STUART, Fla. — The Florida East Coast Railway drawbridge over the St. Lucie River was rendered impassible to marine traffic today (Saturday, Sept. 30) after being struck by a tugboat pulling a barge, according to information from Brightline posted on the Martin County Board of County Commissioners Facebook page. The tugboat struck the northwest fender […]
FORT WORTH, Texas — BNSF Railway and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division (SMART-TD) have reached an agreement to allow for more predictable scheduling and paid sick days for all ground service employees, the parties have announced. Thursday’s announcement says the tentative agreement, after several months of negotiations, follows […]
In this episode, Host James McNab embarks on a journey to elevate model railroading skills by exploring cutting-edge methods. Specifically featuring the use of Central Valley tie strips to build hand laid trackwork. With the objective of encouraging modelers to employ fresh techniques, James demonstrates the process on his portable HO scale Hills Line module, […]
ATLANTA — Norfollk Southern and Florida East Coast Railway will expand their domestic interline intermodal services in Florida, the railroads announced Wednesday. As of Oct. 2, NS will add service to FEC’s Fort Pierce and Fort Lauderdale facilities, joining existing service to FEC terminals in Titusville and Miami. The additions will add flexibility for their […]
BERN, Switzerland — Passenger trains will begin returning to the Gotthard Base Tunnel as of this Friday, Sept. 29, SBB, the Swiss Federal Railways, announced today. One southbound train will be operated through the tunnel on Friday and one northbound train will run on Sunday, helping address peak autumn weekend demand on the route to […]
MacTIER, Ontario — Thirteen cars of a Canadian Pacific Kansas City freight train derailed about 4:30 a.m. Wednesday after a reported collision with another train, CTV News reports. CPKC said in a statement to the network that no injuries were reported and no hazardous materials were involved. Two of the cars were carrying plastic pellets […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. weekly rail traffic showed gains over 2022 figures for the week ending Sept. 23, the second consecutive week of improvement after traffic has been below year-earlier figures for most of 2023, according to statistics from the Association of American Railroads. The week saw 493,232 carloads and intermodal units, a 2.8% increase over […]
CINCINNATI — Campaigning is underway in Cincinnati on an initiative to get voters to approve the sale of the city-owned Cincinnati Southern Railway to Norfolk Southern, with Mayor Aftab Pureval taking the lead role in a new TV commercial urging passage of the measure, and five former mayors joining Pureval in supporting the sale. The […]
DENVER — The state of Colorado has changed its negotiating team addressing the expiring lease for the Moffat Tunnel, with the state’s Department of Transportation taking over from the Department of Local Affairs to lead negotiations with Union Pacific over use of the state-owned bore through the Rocky Mountains. The website Colorado Newsline reports that […]
CHICAGO — BNSF Railway reached a settlement last week in a biometric data privacy case in which it had initially been assessed a $228 million penalty, only to have that award thrown out on appeal. Reuters reports that the railroad reached a settlement with a group of truck drivers over claims that BNSF illegally collected […]
History of track gauge: The gauge of a railroad is the distance between the inside vertical surfaces of the head of the rail. Standard gauge is 4 feet, 8-1/2 inches. This is the gauge used when steam railroading began. It became the common gauge of Britain, North America, and Western Europe — except for Spain, […]
News & Products for the week of September 25th 2023 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 September 25th […]
