GENOA, Italy — RINA, a multinational inspection, certification, and engineering consulting organization, will enter the North American infrastructure market following its acquisition of Patrick Engineering Ltd., a Chicago-based engineering consulting company specializing in infrastructure, transport, and renewable energy. The acquisition announced Monday brings RINA an organization with 19 offices and 340 employees, mostly in the […]
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Of all the railroads that tried various gambits to get out of the passenger business in the 1960s, perhaps none attracted as much vitriol as Southern Pacific. Not that SP downgraded or got rid of the most trains — that honor probably goes to New York Central — but its 1966 substitution of an […]
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A late afternoon photo from 1951 at Central Station, Illinois Central’s main terminal in Chicago, finds three trains ready to depart. From left: IC’s Panama Limited to New Orleans, New York Central’s Twilight Limited to Detroit, and IC’s Seminole to Jacksonville, Fla. Part of the Seminole’s run was on the Central of Georgia, which assigned […]
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The Lionel Legacy 0-6-0 switcher has a great feature set for a steam engine this small. Strasburg Rail Road’s No. 31 has immortalized in this run of the locomotive. Really, the hype for the heritage railway was the story of the Lionel 2021 Volume 2 catalog, all courtesy of the brass-hybrid offering of 2-10-0 No. […]
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Florida Midland Railroad summary The Florida Midland Railroad (FMID) is a short line railroad operating in central Florida. It is one of three of the state’s shortline railroads that is part of Regional Rail, LLC. The railroad operates 28 miles of standard-gauge track on two separate branch lines, one out of Winter Haven and the […]
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WASHINGTON – Union Pacific has asked the Federal Railroad Administration for permission to temporarily deactivate the centralized traffic control on a 13.4-mile section of its Winnemucca Subdivision in Nevada, saying that windblown sand and soil has made the signal system unreliable. UP says it can’t make repairs until spring because the track structure is frozen […]
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LOMBARD, Ill. — A few notes from the recently concluded winter meeting of the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers: Oberman’s frustrations: During his Q&A session led by Eric Jakubowski of Anacostia Rail Holdings, Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin J. Oberman talked a bit about the processes under which the board works. One interesting note regarded […]
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LAC-MÉGANTIC, Quebec —Canadian Transport Minister Omar Alghabra made an unannounced visit to the Lac-Mégantic area late last week, facing continuing resistance to some land acquisitions needed to reroute Canadian Pacific’s line around the community devastated by a 2013 derailment and fire. In a statement released after the visit on Thursday, Jan. 19, Transport Canada said […]
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SAN FRANCISCO — A 1.3-mile extension of Caltrain and California’s high-speed rail line to a transit center in downtown San Francisco would cost $6.7 billion, according to a new estimate from the agency which would oversee the project. The San Jose Mercury News reports the figure from the Transbay Joint Powers Authority represents a 34% […]
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BISMARCK, N.D. — As part of its long-running effort to prevent BNSF Railway from replacing a 140-year-old bridge over the Missouri River, a preservation group argued in a Friday hearing against granting a state permit needed for the project. The Bismarck Tribune reports the group Friends of the Rail Bridge argued in the hearing before […]
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FILLMORE, Calif. — Replacement of a bridge on a rail line operated by Sierra Northern that washed out in this month’s heavy rains may cost $1.5 million, the Ventura County Star reports. About a quarter of the 450-foot bridge was washed away on Jan. 10, apparently by debris that damaged then knocked out the concrete […]
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WASHINGTON — The head of the Federal Railroad Administration is urging states to increase staffing and expertise to handle rail projects, given the additional funding available from the federal government. A report on the website Route Fifty, which covers issues of interest to state and local goverments, says FRA Administrator Amit Bose told the U.S. […]
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