By: George W. Hamlin LYNCHBURG, Va. – The COVID-19 pandemic, and associated restrictions on travel and large group meetings has played havoc with a number of railroad-oriented events in 2020. Both the annual Summerail and Winterrail photography-oriented events were cancelled, as was the annual National Railroad Historical Society’s national convention. In some cases, local and […]
Removal of tank cars from site of BNSF derailment, fire to begin After the Washington Department of Ecology spent the weekend emptying any remaining oil, removal of the tank cars involved in last week’s derailment and fire of a BNSF oil train in Custer, Wash., is scheduled to begin today, KING-TV reports. Multiple agencies continue […]
Perhaps no one has summed up the pandemic’s impact on rail traffic and operations in 2020 better than CSX Transportation CEO Jim Foote. “The last six months have truly been surreal,” Foote told investors and analysts on the company’s earnings call in October. “On last quarter’s call we discussed the largest and most rapid sequential […]
In a year like no other, the top story in railroading is the story that defined 2020 across the world: the COVID-19 pandemic. Freight traffic plummeted. Transit systems sustained losses from which they may not recover for years, if ever. Amtrak ridership was hammered, as was the amount of service offered. Heritage railroads and railroad […]
For more than thirty years, photographer Steve Schmollinger prowled some of the most iconic locations in Western railroading, hoisting his telephoto lenses to out-of-way vantage points and recording dramatic images that formed the backbone of several significant large-format photography books. Schmollinger died Dec. 24 at a hospital near his home in Dallas, Texas. He was […]
By: Steve Sweeney One of Trains’ sources of information on positive train control and signaling from 2016 to present has been materials from a University of Wisconsin-Madison Engineering Professional Development signaling basics course taught in Philadelphia. Trains published an article on the course in June, but as the final deadline for a nationwide PTC rollout […]
By: Steve Sweeney One of Trains’ sources of information on positive train control and signaling from 2016 to present has been materials from a University of Wisconsin-Madison Engineering Professional Development signaling basics course taught in Philadelphia. Trains published an article on the course in June, but as the final deadline for a nationwide PTC rollout […]
NEW YORK — Amtrak’s Moynihan Train Hall, the facility connected to and across 8th Avenue from New York Penn Station, will be completed Dec. 31 and open Jan. 1. The opening of the facility in the historic James A. Farley Post Office Building will conclude a $1.6 billion project that has taken more than three […]
Montana Rail Link has unveiled its latest special locomotive, SD70ACE No. 4404, which pays tribute to essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Montana Television Network reports the locomotive, wrapped with 1,600 square feet of graphics by Alphagraphics of Missoula, Mont., at the MRL shops, was unveiled in Missoula on Dec. 23, with the railroad’s […]
Thursday afternoon rail news: UP train derails near Dixon, Ill. Thirty-nine cars of a Union Pacific train derailed near Dixon, Ill., on Thursday morning. WIFR-TV reports UP initially informed the Lee County, Ill., Sheriff’s Office of the derailment at 1:49 a.m., and just before 5 a.m., updated its initial report to say diesel fuel, nut […]
More Thursday morning rail news: Bombardier to provide maintenance for Toronto’s Finch West light rail Bombardier has signed a 30-year contract to maintain Toronto’s Finch West Light Rail Transit project. Under the contract, Bombardier will maintain the light rail vehicles, track, and catenary for the system being built by a public-private partnership of transit agency […]
Thursday morning rail news: Environmental assessment finds no significant damage from BNSF derailment, fire An initial assessment of the site of Tuesday’s derailment and fire of a BNSF oil train in Custer, Wash., found no significant environmental damage, according to a Washington state official. The Bellingham Herald reports five cars caught fire after the seven-car […]
