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ROCHELLE, Ill. — The city of Rochelle has broken ground on its new Intermodal Transload Center, which will offer both intermodal service and transloading for a variety of commodities. Intermodal service could begin as early as spring 2023, the city says. “The Union Pacific Global III Intermodal facility abruptly idled in 2019, leaving local industries […]
STRASBURG, Pa. — Strasburg Rail Road’s ex-Norfolk & Western 4-8-0 steam engine No. 475 returned to excursion passenger duty this week after the company’s mechanical department worked overtime to repair smokebox damage from a Nov. 2 collision with a tracked excavator. The locomotive was back in service on Monday [see “Strasburg No.475 back in service […]
The Mineral Range railroad of Michigan is a family-owned and -operated railroad in the state’s Upper Peninsula. It’s actually the second railroad of the same name. The “original” began as a north-south, 14-mile narrow gauge mineral hauler, connecting the Osceola Mining Co.’s Osceola copper ore mine near Calumet, Mich., and the company’s stamp mill at […]
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Former Alaska Gov. Bill Sheffield, who was instrumental in the state’s purchase of the Alaska Railroad from the federal government and went on to serve as the railroad’s president, CEO, and board chairman, has died. Sheffield died on Nov. 4. He was 94. “There are just no words to encompass all that […]
Model an enginehouse scene. Last year, I wrote about an old 40-foot insulated boxcar being used as a storage shed on the Sisseton Milbank RR (SMRR) in Milbank, S.D. I thought it would be fun to take another look at the 38-mile line, a subsidiary of the Twin Cities & Western RR, this time focusing […]
PARADISE, Pa. — Strasburg Rail Road’s 4-8-0 steam engine No. 475 collided with a tracked excavator or “trackhoe” parked on a spur Wednesday morning, Nov. 2, punching a hole in the engine’s smokebox. No injuries resulted and the engine, running light, remained on the track. A combination of a misaligned switch — apparently left open when […]
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation board has granted the request for more mediation in the Amtrak Gulf Coast case — but not to delay its scheduled hearings on the matter. At least, not yet. In a decision issued Wednesday evening, Nov. 2, the board calls for further mediation, to extend through Dec. 1, as requested […]
SCRANTON, Pa. — Pennsylvania will provide $3.7 million for track improvements needed for a possible Scranton-New York City Amtrak route, the Pocono Record reports. The grant through the state’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program has been awarded to the Monroe County Industrial Development Authority. It will provide half the funding for 43,000 new crossties on a […]
GLENDALE, N.Y. — John Gleeson has been named director of sales and marketing for the New York & Atlantic Railway as of Oct. 17. He will succeed Charles Samul, who will retire in early 2023. Gleeson has nearly 20 years in on the customer and supplier side of the rail industry. He previously developed rail […]
WASHINGTON — The parties involved in the fight over Amtrak Gulf Coast service want to make one more effort to settle the matter without resuming their hearing before the Surface Transportation Board. Just five days after the STB issued its schedule for additional hearings, and indicated it could vote on a resolution as soon as […]
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board has scheduled two more days of hearings next month on Amtrak’s efforts to launch Gulf Coast passenger service after the passenger carrier, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and the Port of Mobile, Ala., failed to reach an agreement through board-sponsored mediation. The evidentiary hearings will be Nov. 17-18, beginning at […]
I never met David “Dave” A. Fink, but I felt his presence for a while in the late 1990s. The pugnacious president of Guilford Transportation Industries had a reputation for being difficult with journalists, but long about 1997 I decided Trains absolutely had to have a profile of his railroad, no matter what. Fink proved […]
