AMSTERDAM — Despite objections from international high speed rail operator Eurostar and passenger groups, the Dutch government has agreed to a plan by state-owned infrastructure operator ProRail to suspend all Eurostar services in the Netherlands for up to a year beginning next summer. Separately, Eurostar has also dropped its service between London and Disneyland Paris. […]
CHICAGO — A trio of recent Union Pacific agreements with rail labor unions, combined with ongoing volume and expense challenges, likely will make the railroad’s operating ratio rise this year. Previously UP expected the operating ratio to improve this year compared to 2022’s 60.1%. Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Hamann, speaking at an investor conference today, […]
NORTH JUDSON, Ind. — BP’s Whiting Refinery in Whiting, Ind., has donated a sanding tower once used by the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern to the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum, solving the museum’s problem in sanding four larger locomotives recently added to its collection. The tower had been built in 1954. Museum member John Eagan contacted […]
ABILENE, Kan. — Santa Fe steam locomotive No. 3415 officially debuted for its 2023 operating season on June 10, heading the regular excursion and dinner trains on the Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad. This comes after the railroad’s 104-year-old 4-6-2 was temporarily sidelined right before the Memorial Day weekend due to unforeseen repairs needing to […]
The story of Mad Dog and the volcano starts on March 20, 1980. At 3:47 p.m. on that day, Mount St. Helens rumbled to life with an earthquake measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale. It was mostly unnoticed. Earthquakes often occur in Washington State, most are light enough not to be felt. Within a week […]
SACRAMENTO — California legislators have agreed to a deal that would provide more than $3 billion to aid state transit agencies such as Caltrain and Bay Area Rapid Transit that say they are facing a “fiscal cliff”as a result of low ridership since the COVID-19 pandemic, the San Jose Mercury News reports. The deal would […]
RIDGEVILLE, S.C. — Palmetto Railways, the short line owned and operated by the state of South Carolina, has begun construction of a new rail line to serve the Camp Hall Commerce Park in Ridgeville and the adjacent Volvo auto plant. The 22.7-mile line will cost $185 million and take about 2½ years to build, Palmetto […]
ORANGE, Calif. — The Orange County Transportation Authority board has declared an emergency as a result of ongoing landslide issues in San Clemente, Calif., a move the board says will allow agency CEO Darrell E. Johnson to take steps to protect the rail line below the unstable hillside. That will likely mean design and construction […]
BOSTON — No injuries were reported after a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Green Line train derailed today (Monday, June 12), the Boston Globe reports. About 30 people were on board the trolley on the Green Lin’s B Branch when the center wheelset of the articulated light-rail trainset derailed at low speed near Packard’s Corner. The […]
CHICAGO — New schedules for Amtrak’s Lincoln Service trains will take effect June 26, and are expected to shave approximately 15 minutes off current travel times to reflect 110-mph operation on portions of the Chicago-St. Louis route. The new schedules — not yet available on Amtrak’s website as of 7 p.m. today (June 12), but […]
Helper locomotives Helper locomotives are an essential part of modern railroading. It is an additional locomotive (or locomotives) added to a train in order to provide sufficient horsepower when the train is working through steep inclines (or grades), or must keep up a specific speed. Many routes with stiff grades will have specifically designated “helper […]
WILLIAMS, Ariz. — Grand Canyon Railway and Hotel’s 2-8-2 No. 4960 led a charter train on June 10, one week after its scheduled “First Saturday” excursion. The Williams-Grand Canyon National Park trip was part of the itinerary for last week’s National Model Railroad Association’s PSR Grand Canyon Special Convention, hosted by the Arizona Division. With […]
