If it’s December, it must be time to put on a crackling fire, pour a hot chocolate, and explore some snowy model railroad scenes compiled from the pages of Model Railroader. If you’d like to see last year’s gallery of snowy model railroad scenes, follow this link. […]
Overnight Amtrak trains in 1991, its 20th year, show similarities with today’s offerings. Many trains known today were operating in 1991, some even with the same equipment. Some trains we have lost, including the Pioneer, Broadway Limited, Desert Wind, Montrealer, and Night Owl. Amtrak’s first order of bilevel Superliner equipment came in the late […]
Amtrak Superliner cars are derived from the old Santa Fe El Capitan Hi-Level car fleet. The cars, which operate on all Western long-distance plus a few others in the East, had a long gestation period. On July 3, 1973, Roger Lewis, Amtrak’s first president, sent a request for proposals to 13 companies — six engineering […]
CALGARY — The CPKC Holiday train raised a record C$1.8 milion and collected more than 160,000 pounds of food for local food banks during four weeks of travel across the United States and Canada, the railroad has announced. The Holiday Train program, which has completed its 25th year, raised more than $24.3 million and collected […]
Class I railroads operating in the U.S. reached a series of agreements with their labor unions this year that are designed to improve workers’ quality of life. Chief among them: Paid sick time deals. Railroaders’ lack of traditional paid sick time became a flashpoint toward the end of contract negotiations in the fall of 2022. […]
J.B. Hunt and BNSF Railway have set out to bake a bigger pie. In November they launched faster, more reliable premium domestic intermodal service that they say will eventually convert millions of truckloads to rail. The potential is there, they say, to double domestic intermodal volume, which in 2022 stood at just under 8 million […]
SALINA CRUZ, Mexico — For the second straight week, Mexico has inaugurated passenger service on a new rail line. On Friday, operations began for the Interoceanic Railroad, a 188-mile route connecting Coatzacoalcos, on the Gulf of Mexico, with Salina Cruz, on the Pacific Coast. It is the key piece of the Interoceanic Corridor of the […]
HAVRE DE GRACE, Md. — Amtrak has selected the contractor for construction of a replacement for the Susquehanna River Rail Bridge in Maryland, and awarded two supporting contracts for the projects, the company announced Friday. The Flatiron/Herzog Joint Venture will be the Construction Manager at Risk contractor for the two new bridges and related track […]
Q: I’m putting together some loads for flatbed and open gondola cars consisting of objects like pipe, wood, basically long straight pieces about half a car length in length. What would I use to model steel strapping to hold the loads together? I work in HO scale. — Rich Bond A: The easiest and best-looking solution […]
For many years, HO scale modelers debated whether to use plastic or metal wheelsets on freight cars. That discussion has quieted down over the past two decades, largely because most new models come with metal wheelsets. However, as evidenced by the number of offerings available today, there’s still a strong demand for aftermarket metal wheelsets. […]
BALTIMORE — Service on the Baltimore Light RailLink line will resume Saturday, just over two weeks after it was suspended to allow for emergency rolling-stock repairs, the Maryland Transit Administration announced today (Friday, Dec. 22). Mechanics have finished work on 18 cars, WBAL-TV reports, with at least 14 available for service on Saturday. The 30-mile, […]
WASHINGTON — Amtrak has issued a formal Request for Proposals for replacement of its bilevel long-distance railcar fleet, outlining requirements for what it says will be a multi-billion-dollar order for equipment projected to enter service in the early 2030s. The document, which outlines for manufacturers requirements for coach seating, sleeping cars, food service, and accessibility, […]
