Patriot Rail to acquire Pioneer Lines, creating company with 31 short lines

Black locomotive with yellow trim

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Short line operator and rail services company Patriot Rail will acquire rail holding company Pioneer Lines, nearly doubling Patriot Rail’s operations to 31 railroads. Patriot Rail, which currently operates 16 railroads freight railroads in 14 states, will add 15 in 12 states, expanding into Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, […]

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Busing plan changes for South Shore line construction

South Shore Line cars parked on railroad track

GARY, Ind. — South Shore Line commuter rail service has entered a new phase of busing as part of the continuing project to double track the main line between Gary and Michigan City, Ind. As of Saturday, Aug. 6, a bus bridge is operating between the Gary Metro station and Carroll Avenue station in Michigan […]

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Hudson Bay Railway to get major government funding support

VIA_ChurchIll_Johnston

WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The governments of Canada and the province of Manitoba will invest C$147.8 million to upgrade the Hudson Bay Railway, the only year-round ground transportation link to the isolated community of Churchill, Man., which is also Canada’s lone arctic port. The Canadian Press reports the new funds are in addition to the C$157 […]

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North Carolina’s Kinston Railroad begins operation

Logo of Kinston Railroad

KINSTON, N.C. — The latest short line of Jaguar Transport Holdings, North Carolina’s Kinston Railroad, began operation on Aug. 1. The railroad will operate on 6 miles of track owned by the North Carolina Department of Transportation, between an interchange with Norfolk Southern in Kinston and North Carolina Global TransPark, a 2,500-acre industrial and business […]

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Texas Coastal Bend Railroad, newest Watco line, begins operations

Blue locomotive with light blue curving stripe

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Watco’s newest short line, the Texas Coastal Bend Railroad, is scheduled to begin operation today (Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022), taking over 12 miles of trackage owned by the Port of Corpus Christi along with 8.5 miles of Union Pacific trackage rights. The railroad unveiled two locomotives with the port’s logo at […]

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Iowa Interstate returns SD38-2s to service

Black, red, and yellow locomotives cross bridge with speedboat in foreground

The Iowa Interstate Railroad has reactivated SD38-2s Nos. 152 and 153 after three of its General Electric ES44-AC locomotives suffered damage in grade crossing accidents. The locomotives handed train PESI (Peoria-Silvis, Ill.) on Sunday, July 31, with ES44AC No. 508, pulling 90 grain empties and two steel loads. The non-turbocharged, normally aspirated engines are fan […]

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Working mountain Alco locomotives from the WNY&P

Low-angled, tight image of a red locomotive leading a train.

Working mountain Alco locomotives: Nestled in the wide rolling hills on the western edge of New York’s Southern Tier lies the formerly two-railroad town of Olean, N.Y. A quaint, unsuspecting town of 13,000 residents located along the placid Allegheny River was once a railfanning destination, that is — until the formation of Conrail. Dozens of […]

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News photos: Reading & Northern excursion travels rare mileage

Rail Diesel Cars pass builing

READING, Pa. — In a trip featuring the first appearance by a passenger train in Tremont, Pa., in at least 30 years, the Reading & Northern hosted the National Museum of Industrial History’s Anthracite Railroad Ramble on Friday, July 29. The trip, featuring Reading & Northern’s Budd Rail Diesel Cars, originated at the Reading Outer Station, […]

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Host railroads tell regulators modeling clearly shows Amtrak Gulf Coast service would cause unreasonable freight impairment

Passenger train approaches curve with freight train on adjacent track

WASHINGTON — The launch of Amtrak Gulf Coast service without infrastructure improvements would cause “immediate and future impairment to freight service that is unreasonable under any definition,” CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern argue in their latest filing with the Surface Transportation Board. This is the exact opposite of the contention Amtrak makes in its latest […]

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North Carolina Railroad Co. to buy, restore Greensboro station

Vintage postcard of brick railroad station

GREENSBORO, N.C. — The North Carolina Railroad Co. will purchase a 123-year-old Southern Railway station in Greensboro for “preservation and beneficial redevelopment,” the company announced Monday. The masonry structure at 400 S. Elm Street, currently owned by Norfolk Southern, was built in 1899 and is in a downtown district listed on the National Register of […]

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New York short line locomotive overturned after hitting derail

MILO, N.Y. — A Finger Lakes Railway locomotive overturned Monday after striking a derail protecting a track project, injuring the engineer, the Finger Lakes Daily News reports. The locomotive was running light when the accident occurred about 8 a.m., injuring its engineer, 48-year-old Thomas Lewis of Dresden, N.Y., and causing a fuel spill. Lewis was […]

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