Genesee & Wyoming touts business development efforts for 2021

Genesee & Wyoming logo

DARIEN, Conn. — Genesee & Wyoming says its business development efforts in 2021 led to 69 projects totaling $1.5 billion in customer development and expected to generate more than 1,000 news jobs. “Based on last year’s customer investments, G&W’s freight transportation services continue to be critical to companies’ logistics strategies and the greater supply chain,” […]

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News photo: Former Fillmore & Western cars bound for Pennsylvania

Green heavyweight passenger car being lifted by crane onto flatcar

FILLMORE, Calif. – The dispersal of equipment from Southern California’s defunct Fillmore & Western Railway continues. Two heavyweight passenger cars from the railroad have been sold to Everett Railroad in Duncansville, Pa. The Powhatan Café Parlor car was built by Pullman for the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad; the Rancho Sespe — named for a […]

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Adventures of a railroad station agent

Orange and red diesel locomotives

I’d been hired as second-shift railroad station agent at Channing, Mich., for the Escanaba & Lake Superior Railroad in June 1980. The railroad had taken over operation of the Milwaukee Road’s lines north of Green Bay, Wis., three months earlier. I was 23 years old and had no qualifications for the job, other than I […]

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Sugar Express sets steam excursions for April 9-10

Train with steam locomotive crosses wooden bridge

CLEWISTON, Fla. — U.S. Sugar’s Sugar Express will operate its restored Alco 4-6-2 steam locomotive, No. 148, on two days of train rides between Clewiston and Moore Haven in April. Two-hour round trips on April 9-10 will depart Clewiston at 10 a.m., 1 p.m., and 4 p.m. each day. Each trip will feature No. 148 […]

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Tunnel under a town prototype: Bellows Falls, Vermont

Bellows Falls tunnel under a town prototype: Black and white image of a freight train exiting tunnel underneath a town.

Tunnel under a town prototype: Yes, there is at least one U.S. example of railroads going underneath small towns. And here it is: Boston & Maine’s single track line through Bellows Falls, Vermont. Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library has three photos in the Boston & Maine tunnels folder that show off this specimen in […]

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Minnesota bill would provide $20 million for short line capital projects

Man with glasses wearing coat and tie

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Legislation introduced in the Minnesota House of Representatives would provide $20 million for capital improvements on the state’s short lines, which face significant costs to upgrade their infrastructure, according to the bill’s sponsor. Rep. Paul Tokelson (R-Hanska, Minn.) says the state’s 821 miles of Class II, III, and private rail lines […]

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Indiana interurban

Indiana Railroad interurban terminal

Indiana Railroad RPO-coach 375 stands under the big trainshed at the Indianapolis interurban terminal in the late 1930s, a few years before IRR ended service. W. B. Cox coll. […]

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International equity firm Antin invests in Lake State Railway

Train with blue and gray locomotive in snow

PARIS — International private equity firm Antin Infrastructure Partners has made what it calls “a strategic investment” in Michigan regional railroad Lake State Railway, the companies announced Tuesday. Lake State, founded in 1992, operates 375 route-miles in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, primarily stretching from Plymouth in the south of the state to Gaylord and Alpena in […]

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SMS Rail, short line noted for Baldwins, hit by theft

Two green locomotives in industrial yard.

LOGAN TOWNSHIP, N.J. — SMS Rail Service, the New Jersey short line celebrated for its continuing use of Baldwin locomotives, has been hit by scrap thieves who stole some $135,000 in parts from locomotives and railcars. NJ.com reports parts including high-voltage cables, motor cables, air brake equipment and brass wheel bearings were stolen from seven […]

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