LANSING, Mich. — Michigan’s Transportation Department will seek $20 million to $25 million in federal grants to repair bridges on a state-owned line used by Amtrak services. Capital News Service reports the funds would be used to repair four bridges between Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo, according to Peter Anastor, director of the transportation department’s Office […]
LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Retired BNSF Railway CEO Robert D. Krebs and his wife Anne have donated their Lake Forest mansion, with an assessed value of $5.96 million, to Lake Forest College, the Chicago Tribune reports in a paywalled article. The 9,217-square-foot Italian-villa mansion is on 2.6 acres of land on Walden Road in the […]
CALGARY — Canadian Pacific moved 2.29 million metric tons of Canadian grain in January, setting a record for the month, the company said last week. The railroad has now moved more than 15 million metric tons in the 2022-23 crop year, an increase of more than 45% over the same point in the 2021-22 crop […]
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and officials in Columbiana County have issued a new evacuation order tonight (Sunday, Feb. 5) for those within a mile of the site of Friday’s derailment of a Norfolk Southern train, warning of a possible tank car explosion, WHIO-TV reports. Also, National Transportation Safety Board investigators have […]
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — The chemical burning in the fire resulting from Friday’s derailment of a Norfolk Southern train is the flammable gas vinyl chloride, a potentially carcinogenic substance. The village of East Palestine identified the material in a news release Saturday afternoon, NBC News reports. The Environmental Protection Agency says “cancer is a major […]
CHICAGO — Lack of standby equipment and the inability of Amtrak mechanical forces to sufficiently prepare cars and locomotives for service led to the cancellation of one pair of Chicago-based trains and departure delays to 11 others on Thursday, Feb. 2. The cancellation of one Chicago-Milwaukee Hiawatha round trip, and the cumulative delays to the […]
HICKORY, N.C. — Matt Bumgarner, founding member of the Southeastern Narrow Gauge and Shortline Museum, historian, author, publisher, entrepreneur, and restorer of wooden railroad cars, died Jan. 26 after a brief illness. He was 56. Bumgarner was a director of the museum in Newton, N.C., an organization spearheaded by the Newton Depot Authority, a non-profit […]
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — The mayor of the town of East Palestine has declared a state of emergency as a fire continues to burn, following Friday night’s derailment of about 50 cars of a Norfolk Southern train near the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line. WKBN-TV reports Mayor Trent Conaway issued the emergency declaration just before 9:30 a.m. […]
The Lionel Union Pacific Rocket Booster Train is finally out, and as an aerospace engineer formerly employed by NASA, this set hit home! I knew I had to have it the second I saw it advertised in the Lionel 2022 Volume 1 catalog! The set isn’t a work of science fiction, either. The prototype Rocket […]
CG Railway’s traffic grew 53% last year thanks to the increased capacity of its new rail ferries, the company said this week. The short line, a joint venture of Genesee & Wyoming and SEACOR Holdings, floats freight cars across the Gulf of Mexico. The route links the ports of Mobile, Ala., and Coatzacoalcos in Veracruz, […]
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Work will begin in March to convert a former Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad bridge into an entertainment venue, the Kansas City Star reports. The bridge, built by the Rock Island in 1905, crosses the Kansas River in the city’s West Bottoms area. It has been idle since the 1970s […]
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific has been named to Fortune magazine’s list of the World’s Most Admired Companies for the 17th time in 21 years. UP is the highest-ranked railroad in the magazine’s Trucking, Transportation, and Logistics category. The annual list is compiled through a survey conducted by global consulting firm Korn Ferry. Executives, directors, […]
