An engineer’s life: Mad Dog’s dinner train fiasco

red and silver dinner train on tracks in city

The Washington Central Railroad’s Spirit of Washington dinner train started running in 1989. Originally, it operated for a few years along the Yakama River Canyon in Eastern Washington, before moving to the east side of Lake Washington to run on Burlington Northern’s Woodinville Subdivision. The 44-mile round trip to the Columbia Winery in Woodinville departed […]

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The F125 “Spirit” commuter locomotive

silver, black and teal train with palm trees in back

F125 “Spirit” commuter locomotive The F125 “Spirit” commuter locomotive offers something different at Southern California commuter stations. While a modern fleet of homogenized locomotives is great for the financial bottom line, and certainly easier for the maintenance workers who care for them, aren’t you secretly hoping it will not be business as usual behind that […]

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How to choose signals for your layout

Signaling has entered a golden age in the hobby. More options exist now than have ever existed before for modelers to add signals to their railroads. Resources and online groups allow access to information and photographs at an unprecedented level. Possibilities cover the full range of options from a single stand-alone manual signal to a […]

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Montreal light rail system to debut July 31

Map of Montreal light rail network

MONTREAL — The first segment of Montreal’s Réseau express metropolitan light rail system will open on July 31, construction contractor CDPQ Infra announced Friday. The initial five-station, 16.6-kilometer (10.3-mile) segment will operate between the South Shore community of Brossard and Central Station (Gare Centrale), with a trip taking less than 18 minutes. The much-delayed service […]

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Three rail employees arrested in India rail disaster

Aerial view of collision site in India.

NEW DELHI — Three employees of Indian Railways have been arrested over the three-train collision in June that killed almost 300 people, Agence France-Presse reports. The country’s Central Bureau of Investigation said the men — two signal engineers and one technician — have charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and destruction of evidence. […]

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NTSB to investigate derailment of NS coal train in Virginia

National Transportation Safety Board logo

ELLISTON, Va. — The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the derailment of a Norfolk Southern coal train Thursday night near Elliston, the Associated Press reports. The NTSB confirmed its investigation plans in a Twitter post this evening (July 7). Nineteen cars derailed but stayed upright in the incident, which came after the train crew […]

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Fully funded, new firebox work advances on PRR K4s No. 1361

Men discuss work on steam engine behind them

ALTOONA, Pa. — Work to construct a new $425,000 firebox for Pennsylvania Railroad Class K4s steam locomotive No. 1361 (PRR Juniata Shops, 1918) is moving along rapidly, with the inner wrapper sheets scheduled to be assembled late next month or in early September. The locomotive is in the midst of a $2.6 million restoration to […]

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