MIAMI—South Florida commuter operator Tri-Rail will begin expanding its ridership base by initiating service to Brightline’s center-city Miami terminal next Saturday, Jan. 13, but Amtrak continues to delay moving its long-distance Silver Star and Silver Meteor from an isolated facility 80 blocks north of downtown at Hialeah to a modern Miami International Airport station that […]
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INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The city of Inglewood will receive more than $1 billion in federal funds for the Inglewood Transit Connector project, a planned 1.6-mile, three-station elevated “automated people mover” rail line connecting three major sports and entertainment facilities to the LA Metro light rail system. The grant from the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment […]
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Lake Shore Limited Oct. 3, 2011, wasn’t just another day in the life of the Lake Shore Limited. That’s because just ahead of two New York Viewliner sleeping cars on eastbound train 48 out of Chicago was dining car No. 8400, on its first revenue run after a top-to-bottom refurbishment at Amtrak’s Beech Grove Heavy […]
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LIRR FA2 It’s an unusual sight — what looks almost like a diesel B unit, resting on the cold ground in an Ohio scrapyard. A closer look reveals that this wasn’t always a B unit — it had a cab at one point, removed with significantly greater care than any scrapyard could give. On its […]
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NEW YORK — Full service has been restored on New York City Transit’s 1, 2, 3 subway lines on Manhattan’s West Side following Thursday’s low-speed collision between two trains, which derailed both and blocked the route adjacent to the 96th Street station. The resumption of service was announced on the NYC Transit Subway X site […]
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SACRAMENTO — Alstom Transportation and Siemens Mobility are the two potential suppliers of trainsets for the California high speed rail project, the California High-Speed Rail Authority announced Friday. Their identification as qualified bidders follows the authority’s release of a Request for Qualifications in August 2023 and precedes the release of the Request for Proposals and […]
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MT. SHASTA, Calif. — The man killed in a Christmas Day shooting by a police office on board Amtrak’s Coast Starlight was disabled and suffered from mental health issues, his mother told the Redding Record Searchlight. Nicholas Detweiler Haritoudis, 32, was a train passenger, traveling from Klamath Falls, Ore., to California’s Sonoma County, when was […]
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What toy train locomotive means the most to you? It’s a locomotive that’s not a childhood treasure, let alone having been part of my O-gauge collection for only 8 months now. And while being on my general radar for some time, it wasn’t a particular model I prioritized in searching for. Perhaps it was ultimately […]
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After finishing “Rosy,” my sugar cane train saddle tank engine, I decided to kitbash large-scale sugar cane cars. I started with Hartland Locomotive Works (HLW, now out of business—Ed.) flatcars and added solid square posts (Evergreen Styrene #196) into the holes in the car. I also added a small piece .10” flat styrene into the […]
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My first train set (or locomotive) was…? I got my first train set for Christmas in 1948 — I was 3 years old. I had no idea I was going to get a train. I remember my mom coming into my bedroom and waking me up not too long after I went to bed. She […]
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The 4-8-4 steam locomotive wheel arrangement was exemplified in the South by the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Dixies. Of all the regions in the U.S., the South had the fewest of what might be called the ultimate dual-service “modern” steam locomotive, that is, engines with four-wheel trailing trucks, especially 4-8-4s. An agrarian […]
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Q: My father, who gave me my first train set in 1974, asked me a couple questions about steam locomotive power that I didn’t know the answers to, so I’m directing them to you. Which wheel configurations are better for pulling a train up a hill versus long freight loads a long distance, and why? Also, […]
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