Mid-Continent Railway Museum visit with Montana Western No. 31 Trains LIVE — 11-9-2022 — It is the fulfillment of an idea that revolutionized railroad motive power — using an internal combustion engine to drive a generator, feeding electricity to a traction motor. In the 1920s, this was heady stuff. This was unknown territory. This was […]
Illinois Central upside-down fruit pudding Trains LIVE — 12-7-2022 — “The experienced Illinois Central traveler knew to pass up ice cream and other more common desserts if this treat was on the menu,” says James Porterfield in his book Dining by Rail. This is Trains LIVE — Illinois Central upside-down fruit pudding. We are cooking on […]
Daughter of rail artist Ted Rose speaks: There is no doubt that Ted Rose ranks in the upper echelons of railroad artists. Rose, born in Milwaukee in 1940, rendered hundreds of watercolor paintings and monotypes during his career. Sadly, he passed in 2002, however, the artistic legacy he left behind gives us the opportunity to […]
CSX Transportation and Union Pacific have relaxed their attendance policies in response to labor concerns. “Today we announced changes to the company’s attendance policy in order to provide CSX employees more flexibility and to respond to concerns expressed by craft employees and labor organizations. The new policy is applicable to all craft employees and is […]
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators will issue a decision by March 8 on Montana Rail Link’s request for permission to discontinue service over 656.47 miles of track in Montana and Idaho as part of the early termination of its lease with BNSF Railway. In a decision released today, the Surface Transportation Board accepted MRL’s petition, set […]
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Wednesday marked completion of the Clifton Maintenance Shop on Staten Island, the rebuild of a facility extensively damaged by Hurricane Sandy that has been upgraded to withstand Category 2 hurricane winds and a water surge of up to 3 feet. The 93,220-square-foot facility includes Staten Island […]
RALEIGH, N.C. — A dozen North Carolina short lines will receive approximately $12 million for infrastructure improvements under the state’s Freight Rail and Rail Crossing Safety Improvement Program, the N.C. Department of Transportation announced Wednesday, Dec. 7. The recipients match the state funds, leading to approximately $24 million in work to support improvements to 52 […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. rail traffic dropped by 3.3% in November — a total of 80,544 carloads and intermodal units — with carloads down 0.9% and intermodal traffic down 5.4%, according to the latest statistics from the Association of American Railroads. Meanwhile, the latest weekly traffic, for the week ending Dec. 3, was down 6% from […]
CARY, N.C. — Rail data provider Railinc is adding enhanced information on the location and status of railcar cushioning devices to its Component Tracking program, the company has announced. “Since its inception in 2013, the industry has implemented component tracking for hundreds of millions of critical railcar components including wheelsets, side frames, bolsters, and couplers,” […]
WATERTOWN, N.Y. — New York Air Brake’s DB-60 II brake control valve with Brake Cylinder Maintaining (BCM) has received unconditional approval from the Association of American Railroads for the BCM feature, becoming the only supplier granted full approval for the technology. BCM is a patented feature that improves braking performance by replenishing air pressure when […]
BEAUMONT, Texas — The National Transportation Safety Board will focus on switching procedures for contract rail switching operator PSC Group and refinery facility upkeep as it continues its investigation into a fatality at the ExxonMobil refinery in Beaumont, Texas, on Oct. 28, 2022, according to the NTSB’s preliminary report released today (Wednesday, Dec. 7). The […]
ATLANTA — The strategy shift that Norfolk Southern announced yesterday — focusing on providing consistent service and volume growth rather than on costs and the operating ratio — received a generally positive reception from Wall Street analysts. But they also said that to win over skeptical investors NS will have to prove that it can […]
