Meet Mark Bottrill In a paragraph, how did you get started in the hobby? Despite being a lifelong railfan, I had no knowledge of large scale or US garden trains prior to 2003. This changed when I saw a screensaver on the computer monitor of a USAF Major I met while serving in the military […]
Thai State Railways (State Railway of Thailand or SRT) still has at least three diesel locomotives built 71 years ago by long-defunct American manufacturer Davenport Locomotive Works in regular service. One, at Nakhon Lampang in the north of the country, is used regularly to switch cars into Chiang Mai-Bangkok services with passengers onboard. The units […]
MONTREUX, Switzerland — Concerns over excessive track wear have led the innovative Swiss Golden Pass Express trains that switch from meter gauge to standard gauge to be temporarily restricted to meter-gauge operations. The Golden Pass Express, or GPX, trains, began operating late last year on the route between Montreux and Interlaken [see “Swiss gauge-changing Panoramic […]
KANSAS CITY — Kansas City Southern de Mexico is battling congestion in key terminals thanks to a combination of stronger than expected traffic growth and a shortage of train crews. The congestion, which began in December, now threatens to gum up Kansas City Southern’s U.S. network less than four weeks before Canadian Pacific gains control […]
NEWARK, N.J. — NJ Transit, the Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation, and the International Association of Public Transportation, or UITP, on Thursday announced a partnership to establish UITP’s first North American Regional Training Center at Rutgers. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said state residents “will reap massive benefits” from the partnership. “By hosting […]
LONDON — The British government has announced a two-year delay for completion of the second part of the new HS2 high speed line, ahead of a new government budget to be announced this week. British Transportation Secretary Mark Harper, in announcing the delay for the section north of Birmingham to Crewe, said he was prioritizing […]
BERLIN — About 80% of the display area for InnoTrans 2024 has already been booked — a record for this stage in the booking process, the director of the international rail trade show said Wednesday. The biennial event will be held Sept. 24-27 at the Messe Berlin exhibition grounds. “We are delighted with the consistently […]
KYIV, Ukraine — Memorial stones and plaques are common at railway stations around the world, commemorating rail history, anniversaries, or rail employees who died in service. On Feb. 24, at the central station in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, a new memorial was unveiled to the 353 Ukrainian railway workers who had been killed during the first […]
MADRID — Spain’s transportation secretary and the head of national rail operator RENFE have resigned following an order for new regional trains that has become a national scandal. Transportation Secretary Isabel Pardo de Vera and RENFE President Isaías Táboas quit their jobs Feb. 20 in the wake of public and political criticism of a delayed […]
The insolvency administrators trying to sell Vivarail, the British passenger train re-manufacturing company previously backed by Pittsburgh-based Railroad Development Corp., have succeeded in selling the company’s innovative fast battery-charging system. That system, called FastCharge, which will be tested in passenger service in London later this year. Vivarail was founded in 2013 by British rail industry […]
BUSSNANG, Switzerland — Rail equipment manufacturer Stadler, Utah State University, and the ASPIRE Engineering Center have signed a contract to develop and test a battery-powered passenger train, the first such multiple-unit train in North America. The project will develop a two-car train based on Stadler’s FLIRT Akku train tailored for the American market. Stadler has […]
The first winter intended to see regular use of hydrogen-powered passenger trains in Germany has not gone smoothly, with service disrupted by both equipment delivery and operational issues. The trains entered regular service in mid-2022 [see “World’s first hydrogen trains enter regular passenger service,” Trains News Wire, July 26, 2022]. Prototype trains had been running […]
