NJ Transit gets funds for major station projects

NJ Transit logo

TRENTON, N.J. — Three of NJ Transit’s busiest stations will receive more than $600 million for renovations and upgrades as part of $814 million in capital funding added to the New Jersey budget for fiscal 2023. NJ.com reports that the budget includes $250 million for replacement and expansion of the Walter Rand Transportation Center in […]

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Loneliest Amtrak station in California

A passenger train station appears vacant on a beach under cloudy skies.

Looking for the loneliest Amtrak station in California? Consider Lompoc-Surf, population: zero, an alternative to crowded California passenger stations. You won’t worry about parking your car, long walks to trackside, or even other people. There may be about 40 million people in California, but unless they are waiting for the train, or someone on it, […]

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Gulf Mobile and Ohio passenger trains

GP1606011

Gulf Mobile and Ohio passenger trains: The Gulf Mobile and Ohio is Classic Trains’ railroad of the month for July 2022. All this month you’ll find interesting articles detailing the history of the GM&O in text and photographs. Please enjoy this Gulf Mobile and Ohio passenger trains photo gallery, originally published in June 2016 and […]

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Biden names Presidental Emergency Board, preventing rail strike

Man climbing on front steps of orange locomotive

WASHINGTON — Preventing a national rail strike that could have begun Monday, July 18, President Joe Biden has established a Presidential Emergency Board to investigate the ongoing dispute between railroads and workers. Biden will name the members of the three-person board, whose members can not have any financial or other interest in either a rail […]

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Athearn Electro-Motive Division GP40-2 diesel locomotive

illustration of Amtrak paint scheme on locomotive

Electro-Motive Division GP40-2 diesel locomotive Scale: HO (1:87.1) Price: Direct-current model with factory-installed speaker and 21-pin plug, $169.99 Era: Early 1990s+ to present (varies depending on paint scheme) Manufacturer: Athearn Trains, 2904 Research Rd., Champaign, IL 61822, 800-338-4639, athearn.com Electro-Motive Division GP40-2 diesel locomotive features: 21-pin plug for Digital Command Control decoder (sold separately) 2,600- or 3,600-gallon fuel tank […]

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Repowering locomotives to meet a railroad’s needs

Color image of a green-painted and unusual cab locomotive.

Repowering locomotives is essential for a railroad to meet its needs. This is installment, number three, on our quest to find mishmashed locomotives, which reinforces the notion that railroaders will do anything and everything necessary to keep the daily routine fluid. Sometimes they ask a builder to create what they need, other times they make […]

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More rail strikes called in Britain

Silver train with blue trim approaches station

LONDON — Britain is bracing for additional rounds of rail strikes after unions announced planned strike dates later this month and in August. The Guardian reports the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers (RMT) has called strikes for August 18 and 20; those strikes will involve about 40,000 RMT members at infrastructure company […]

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Athearn 40-foot double-door express boxcar

blue with gray stripe boxcar illustration

40-foot double-door express boxcar Scale: HO (1:87.1) Price: $36.99 Era: 1940s+ to 1960s+ (varies depending on paint scheme). Manufacturer: Athearn Trains, 2904 Research Rd., Champaign, IL 61822, 800-338-4639, athearn.com 40-foot double-door express boxcar features: 33” machined metal wheels with RP-25 contours Body-mounted McHenry scale couplers Double Youngstown doors Injection-molded plastic body Minimum radius: 18” Separate, factory-applied brake wheel […]

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CP and KCS say their merger should get green light from regulators

Train with red, yellow, and black locomotives

WASHINGTON — Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern — responding to critics, skeptics, and opponents — told federal regulators this week that their proposed merger is in the public interest and should be approved. The railroads, in a three-volume, 4,374-page filing, argued that the first merger of Class I railroads in two decades should sail through […]

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