News & Products for the week of April 22nd 2024

A model tank car in a white paint scheme with black lettering

News & Products for the week of April 22nd 2024   Model railroad operators and builders can get the latest information about locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, tools, track, and more by reading Model Railroader’s frequent product updates. The following are the products Model Railroader editors have news on for the week of April 22nd […]

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Class I railroads tout their green cred in honor of Earth Day

CSX today announced the winners of its third annual CSX Customer Environmental Excellence Awards, which salute shippers who convert a portion of their freight from truck to rail. “Sustainability is a shared priority between CSX and our customers. Helping them reduce emissions by converting from trucks to rail is an important part of our strategy,” […]

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Guardian Award honors Union Pacific dispatchers

Union Pacific logo with Building America slogan

Omaha, Neb. — Recognizing the vital role played by its train dispatchers when it comes to safe operations, the Union Pacific Railroad has presented its Guardian Award to nearly 300 dispatchers for their work in 2023. The honored dispatchers work in three locations – Omaha, Neb., San Bernardino, Calif., and Spring, Texas. UP train dispatchers, […]

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Three rumors from the TCA Eastern Division York show

line of people waiting by door

While working the recent TCA Eastern Division York show, Roger Carp and I heard three rumors about the magazine. We’d like to share the questions–and answers–here. Classic Toy Trains is no longer printing issues Yes, we are still printing issues on a quarterly schedule. We also offer digital issues. If you’re a print subscriber, nothing […]

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Norfolk Southern questions operational data behind activist investor plan

Norfolk Southern says that activist investor Ancora Holdings’ detailed plan for the railroad, released last week in a 193-page presentation, contains misleading operational data and vastly overstated cost-savings projections. Ancora says its proposed management team would reduce costs by $800 million through a full-blown implementation of the low-cost Precision Scheduled Railroading operating model at NS. […]

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Sold-out Reading & Northern special covers rare mileage

Three RDCs exit tunnel

MOUNT CARMEL, Pa. — For the first time in decades, a passenger train Saturday (April 20, 2024) covered the full length of Reading & Northern Railroad’s Mahanoy & Shamokin Branch, carrying 194 riders aboard a trio of Budd Co. Rail Diesel Cars. Sponsored by the affiliated Lehigh Valley Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society […]

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South Dakota official sees Amtrak service as unlikely

Map of proposed passenger rail route from Denver to Minneapolis-St. Paul via South Dakota

PIERRE, S.D. — South Dakota’s transportation secretary has injected a note of reality into discussion of possible Amtrak service in the state. That discussion gained life in February with the inclusion of two routes serving South Dakota among the 15 in a Federal Railroad Administration report on its ongoing Amtrak Daily Long-Distance Service Study [see […]

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Two charged with stealing track from Connecticut heritage railroad

Steam locomotive pulling passenger train out of the forest.

OLD SAYBROOK, Conn. — Two people have been arrested and charged with stealing nearly a half-mile of track used by the Essex Steam Train heritage railroad and selling it for scrap, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has announced. Jason Hubbard, 47, and Nicole Hooghkirk, 38, of Clinton, Conn., were arrested on April […]

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Rapido Trains HO Alco RS11

Title screen of video showing HO scale locomotive painted green and yellow.

The Rapido Trains HO Alco RS11 diesel locomotive recently visited our Wisconsin & Southern layout. Join Senior Editor Cody Grivno — who really didn’t pick his shirt to match the locomotive’s paint scheme — as he shares a brief history of Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific No. 3600; highlights the various railroad-specific details on the four-axle […]

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Atlas N scale Thrall covered hopper

Color photo of N scale covered hopper painted red and white.

Price: $24.95 (undecorated, $17.95) Manufacturer Atlas Model Railroad Co. 378 Florence Ave. Hillside, NJ 07205 shop.atlasrr.com Road names: New paint schemes — Transportation Corp. of America; Burlington Northern (with FRA-224 stripes); CATX; David J. Joseph Transportation; Midwest Railcar; Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern; and Rail Logistics. New road numbers — Canadian National and Peavey. Three numbers […]

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