News & Products for the week of January 15th 2024 Model railroad operators and builders can get the latest information about locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, tools, track, and more by reading Model Railroader’s frequent product updates. The following are the products Model Railroader editors have news on for the week of January 15th […]
Transcripted from the CTT video series Truck’s Toy Trains. Trains.com members can watch it here. The Lionel Corp. released its first operating barrel car in 1954, which was two years after it brought out the No. 362 barrel loader. Contents of the box included the car and an insert that held a box of barrels […]
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has promised to schedule a vote on the stalled Railway Safety Act, the political website The Hill reports, but Republican leader Mitch McConnell opposes the legislation and may block it or delay it. The bill introduced in reaction to the East Palestine derailment includes provisions requiring two-person crews, […]
GORE, Va. — A sand mine that has provided the majority of carload traffic for the original main line of the Winchester & Western Railroad for 80 years is preparing to close, with an uncertain impact on what is now the railroad’s Virginia Division. The Winchester Star reports the mine in Gore stopped accepting orders […]
LOMBARD, Ill. — One final batch of notes from this week’s Midwest Association of Rail Shippers Winter Meeting, marking the organization’s 100th anniversary: Blending cultures Merging railroads can be difficult, simply as a matter of blending cultures. The Penn Central merger famously was hindered by the clashing views of longtime competitors Pennsylvania and New York […]
LA BROQUERIE, Manitoba — Twenty-seven cars of a Canadian Nation train derailed Thursday, Jan. 11, in rural Manitoba, CTV News reports. The derailment occurred about 7:15 p.m. No injuries were reported; CN told the network that there were no leaks or fires and the derailment posed no risk to the public. Cause of the incident […]
Last year’s merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern, the two smallest Class I systems, has turned out to be the little spark that has ignited a lot of railroad competition. Skeptics have scoffed at Canadian Pacific Kansas City’s meandering route from the Midwest to the Mexican border at Laredo, Texas. It’s got more […]
LOMBARD, Ill. — A lot has happened since Class I railroads averted a strike in 2022. CEOs and other officials at the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers Winter Meeting were happy to point to progress in labor relations. Which is good, because — believe it or not — the whole national contract process is about […]
LOMBARD, Ill. — The man behind the rail industry’s burst of cooperative competition (or, if you prefer, competitive cooperation) came to the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers Winter Meeting — an event focusing a lot of attention on such alliances — and said it was all good. Understandably, CPKC CEO Keith Creel said his company’s […]
WASHINGTON — Union Pacific has urged federal regulators to squash BNSF Railway’s request to gain access a proposed short line railroad in Utah. Last month BNSF told the Surface Transportation Board that it should have the right to connect with the Savage Tooele Railroad due to trackage rights it was granted over UP’s Shafter Subdivision […]
The Panama Canal Railway, which saw a 20% increase in container traffic last summer due to drought conditions affecting water levels in the Panama Canal, got another boost this week. Maersk, the largest container shipping line, announced yesterday that shipments bound to and from Australia and New Zealand are being diverted to the Panama Canal […]
FORT WORTH, Texas — BNSF Railway completed a record year for employee safety in 2023 by posting the lowest injury frequency rate in the company’s history. BNSF’s 37,000 employees operated its 32,500-mile network without loss of life, and with the fewest number of employee injuries ever, the railway said today. Employee injury rates decreased more […]
