7 tips for installing decoders: I don’t know about you, but I have far less hobby time than I would like, so I need to spend what time I do have wisely. Installing Digital Command Control (DCC) decoders isn’t one of those projects I look forward to doing, but it’s a necessary task for operating […]
SAN CARLOS, Calif. — Caltrain will receive $367 million in state funding to complete electrification of its San Francisco-San Jose main line, the commuter rail operator announced Tuesday. The funds will come from the state’s Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program, and prevents diversion of operation funding that Caltrain had identified as a possible source […]
CALGARY, Alberta — Canadian Pacific reported strong fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday and expects to see volume growth this year despite economic uncertainty. The railway’s earnings call was a sideshow to the main event: The pending Surface Transportation Board decision on the proposed CP-Kansas City Southern merger. “We finished the year with the people, capacity […]
PENINSULA, Ohio — The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad is set to resume its regular operations this Friday, Feb. 3, ending a lengthy disruption caused by erosion adjacent to its right-of-way along the Cuyahoga River. The railroad announced the resumption on its Facebook page, beginning with Friday night’s Cleveland Dinner & Event train. Scenic excursions through […]
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is planning to begin publishing information on areas on its rapid-transit network with speed restrictions because of track and other issues, the Boston Globe reports — a change from a prior stance of non-disclosure that led to sharp criticism during hearings by U.S. senators last year. MBTA spokesman […]
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Beginning today (Wednesday, Feb. 1) Metrolink and the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority are offering a special $1 rond-trip fare on the new Arrow rail service between San Bernardino and Redlands, Calif. The fare, available through March 5, is available only for fares with origins and destinations between two of the […]
Lehigh Valley locomotives were known by the road’s early Cornell red and black paint scheme. Later, units carried gray-and-yellow and white-and-black colors. The Lehigh Valley dieselized with EMD FTs and F3s and Alco FAs (the last steam ran in 1951), and remained a prolific Alco customer through the 1960s. For a small railroad, the LV […]
The EMD NW3 locomotive was the builder’s first entry into the eventually lucrative road switcher category, although it was intended as a passenger terminal switcher. Locomotive builders can be inconsistent when it comes to aesthetics. EMD, which on one hand could create stylish, wind-splitting passenger units would, if the situation warranted, produce some […]
The best-selling Fairbanks-Morse diesel locomotives came from the builder’s “H” series of hood units. Even though Fairbanks-Morse built relatively few diesels compared to EMD or Alco, FM locomotives have a solid following among railfans. They were known for being rugged, excellent-pulling locomotives, in spite of their temperamental opposed-piston engines. Fairbanks-Morse chose to develop […]
Q: I have a 5’-6” x 6’-0” HO scale layout modeling south-central Oregon in the years 1950 to 1979. I want to model the industries that I grew up around in that area – potatoes, wheat farming, cattle ranching, and logging. The members of the train club I’m in say that the railroads quit hauling […]
Amtrak F40PH locomotives are considered the standard passenger motive power for the 1980s and early 1990s. The four-axle, 3,000-hp units are mechanically identical to the much more common GP40-2 freight locomotive, which also use the 16-645E prime mover. In fact, the F40PH was EMD’s first production passenger locomotive to use this prime mover. (Other F40PH […]
The 4-6-6-4 Challenger was the most successful articulated steam locomotive design. Rating steam locomotives is a risky business. You might easily compare engines by weight or length or lists of accessories, but actual performance — judged by the engineering standards of 2023 — is somewhat subjective. It would be an exaggeration to say […]
