Action may be required on your Trains.com account in order to continue accessing content. Click here to learn more.
ALEXANDER, W.Va — West Virginia’s Beech Mountain Railroad appears to have reached its final chapter. Owner Carter-Roag, a subsidiary of United Coal, has returned its two leased SW1500s to LTEX (also known as Larry’s Truck & Electric); those engines had been brought in to move the stockpile of coal remaining after the closure of Carter-Roag’s […]
WASHINGTON — The Norfolk Southern engineer killed in a Jan. 31 incident in Decatur, Ala., suffered fatal injuries when his locomotive was struck by a group of 35 railcars rolling on an adjacent track, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary accident report released today (Wednesday, Feb. 28). The incident occurred about 4:15 […]
ELKO, Nev. — Sixteen railcars of corn from a Union Pacific train derailed near the Amtrak station in Elko early today (Wednesday, Feb. 28), striking the support of a street overpass and raising question about the bridge’s structural integrity. No injuries were reported and no hazardous materials were involved. The Associated Press reports the derailment […]
CHICAGO — Jim Derwinski hates the phrase “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” At a Wednesday presentation for Northwestern University’s Sandhouse Rail Group, Derwinski, Metra’s CEO/Executive Director, illustrated why that’s the case, and the potential that comes from putting that approach in the past. “Here’s a little story about where we’re not going to […]
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. — Work has begun on a 200-foot-long wall to protect the Surf Line rail right-of-way from landslides at the site that has halted passenger train traffic through San Clemente since Jan. 24, the Orange County Transportation Authority announced. The wall, expected to be 10 to 15 feet tall, will be anchored by […]
WASHINGTON — Coaches where half of the seats face backwards have been standard for years on Amtrak services ranging from many regional state-supported corridors to Acela First Class. Beginning March 2, that configuration is being extended to all Northeast Regional Amfleet-equipped trains. Acela Business Class will transition to permanent “fixed forward and backward” seating later […]
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — A broken wheel led to the derailment of 61 cars of a Canadian National potash train near Floods, B.C., in the Fraser River Canyon in a 2020 incident, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada determined in its final accident report. The report on the Sept. 14, 2020, derailment of the Vancouver-bound […]
WASHINGTON — An error in which the worker in charge released track occupancy protection — “due to degraded performance from his excessive workload” — led to a March 2022 incident in which a Caltrain commuter train struck three hi-rail construction vehicles, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded in a final accident report released on Tuesday, […]
WASHINGTON — The state of Oklahoma and Blackwell Industrial Authority have asked the Surface Transportation Board to allow emergency service on the Blackwell Northern Gateway Railroad, the short line shut down by the Federal Railroad Administration for safety reasons earlier this month. In a Monday filing, the state and the industrial authority, operator of an […]
STUART, Fla. — Brightline will build a new intermediate station in Stuart, Fla., the TC Palm newspaper reports. Stuart City Manager Mike Mortell informed employees on Monday that the passenger operator had selected Stuart’s downtown site near the Martin County Courthouse. Brightline did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment. At least two other […]
WASHINGTON — Amtrak’s Office of Inspector General has released a report explaining how the company’s lack of effective parts inventory management is responsible for numerous service failures. The 62-page report released Monday, “Asset management: Company has opportunities to more effectively manage and safeguard maintenance of equipment inventory,” asserts a lack of key parts to keep […]
CRYSTAL LAKE, Ill. — Metra service on the Union Pacific Northwest line has been suspended today (Saturday, Feb. 24) between Crystal Lake and Harvard following a low-speed derailment this morning, WLS-TV reports. Inbound train No. 710, which was scheduled to originate at Crystal Lake at 10 a.m., had no passengers aboard when it derailed as […]
