WASHINGTON – Federal regulators have concluded that construction of the proposed Savage Tooele Railroad in Utah would have no impact on the environment provided that mitigation measures are followed. The Surface Transportation Board’s Office of Environmental Analysis on Friday released its final environmental assessment for the proposed short line, which aims to revive Union Pacific’s […]
F40M-2F locomotives In the late 1990s, Amtrak converted a handful of its F40PH locomotives to locomotives suitable for freight service. At the time, new Genesis engines from General Electric were fast replacing its massive fleet of F40PHs in mainline service. Amtrak would produce 14 F40M-2F locomotive that featured a number of changes, including removal of […]
Q I noticed rust on the trucks of my Lionel No. 646 steam engine. When I tried to run the postwar locomotive, operation was sluggish. The engine needed an unusual amount of transformer voltage to go around the track. I removed the cab and discovered the aluminum crosshead guide, where the valve gear linkages are […]
TORONTO — EdgePoint Investment Group, which has a $960 million stake in Norfolk Southern, today praised the proxy battle that activist partner Ancora Holdings is waging against the railroad. “EdgePoint supports the changes proposed by Ancora to NSC’s board of directors and management team,” EdgePoint said in a statement. Ancora has proposed a majority slate […]
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board on Friday approved an emergency request to allow short line company Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad to provide service for 30 days on the line formerly operated by the Blackwell Northern Gateway Railroad, shut down in February by the Federal Railroad Administration for safety reasons. The State of […]
WASHINGTON — Amtrak’s New York-Miami trains will begin offering “traditional dining” to “a limited number of coach customers” starting today (Monday, March 4), according to spokeswoman Kimberly Woods. The company dropped meal-in-a-bowl “flexible dining” last March on the Silver Star and last June on the Silver Meteor [see “Amtrak returns ‘traditional dining’ …,” Trains News […]
RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia legislation requiring two-person crews for freight trains in the state has passed the legislature and been sent to Gov. Glenn Youngkin for his signature, the Virginian-Pilot newspaper reports. The bill that passed narrowly passed both houses of the General Assembly — 51-49 in the House of Delegates, and 20-19 in the […]
A reader’s inquiry to my “Ask MR” column (published earlier on Trains.com) inspired me to sketch a track plan for an HO scale glass factory shelf layout. We published a track plan for a glass factory in our January 2003 issue, but that was a 4 x 8-foot plan, and not everybody can devote 48 square […]
Q: I’m having some N scale locomotive electrical problems. My 6 x 8-foot layout is powered by NCE Digital Command Control. My locomotives will roll a few inches, then stop. If I give them a push, they stutter on/off, on/off, on/off. When the locomotives are moving, the block occupancy detector’s light-emitting diode (LED) is on, […]
By the late 1930s, the Pere Marquette Railway had made a big splash in motive power acquisition. And rightly so, as the tired and second-rate fleet of steam locomotives was not enough to pull the Michigan railroad out of the hardship of the Great Depression. An order of 15 N-class 2-8-4s initially was rolled […]
LOWER SAUCON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — National Transportation Safety Board investigators have released control of the site of Saturday’s collision and derailment involving three trains to Norfolk Southern for its crews and contractors to address cleanup, the Allentown Morning Call reports. The NTSB turned the site over to NS late this afternoon [Sunday, March 3], but […]
LOWER SAUCON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a derailment involving three Norfolk Southern trains that occurred today (Saturday, March 2) near Allentown, Pa., the safety agency said on social media site X. The incident sent two locomotives partially into the adjacent Lehigh River; NS reported diesel fuel and a small […]
