Regulatory filing seeks to create new Houston-area switching railroad

Aerial photo of industrial arok

WASHINGTON — A private railroad serving an industrial park in the Houston area has filed paperwork with the Surface Transportation Board to become a common-carrier operation. TGS Cedar Port Railroad will operate 1.28 miles of track in the Cedar Port Industrial Park in Baytown, Texas. The trackage, which connects with Union Pacific, originally was part […]

Read More…

Destination: the cutting torch

Milwaukee Road in Marion, Iowa

Nine Milwaukee Road steam locomotives move east out of Marion, Iowa, on April 5, 1954, en route to an appointment with the scrappers. A 4-8-4 hauls the grim assemblage, but dieselization is around the corner. Robert Laker photo […]

Read More…

BNSF coal train derails in Nebraska

BNSF Railway logo

BENNET, Neb. — A BNSF Railway spur line is expected to be out of service for three weeks after a bridge collapsed as a result of a coal-train derailment Thursday evening. The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office said 18 cars were involved in the derailment, which occurred about 5 p.m. BNSF spokesman Ben Wilemon told the […]

Read More…

Union Pacific train derails in Kansas

Aerial view of derailment on track next to highway

BONNER SPRINGS, Kan. — Twenty-five cars of a Union Pacific train, including some carrying hazardous materials, derailed Friday evening in Bonner Springs. The Kansas City, Kansas, Fire Department, which responded, reports nine of the cars were tank cars carrying isobutane, a flammable gas used to make products ranging from aviation gasoline to plastics to food […]

Read More…

News Photo: Bicentennial SD45-2 on the move

Red, white, and blue locomotive on intermodal train

Former Santa Fe bicentennial diesel No. 5704 is on its way to its new home in California. Photographer William Tollett caught the SD45-2, restored to its mid-1970s paint scheme earlier this year, on Thursday, June 23, at Panhandle, Texas, on BNSF Railway train ZPLKLAC6-22. The locomotive was donated to the Southern California Railroad Museum in […]

Read More…

State will provide funding for Nebraska industrial park

HERSHEY, Neb. — Nebraska officials will provide $30 million toward construction of a rail-served industrial park near North Platte, Neb., backers of the project have learned. The North Platte Telegraph reports the North Platte Area Chamber & Development Corp. was informed Wednesday that it has qualified for the state funding by securing local commitments of […]

Read More…

Supreme Court won’t hear Oklahoma crossing-law case

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a lower-court ruling striking down an Oklahoma law allowing railroads to be fined for blocking grade crossings longer than 10 minutes. The Oklahoman newspaper reports the court turned down without comment Oklahoma’s appeal of a decision by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which […]

Read More…

Kansas City Southern 2-10-4

Kansas city Souther last steam locomotive

Kansas City Southern’s last new steam locomotives were 10 class J 2-10-4s built by Lima in 1937. As this postwar photo of No. 905 indicates, they were massive machines — those are 70-inch drivers under that giant boiler. Harold K. Vollrath photo […]

Read More…

Texas Central faces issues beyond CEO’s departure

Birds eye view of a rail line passing over a complex highway interchange.

DALLAS — The departure of Texas Central CEO Carlos Aguliar came as a news report from Spain said the company’s managerial team has departed and it lacks the necessary financing. Aguilar announced Sunday he was departing the company via a LinkedIn posting [see “Texas Central CEO steps down,” Trains News Wire, June 14, 2022]. Aguilar’s […]

Read More…