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CHICAGO — Metra will be putting its prototype Café Car into service this fall, rotating it across most of its busiest lines and stations and asking riders to take a survey about whether they like the concept and about what amenities and features they would like to see. The car will make its debut in […]
SLOUGH, England — File this under “knowledge I could have done without:” home COVID-19 tests are far less expensive in the UK than the U.S. I know this because I needed to take one, tested positive, and am now self-quarantining on the outskirts of London while the Trains/Special Interest Tours UK Steam trip moves on […]
WASHINGTON — Union Pacific has proposed building a new five-mile branch line to reach a petrochemical plant in Bay City, Texas, that is currently served only by rival BNSF Railway. UP, in a Sept. 24 filing, asked the Surface Transportation Board to exempt the project from regulatory review, as is common for relatively small projects. […]
WalthersProto HO scale test car Scale: HO (1:87.1) Price: $49.98 Manufacturer: Wm. K. Walthers Inc., 5601 W. Florist Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53218; 414-527-0770; walthers.com WalthersProto HO scale test car features: 33” metal wheels Covered or exposed wheel bearings Die-cast metal body Factory-installed wire grab irons Multiple photo-etched brass placards as appropriate Road-name-specific reporting marks, stencils, […]
Of all the bylines to grace Trains magazine’s pages over its 85-year history, likely none matches the record of transportation journalist and railfan Don Phillips, whose monthly column ran in the publication in two separate stints between 1977 and 2018, and whose feature stories covered everything from the creation of Amtrak and Conrail to Staggers […]
Only on a toy train layout, where the imaginations of modelers can soar to the greatest heights, will you see an SD80MAC road diesel (introduced in 1995) streaking around a triple-track main line bearing the Tuscan Red and gold stripes of the Pennsylvania RR. Why? Because O gauge enthusiasts, including Thomas Kaiser, have no problem […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. weekly rail traffic declined 2.2% in the week ending Sept. 20 compared with the same week last year, the Association of American Railroads reported today. Total carloads were down 1.8% compared with the same week in 2024, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was down 2.5% compared to 2024. Two of the 10 […]
OTTAWA — Transport Canada and Canadian Pacific Kansas City have submitted their final application to the Canadian Transportation Agency related to construction of a proposed bypass around Lac-Megantic, Quebec, the site of a 2013 Montreal, Maine & Atlantic oil train runaway and derailment that killed 47 people. The application includes technical documents, reports, and monitoring […]
Rapido N Santa Fe mechanical refrigerator cars Scale: N (1:160) Price: Single car, $41.95; four-pack, $167.80 Manufacturer: Rapido Trains, 382 High St., Buffalo, NY 14204; 905-474-3314; rapidotrains.com Features on Rapido N Santa Fe mechanical refrigerator cars: Detailed cushion draft gear Detailed underframe including piping and equipment Etched-metal running boards See-through side grills Separate, factory-applied door […]
WASHINGTON — The federal government may be headed for a shutdown if 60 U.S. Senators can’t agree on a path forward by the end of the month, but late last week the upper chamber’s lawmakers did vote to confirm Pennsylvania Republican Robert Gleason to a 5-year term on Amtrak’s board of directors [“Senate confirms Robert […]
LONDON — Greetings from St. Pancras station in London — and I do mean that literally, since our hotel is in the station.] Tonight was the official start of the Trains/Special Interest Tours UK steam tour, with the group assembling for introductions and dinner. Tomorrow, there’s a bus tour of London (which I may miss; […]
NEW YORK — Metro-North Railroad will launch “super express” trains next month between Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and Grand Central Terminal. The trains will cut travel time to less than 90 minutes each way, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said today. The first “super-express” trains will run on Monday, Oct. 6. “Delivering better, faster Metro-North service to Hudson […]
