The Soo Line used what it called Mobile Cleaning Units — trucks with a power sweeper, power washers, and other cleaning and repair equipment — to clean and prep boxcars for grain shipment at its yards in Schiller Park (Chicago) and Shoreham (Minneapolis) in the early 1960s. The rig, with two workers, could clean a […]
A single photo from the 1950s of C&O’s ‘Sportsman’ at a small-city station at Staunton, Va., reveals plenty of small, easily overlooked details. 1 – Freight house Staunton (“Stan-ton”) in 1950 had a population of 19,927. All towns of this significance once had a freight house where less-than-carload (LCL) freight was handled. Warehousemen used a […]
Video from WJZ Baltimore. BALTIMORE — Railroad crews are responding to a train derailment in downtown Baltimore late Friday afternoon. Early reports indicate that a freight train derailed several cars, including a tank car over a viaduct before entering an underpass or tunnel in the city. The train derailed near the Baltimore Streetcar Museum. The […]
WASHINGTON — Class I railroads say their increased accessorial and demurrage charges, which they levy on customers for things such as car storage and special switching requests, are designed to make service more efficient by encouraging faster loading and unloading of freight cars. Grain shippers beg to differ. “Many Class I carriers increasingly are using […]
BALTIMORE — CSX Transportation CEO James Foote on Monday joined Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan in officially seeking federal funding for the $466 million Howard Street Tunnel clearance project. Hogan’s office announced that it submitted an application for a U.S. Department of Transportation grant that would fund raising clearances in the tunnel to permit double-stacks to […]
A southbound CN freight passes the former Soo Line station in Waukesha, Wis., in 2012. Brian Schmidt Q How did Canadian National end up operating the former Soo Line route through Wisconsin. I thought the Soo was affiliated with Canadian Pacific. – Kirk Gobain, Dodge City, Kan. A The Soo Line acquired the Milwaukee Road […]
Bill Stephens/ Class I railroad data Bill Stephens/ Class I railroad data The Class I railroad average operating ratio rose slightly in 2018 — the first increase in a decade — as congestion-related costs and an accounting rules change pushed the closely watched efficiency metric up at four of the seven big systems. CSX Transportation […]
A pair of BNSF Railway units pull a train of some 130-plus stored coal hoppers from Spikebuck, Colo., about five miles west of Parkdale, Colo., where Royal Gorge Route tourist trains terminate. Jody Moore CANON CITY, Colo. — A piece of Rio Grande’s long-dormant Tennessee Pass route saw freight traffic on it again briefly Monday. […]
The Tennessee Valley Authority board of directors approved closing the Bull Run Fossil Plant at Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Paradise Fossil Plant Unit 3 in Western Kentucky on Feb. 14, 2019. Chattanooga, TENN. — A major Tennessee utility provider has approved closing two rail-served, coal-fired power plants, alluding to a changing landscape in electricity […]
WASHINGTON — The wheels in Washington are beginning to turn on what could become landmark infrastructure legislation. “We are seeing are a lot of stars aligning,” says Brittney Kohler, program director of transportation and infrastructure at the National League of Cities. “The optimism is that Congress seems to understand, and local governments are prepared to […]
Late CSX Transportation CEO E. Hunter Harrison speaks before the Surface Transportation Board in 2017. R.G. Edmonson The spread of E. Hunter Harrison’s Precision Scheduled Railroading operating model across the industry may be driven by investors and Wall Street. But it is being implemented by a cadre of Harrison disciples from his days at Illinois […]
CP maintenance workers remove ice from the walls of a Spiral Tunnel to prevent damage to passing trains. Canadian Pacific FIELD, British Columbia – This week’s fatal derailment in British Columbia that took the lives of three railroaders is not the first time tragedy has struck Canadian Pacific’s rugged Laggan Subdivision. Kicking Horse Pass, home […]
