RALSTON, Neb. — “Day One” is on trip No. 1. Siemens Charger ALC42, No. 301 the second locomotive in Amtrak’s 75-unit order for new long-distance locomotives, is en route from the Siemens plant in Sacramento, Calif, to Wilmington, Del., where Amtrak will take delivery. The locomotive, wearing the one-of-a-kind “Day One” scheme to commemorate the […]
ANTONITO, Colo. — Rio Grande Southern 4-6-0 No. 20, visiting the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad from Colorado Railroad Museum, will pull freight cars and historic passenger cars on a Trains Magazine photographer’s jaunt between Antonito and Big Horn on Sept. 5. This will be the first solo trip for the 1899 steam locomotive, which […]
Portions of the rail network in Western Europe could be out of service for months or years after massive flooding that has left hundreds dead across a swath of western Germany and Belgium. Rail service has been suspended after the floods that saw rivers running 3 yards higher than previous records in some cases and […]
LOS ANGELES — Amtrak’s Coast Starlight began operating as Los Angeles-Sacramento, Calif., and Seattle-Klamath Falls, Ore., sections linked by an overnight bus ride as of Friday, July 16, but travelers haven’t been able to make new reservations, even on the unaffected parts of the route. The Seattle-Klamath Falls portion had been dropped after a wildfire […]
CALGARY, Alberta — Canadian Pacific has taken the chairwoman of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada to task for comments regarding the agency’s investigation of the possibility a train caused the fire which devastated the town of Lytton, British Columbia., on June 30. In a Thursday report by the Canadian Press, Kathy Fox, chairwoman of […]
MINERSVILLE, Pa. — An excursion to raise funds for an engineer who has been a key part of the volunteer restoration of a former Central of New Jersey 0-6-0 has raised $12,000 to help with his medical expenses. Since 2012, when the all-volunteer non-profit Railway Restoration Project 113 of Minersville, Pa., began running its former […]
BNSF Railway ran a special passenger movement between Kansas City and Albuquerque, N.M., last week, via the Raton and Glorieta subdivisions, in anticipation of the return of a weekly freight movement over part of the line. Officially an engineering special, the movement saw CEO Katie Farmer and some of her staff were on board the […]
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A Union Pacific engineer has won the right to take his service dog to work, six years after the railroad declined to allow the dog to accompany the man to work and three years after he filed suit. After a five-day trial, a U.S. District Court jury unanimously decided Perry Hopman, […]
Mergers or acquisitions of two or more railroads always bring a blending of motive power rosters. Kansas City Southern, like all Class I railroads today, relies on its fleet of A.C. (alternating current) traction locomotives for most of its operations, similar to both Canadian National’s and Canadian Pacific’s motive power philosophies. Kansas City Southern’s grade-intensive […]
MILFORD, Utah — A derailment caused by flooding has added to the operational issues being faced by Union Pacific. The railroad informed customers on Friday that washouts resulting from flooding south of Milford, Utah, have shut down its route between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City — washouts that led to the derailment of a […]
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Canadian National and Canadian Pacific were both able to operate rail service through the Thompson and Fraser River canyons on Friday, the Port of Vancouver informed customers, while cautioning that wildfire activity in British Columbia’s interior continues and “impacts to rail operations are evolving and changing quickly.” Both railroads had halted […]
Introduction to the Matteson, Illinois, railfan hotspot Matteson’s status as a truly significant railroad junction dates only to October 2011, when Canadian National completed a new connection between its north-south former Illinois Central line, and its recently acquired Elgin, Joliet & Eastern, the belt line that gave it a way to avoid much of […]
