. The new route will feature stops in Greenfield and Northampton. The train will also add a stop in Holyoke later in 2015 when work is complete. The added stops due to the reroute will replace service […]
Magazine: Trains Magazine
Former Illinois Terminal Bloomington station razed NEWSWIRE

A Norfolk Southern freight passes the structure just before its demolition on Thursday. Steve Smedley BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Like so many others before it, a former Interurban station has bit the dust, literally, as the former Illinois Traction System station and warehouse complex, located in the warehouse district south of downtown Bloomington, Illinois was razed […]
Author, historian Jim Scribbins dies NEWSWIRE

Trains collection MILWAUKEE– Jim Scribbins, the career Milwaukee Road employee who became his company’s unofficial historian as well as a prolific railroad author and photographer, died Thanksgiving Day, November 27, at home in West Bend after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 86. Born in 1928, Scribbins dedicated a substantial part of his […]
Florida East Coast scheduled trains
Direction Southbound (read down) Train No. 101 107 109 111 121 123 335 Frequency Daily Daily Ex. Sun., Mon. Ex. Fri., Sat, Daily Ex. Sat. Ex. Sat., Sun. Type CSX, NS, Bowden intermodal (UPS), autos NS, Bowden intermodal (UPS), autos Empty rock, manifest Intermodal, manifest, autos CSX, NS, FEC intermodal, autos […]
Model Railroader, November 2014
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Trains, November 2014
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Vertex Rail to assemble tank cars in North Carolina NEWSWIRE
WILMINGTON, N.C. – Vertex Rail Technologies LLC will soon begin manufacturing freight cars in a former Terex Corp. crane-manufacturing facility in Wilmington, creating 1,300 jobs for the coastal city. The company will initially manufacture tank cars, but also has plans to offer covered hoppers as well. Vertex has received Association of American Railroads certification and […]
Riding Amtrak’s new electrics
On June 2, 2014, Trains Passenger correspondent Bob Johnston was in the cab of Amtrak ACS-64 electric locomotive 600, joining engineer Darren Avila, road foreman T.C. Williamson Jr., and signal supervisor Joe DiGiacomo aboard Northeast Regional train No. 184 from Washington D.C., to Wilmington, Del. His cover story in the January 2015 issue, “Amtrak’s new […]
A month in the life of 4 freight cars

This map shows how four freight cars, threading their way through the North American railroad network, can take about two weeks to cross half the continent. The shippers using these four cars enjoyed tremendous efficiencies by sharing the costs of train crews and locomotives, track and signaling, classification yards, and overhead expenses with the other […]
Locomotive startup Tractive Power Corp. manufactures three-axle industrial switcher NEWSWIRE

Tractive Power Corp.’s new TP56 three-axle switcher. Tractive Power Corp. VANOUVER, British Columbia – Tractive Power Corp. of North Vancouver has developed and begun manufacturing its TP56 industrial switching locomotive. The unit is designed for moving freight cars within industrial facilities – relieving the industry of having to rely on outside sources for switching. The […]
Video Review: Big Boy: On the Road to Restoration

Big Boy: On the Road to Restoration By Trains Magazine Kalmbach Publishing Co., 21027 Crossroads Circle, Waukesha, WI 53187; 1 hour and 30 minutes, NTSC format. The steam story of the decade is Union Pacific’s announcement that it is going to repatriate and restore one of the eight surviving 4-8-8-4 Big Boy steam locomotives. Folks […]
Book Review: On Track: A Field Guide to San Francisco’s Historic Streetcars & Cable Cars

On Track: A Field Guide to San Francisco’s Historic Streetcars & Cable Cars By Rick Laubscher Heyday, P.O. Box 9145, Berkeley, CA 94709, 510-549-3564; 128 pages, color photos; softcover, 4.5 x 9 in.; $14.95 Only in San Francisco can you ride a fleet of historic PCC and cable cars through one of the world’s most […]