U.S. DOT announces loan for South Shore’s Double Track project

Shot of construction work on rail line, including wall between railroad track and street

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Transportation on Thursday announced a $27.5 million loan to the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District for the South Shore Line’s Double Track Project, adding a second main line to the commuter route between Gary and Michigan City, Ind. “We are pleased to help finance the Double Track Project, which […]

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G&W to merge four Southeastern short line railroads into two

Genesee & Wyoming logo

WASHINGTON – Genesee & Wyoming aims to merge four of its Southeastern short lines into two railroads early next year. The largest shortline holding company told regulators on Wednesday that in a pair of transactions it proposes to merge Chattahoochee Bay Railroad into The Bay Line Railroad, and the Fordyce and Princeton Railroad into the […]

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San Diego officials seek cost of reopening former SD&AE route

Map of rail line from Tecate, Mexico, to Plaster City, Calif.

SAN DIEGO — Transportation officials in San Diego are studying what it would take to revive operations on a long-dormant 70-mile segment of the former San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railway to provide a direct freight link from San Diego to eastern markets, bypassing Los Angeles, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. The so-called Desert Line […]

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Weekly U.S. rail traffic sees big drop

Weekly table showing U.S. carload rail traffic by commodity type, plus intermodal totals

WASHINGTON — U.S. rail traffic is heading toward the end of the year on a down note, with weekly volume down 5.5% from the same week in 2021, according to the latest statistics from the Association of American Railroads. U.S. railroads moved 476,232 carloads and intermodal units for the week ending Dec. 17. That includes […]

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Santa Fe’s wheat kingdom

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Several boxcars await loading at three classic wooden elevators along the Santa Fe at Dumas, Texas, in late summer 1936. In spite of the Dust Bowl, there’s still wheat to be loaded. Arthur Rothstein, Library of Congress photo […]

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Railroads urge regulators to stick with tried-and-true interchange policies

Black, gray, and yellow locomotives lined up in yard

WASHINGTON — The Chicago interchange dispute between Canadian National and Canadian Pacific should not upend long-standing practices that determine where railroads exchange traffic, three railroads have told federal regulators. The Surface Transportation Board in October said the CN-CP case raises broad issues regarding interchange practices, particularly after a federal appeals court set aside a board […]

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Navajo-owned coal company sues BNSF for breach of contract

Logo of Navajo Transitional Energy Company

BILLINGS, Mont. — A Native American-owned coal company has sued BNSF Railway for breach of contract, claiming the railroad’s preferential treatment of other mines cost it more than $150 million in revenue and $15 million in demurrage penalties in 2022. In a suit filed Monday in federal district court in Montana, Navajo Transitional Energy Co., […]

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NS train derails after hitting truck moving concrete bridge beam

Derailed locomotives and rubble from accident

  COLLEGEDALE, Tenn. — Two Norfolk Southern crew members were taken to the hospital for treatment after their train struck a truck carrying a 134-foot-long concrete bridge beam and derailed, WTVC-TV reports. The accident occurred about 1:30 p.m. in the Chattanooga suburb of Collegeville and derailed three locomotives and 10 cars. Injuries to the crew […]

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Union Pacific train derails in Victorville, Calif. (updated)

Union Pacific logo without slogan. UP Bailey Yard explosion appear to be accidental.

VICTORVILLE, Calif. — Twenty-seven cars of a Union Pacific train carrying iron ore derailed Tuesday in Victorville, blocking BNSF’s line through the community and leading to the cancellation of Tuesday’s eastbound departure of the Southwest Chief, the San Bernardino Sun reports. No injuries were reported. The derailment occurred about 8 a.m. The cause of the […]

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Top 7 1/2 products of 2022

Black, red, and white diesel locomotive on a scenery base

As we enter the holidays and highball into 2023, the MR staff wanted to take a look back at our top model railroad products of 2022. Any of these would make great gifts for any modeler on your Christmas list or even for yourself. Athearn added the General Electric Dash 9-44CW to its Genesis 2.0 […]

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