WASHINGTON — Falling intermodal traffic has again led to a drop in weekly U.S. rail volume compared to 2024. For the week ending Dec. 6, according to statistics from the Association of American Railroads, the overall volume of 508,999 carloads and intermodal units was down 2.3% from the same week a year ago. That overall […]
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen has reached a tentative agreement with the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway on a new contract, the union has announced. Terms were not disclosed. The union said the agreement includes wage increases and work rule improvements, and would see union members covered by the […]
WASHINGTON — The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association has selected three inductees to the Short Line Railroad Industry Hall of Fame: Richard Jay Corman (posthumously), R. Lawrence McCaffrey, and Michael V. Smith. Each has left indelible marks on the short line industry, the ASLRRA said this week. “The Short Line Railroad Industry Hall […]
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX has shut down its aviation department, which flew corporate jets to whisk railroad executives around the system and elsewhere. The department, which had been in operation for 84 years and employed pilots and mechanics, was disbanded on Dec. 1, the railroad confirmed. A spokesman declined to release any details about the […]
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern will serve a new $6 billion Eli Lilly and Co. manufacturing campus that the pharmaceutical company will build in Huntsville, Ala. The project, which was announced on Tuesday, is the largest single initial investment in Alabama history, Gov. Kay Ivey said. NS will provide carload service to the plant, which is […]
What do I collect? I collect original prewar trains in Standard and Wide Gauge, i.e. 2 1/8”. Lionel created the gauge in 1906, and called their trains the “Standard of the World.” Soon, Standard gauge caught on as a label, possibly to differentiate from other gauges at the time. When the Ives Toy Co. modified […]
SAGINAW, Mich. — Lake State Railway Co., the Michigan regional railroad, today announced that it is purchasing four SD70ACe-T4 locomotives from Progress Rail. LSRC received an emissions grant to replace five older locomotives with four newer Tier 4 locomotives. The railroad says it chose the SD70ACe-T4 built by EMD successor Progress Rail due to several […]
FORT WORTH, Texas — BNSF Railway will dramatically increase its track inspection capabilities early next year with the systemwide deployment of locomotive-based sensors that analyze track geometry while pulling trains in revenue service. BNSF developed its ODIN system — which stands for Onboard Defect Identification & Notification — entirely in-house in 2023. The system relies […]
WASHINGTON — The Navy has begun the process of acquiring new flatcars to replace those currently used to transport missiles between military facilities. In a request for information issued last month, with responses due today, the Navy is seeking to replace the current DODX 40000 series flatcars, designed and built for the Army in 1981 […]
PUEBLO, Colo. — Dr. Rand Ghayad, the Association of American Railroads’ senior vice president of policy and economics, will be the keynote speaker at the 31st annual AAR Research Review, hosted by MxV Rail in Pueblo on April 28-30, 2026. Ghayad will open the conference by addressing policy and economic issues shaping the rail industry […]
WASHINGTON — Inadequate training methods contributed to a November 2024 incident on the Coastal Carolina Railway in which a conductor suffered amputation of his left leg after being struck by a railcar in a gravity-drop move, the National Transportation Safety Board said its final investigation report released today (Dec. 8, 2025). The Nov. 19, 2024, […]
News & Products for the week of December 8th 2025 Model railroad operators and builders can get the latest information about locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, tools, track, and more by reading Model Railroader’s frequent product updates. The following are the products Model Railroader editors have news on for the week of December 8th, 2025. […]
