WASHINGTON — Operation Lifesaver, Inc. is reaching out to top leadership at Subaru and its advertising agency on a new commercial that shows a woman and a man illegally riding in a boxcar. The national non-profit rail safety education group recently sent a letter to Subaru’s vice president of marketing asking the car manufacturer to […]
Train Topic: Railroad Operations
Charlie’s Trackside Postcards – BNSF Balmer Yard Hump
Not even another rainy day in Seattle could keep Charlie from further exploring BNSF’s Balmer Yard switching action. In this video postcard, you’ll get up-close views of flat switching, remote-control locomotives kicking cars, and rolling stock gliding down the hump! […]
Charlie’s Trackside Postcards – BNSF Balmer Yard Hump
Not even another rainy day in Seattle could keep Charlie from further exploring BNSF’s Balmer Yard switching action. In this video postcard, you’ll get up-close views of flat switching, remote-control locomotives kicking cars, and rolling stock gliding down the hump! […]
Charlie’s Trackside Postcards – BNSF Balmer Yard Ready Tracks
The Seattle-centric postcards continue with Charlie and MRVP’s Kent Johnson visiting the locomotive ready tracks at BNSF’s Balmer Yard. From a prime street-side vantage point, the two investigate an eclectic range of vintage Santa Fe and BN equipment, plus modern BNSF diesel power idling and working the site. […]
Charlie’s Trackside Postcards – BNSF Balmer Yard Ready Tracks
The Seattle-centric postcards continue with Charlie and MRVP’s Kent Johnson visiting the locomotive ready tracks at BNSF’s Balmer Yard. From a prime street-side vantage point, the two investigate an eclectic range of vintage Santa Fe and BN equipment, plus modern BNSF diesel power idling and working the site. […]
Locomotive formulas
A Fort Worth & Western mixed freight ascends a grade near Cresson, Texas, in May 2013. Steve Sweeney Q Do railroads have formulas managing the length or tonnage of a train based on how many engines are pulling it? What factors would be in such a formula? — Doug Gard, McCordsville, Ind. A Each railroad […]
Leverage
Pulling the correct lever is an important matter for operators of Metra’s Tower A2 in western Chicago in September 2013. This pneumatic lever machine uses brass rods to trigger air pulses to switch more than 100 points on Union Pacific headed due west out of downtown. Photo by Steve Sweeney […]
VIDEO: Wheel-rail interaction explained NEWSWIRE
LAS VEGAS – Railroad wheels wear over time. When they do, they affect the performance and reliability of the freight or passenger car or locomotive that they help carry down the tracks. Gordon Bachinsky, founder of Wheel Rail Seminars and the Wheel Rail Interaction conference lays out the basics for Trains‘ Steve Sweeney with model […]
NS cuts rails on mothballed Ohio mainline NEWSWIRE
Norfolk Southern maintenance-of-way crews recently severed the rails of its idled West Virginia Secondary. Here, orange spray paint identifies where the rails have been cut near Milepost 116.5 in Middleport, Ohio. CSX Transportation-owned track to the south remains in service, while the NS segment to the north has been mothballed. James C. Trivett III MIDDLEPORT, […]
A fog horn on a Daylight
Southern Pacific Daylight 4-8-4 No. 4449 at Bend, Ore., in October 2012. The fog horn is at the top of the smokebox on the fireman’s side, or the right, as you look at the engine. Alex Mayes Q I was watching a video about the Southern Pacific Daylight 4-8-4 No. 4449, and I noticed that […]
What West Virginia will do now that King Coal has lost his crown NEWSWIRE
Coal empties for Danville, W.Va., roll by the W.E. MacCorkle Siding on CSX Transportation’s Coal River Subdivision in April 2013. Chase Gunnoe CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Coal country’s railroaders keep a watchful eye on their train crew assignments these days. They’re waiting for further cutbacks to terminals throughout West Virginia and trying not to believe too […]
Map of Glenita, Va., and environs
Because of a production error with our Spring 2016 issue, the map that should have accompanied the article “Calamity at Glenita” — about a 1968 coal train derailment on the Southern Railway — was omitted from the magazine. Here is the map. […]
