SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger has, indirectly, ended a proposal to extend Metrolink commuter rail service from Ventura to Santa Barbara County. In its place, those two counties are now looking at a proposal from the LOSSAN Rail Corridor Agency that would serve the same desire to create a commuter rail […]
WASHINGTON — Through Tuesday, Jan. 20, Amtrak’s USA Rail Pass, normally $499, is being sold for $250. The pass, on sale here, permits passengers to ride up to 10 trains in coach over a 30-day period, regardless of trip length, so this is an especially good deal for anyone looking to make multiple stopovers traveling […]
Most modelers can pinpoint the photos, people, events, books, or stories that inspired them to build their model railroads. For me, I can honestly say that my N scale Naugatuck Valley RR started with a lone boxcar – a Micro Trains 40-foot single-door boxcar decorated in New Haven black and orange. I got the car […]
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board today issued a setback to Union Pacific’s effort to acquire Norfolk Southern, rejecting the railroads’ merger application as incomplete — although that move offers little clue to the eventual prospects for the first transcontinental merger. The decision will slow the merger process, requiring the two railroads to rework three […]
NEW HILL, N.C. — The North Carolina Railroad Museum, home of the New Hope Valley Railway, was recently awarded $280,216 in federal grants to support interactive exhibit development. The new exhibits will illustrate North Carolina’s railroad history and its role in transportation innovation. The Institute of Museum and Library Services grants will support the creation […]
TORONTO — Alstom and the Toronto Transit Commission have finalized an agreement for Alstom to build 70 six-car Metropolis subway trainsets for the New Subway Train program to replace the fleet on the TTC’s subway Line 2, as well as for use on subway extension projects. The purchase of the new equipment had been announced […]
WASHINGTON — House members from Pennsylvania and Ohio have introduced a bill requiring the Federal Railroad Administration to study tank car pressure relief valves, and provide a report to Congress on their findings, nearly three years after the disastrous February 2023 East Palestine, Ohio, hazardous materials derailment. The Under Pressure Act was announced Thursday (Jan. […]
LOWELL, Ark. — J.B. Hunt executives are disappointed that the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger application did not include more details about the railroads’ intermodal plans. “We continue to digest the application and had expected more intermodal-specific questions to be addressed in the merger application than there were,” Darren Field, president of J.B. Hunt Intermodal, said […]
In the 1890s, the Gotthard Railway in Switzerland operated the first Mallet locomotives. They were compound articulated locomotives developed by, and named for, Swiss engineer Anatole Mallet. A Mallet locomotive has two engines, which are independently mounted on an articulated frame. A high-pressure engine is located at the rear. Steam exhausted from it is conveyed […]
WASHINGTON — Two U.S. senators have introduced a bill that would extend to passenger train crew members the same legal protections that exist for airline flight crews and attendants. U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) on Thursday, Jan. 15, introduced the “Passenger Rail Crew Protection Act.” It would carry penalties of up […]
CALGARY, Alberta — A total of 16 tentative bargaining agreements covering Canadian Pacific Kansas City workers with various U.S. unions in recent weeks have all been ratified, the railroad announced on Thursday (Jan. 15). The five-year agreements cover approximately 700 railroaders in 11 states. “We are very pleased to see all these agreements ratified and […]
WASHINGTON — A CSX conductor was killed when he was crushed by the railcar he was riding during a shove move, according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary investigation report released Thursday, Jan. 15. The car, part of a string being shoved onto a siding, overturned onto the conductor after it struck a cut-off […]
