GIO Railway ends service to St. Catharines, Ontario

Front view of black locomotive on industry spur

ST. CATHARINES, Ontario — The GIO Railway ended service to downtown St. Catherines today (Friday, March 1), effectively removing the north end of GIO’s Niagara network from service and halting nearly 150 years of rail service to the city’s downtown. GIO’s final train operated over two days because of mechanical issues, beginning its trip on […]

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Train signals and interlockings unraveled

purple sky with train moving fast

Train signals All dark, two silent sentinels guard their respective tracks on the double-track main line. Just beyond them is a crossover enabling trains to switch from one track to another. Beyond the crossover, a similar set of signals faces the opposite way. Suddenly, the dark signals light up, each displaying three columns of red […]

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West Coast winter weather affects California Zephyr, Empire Builder

Two passenger trains with bilevel equipment meet in snow

CHICAGO — Amtrak’s California Zephyr has been cancelled west of Salt Lake City through the weekend as weather forecasters are predicting heavy snow will pound Donner Pass and the Sierra Nevada mountains through Saturday. Service on the Seattle segment of the Empire Builder route was also disrupted this week. Trouble started early Thursday when the […]

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Amtrak awards contract for Philadelphia maintenance facility

Aerial view of rail yard showing planned new construction

PHILADELPHIA — Amtrak has awarded a contract to Herzog Contracting Corp. for design and construction of a new Heavy Maintenance Facility at the passenger operator’s Penn Coach Yard in Philadelphia, the first of six major projects planned for maintenance facilities around the country. The projects at five locations in the Northeast and one in the […]

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Built by Others: Fred Ciocciola’s PRR-inspired layout

A model railroad layout in a basement

Built by Others is an article series showcasing layouts constructed by modelers using plans and projects from the pages of Model Railroader and its associated products. The New York, New Haven & Hartford RR originally appeared in the pages of Model Railroader in August of 2004. Fred Ciocciola adjusted this trackplan to fit the space he had […]

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Shipper groups sound alarm over Norfolk Southern proxy fight

Associations representing railroad shippers say they’re concerned about Ancora Holdings’ proxy battle at Norfolk Southern, fearing that the activist investors will put an emphasis on boosting short-term profits at the expense of service. “Seems as if NS is making strides on improving service which, to a certain degree, means abandoning some of the Precision Scheduled […]

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PIKO America HO Krauss-Maffei ML-4000

Title screen of Product Review video featuring PIKO America Southern Pacific diesel-hydraulic locomotive.

The much-anticipated PIKO America HO Krauss-Maffei ML-4000 diesel-hydraulic locomotive recently toured our Milwaukee, Racine & Troy staff layout. Join Model Railroader Senior Editor Cody Grivno as he provides a brief history of the prototype, points out the various details on the model, and demonstrates some of the sound and light functions. He wraps up the […]

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Classic Toy Trains March 2024 new products

green model boxcar

Locomotives and rolling stock Burlington Northern (1991 scheme), Montana Rail Link (blue 2009 scheme), TTX (gray patchout with TOFX reporting marks, yellow-and-black as-delivered scheme, and yellow-and-black with Forward Thinking patch), and York Rail (brown) are the new paint schemes on the Atlas O Premier line Gunderson 50-foot high-cube boxcar. The paper-hauling boxcar, priced at $79.95, […]

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PIKO America HO Krauss-Maffei ML-4000

Title screen of Product Review video featuring PIKO America Southern Pacific diesel-hydraulic locomotive.

The much-anticipated PIKO America HO Krauss-Maffei ML-4000 diesel-hydraulic locomotive recently toured our Milwaukee, Racine & Troy staff layout. Join Model Railroader Senior Editor Cody Grivno as he provides a brief history of the prototype, points out the various details on the model, and demonstrates some of the sound and light functions. He wraps up the […]

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Commuter rail workers tell MBTA they are prepared to strike

Train pulling up to the station

BOSTON — Union workers operating the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s commuter rail operator for its contract operator, Keolis, are prepared to strike over wages and other conditions, the president of one union told the MBTA’s board on Thursday. “We don’t want to strike, but we will when we are legally able to,” Transportation Workers Union […]

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