LAS VEGAS, Nev. — The Brightline West project is about to get its official kickoff. While various surveying and other preparation work has been in progress for several months, a formal groundbreaking ceremony is set for Monday in Las Vegas at the planned site for the high-speed project’s Las Vegas station. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Brightline […]
The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad has faced numerous challenges in the last few years, the results of which have attributed to the end of using coal to fire their steam locomotive fleet. Following a major fire near the railroad, the D&S fast-tracked a program to convert their steam engines to burn oil. A […]
Railroad places to visit 1. GOAT LICK TRESTLE: Fast-paced action of BNSF’s northern transcon and the beauty of Glacier National Park, plus live GN goats. 2. CAJON PASS: Busy mainline mountain crossing for both BNSF and Union Pacific leaving LA. 3. TEHACHAPI: Mind-boggling over-and-under loop in Southern California sees more than 40 trains a day. […]
SOCORRO, N.M. — BNSF Railway is estimating it will reopen its main line at approximately 7 a.m. local time Wednesday after a Monday, March 25, derailment of an undetermined number of railcars near Socorro. The railroad indicated in an advisory to customers that the derailment occurred about 10 p.m. KOB-TV reports that no one was […]
At Albuquerque, N.Mex., Santa Fe No. 17, the Super Chief (at left behind E units) has caught up to a late-running train 19, the Chief, at 4:20 p.m. on a spring day in 1946. The Super left Chicago 7 hours after No. 19 and was scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles 1 hour 15 minutes […]
WILLIAMS, Ariz. — Winter hibernation for Grand Canyon Railway No. 4960 concluded on March 2 as the 2-8-2 headed the first excursion of the railway’s 2024 steam season, between Williams and the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. Off-season work since the end of the 2023 schedule included, as previously reported [See “Grand Canyon […]
ELKO, Nev. — Sixteen railcars of corn from a Union Pacific train derailed near the Amtrak station in Elko early today (Wednesday, Feb. 28), striking the support of a street overpass and raising question about the bridge’s structural integrity. No injuries were reported and no hazardous materials were involved. The Associated Press reports the derailment […]
Join Kevin Gilliam as he revisits the New Jersey-based tourist/freight hauler. Watch the railroad’s various steam locomotives in operation here, and then catch up with restoration insights in an associated Trains Live interview found on Trains.com Video! […]
PHOENIX — Republican legislators in Arizona are seeking to block rail service between Phoenix and Tucson as a condition of continuing legislation to maintain the state’s Department of Transportation, the Arizona Daily Star reports. One of the conditions added to the continuing legislation, SB1184, by the Senate Committee on Transportation, Technology, and Missing Children is […]
Facts & features Name: Albuquerque Division Third DistrictScale: HO (1:87.1)Size: 50 x 50 feetPrototype: Santa FeLocale: ArizonaEra: 1953Style: double deckMainline run: 600 feetMinimum radius: 48″Minimum turnout: No. 6Maximum grade: 1%Benchwork: tabletop on wall bracketsHeight: 40″ to 56″Roadbed: plywood spline and 3⁄4″ plywood plus HomasoteTrack: code 83 flextrack (main), code 55 and 70 (elsewhere)Scenery: HydrocalBackdrop: tempered […]
For Snow Week 2024, let’s head west to view operations at two tourist railroads running 2-8-2 Mikado-type steam locomotives during the winter. We’ll begin at the Sumpter Valley Railroad in McEwen, Oregon, before jumping to Nevada to chase the Virginia and Truckee Railroad. Want to see and learn more about this class of steam locomotive? […]
PHOENIX — Union Pacific has opened its Phoenix Intermodal Terminal, the latest addition to the railroad’s “pop-up” terminal strategy to test markets before building large, permanent facilities. The railroad says in an article on its website that the facility opened Feb. 1, 45 days after it first announced plans for the facility [see “Union Pacific […]
