U.S rail traffic down narrowly for week ending June 28

Weekly table showing U.S. carload rail traffic by commodity type, plus overall intermodal volume

WASHINGTON — By a tiny margin, U.S. weekly rail traffic was back below 2024 levels for the week ending June 28, 2025. According to the Association of American Railroads, traffic for the week was 491,424 carloads and intermodal units, down 0.2% from the same week a year ago. That included 225,227 carloads, up 0.05%, and […]

Read More…

Rapido Trains HO PC&F 5241 boxcar

Color photo jade green boxcar with silver roof and white graphics on white background

Rapido Trains HO PC&F 5241 boxcar Scale: HO (1:87.1) Price: Single car, $54.95; three-pack, $164.85; six-pack, $329.70 Manufacturer: Rapido Trains, 382 High St, Buffalo, NY 14204; 905-474-3314; rapidotrains.com Rapido Trains HO PC&F 5241 boxcar features: Factory-installed and painted wire grab irons Full underbody detail Multiple road numbers for each scheme Rapido semi-scale metal couplers Roller-bearing […]

Read More…

NTSB releases report on Union Pacific conductor fatality

Aerial view of scene of fatal accident at Chicago-area rail yard

WASHINGTON — The probable cause of a July 2024 fatal collision at Union Pacific’s Proviso Yard was an inexperienced conductor’s failure to alert the engineer to stop the train at a designated point during a shove move in unfamiliar territory, the National Transportation Safety Board said today (July 2, 2025). The conductor — who was […]

Read More…

CSX nears halfway mark of Howard Street Tunnel clearance project

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX and its contractors are nearly to the halfway mark of the Howard Street Tunnel clearance project in Baltimore. In a video update on Tuesday, July 1, CSX said crews have safely lowered 3,400 feet of the flooring in the 8,700-foot former Baltimore & Ohio tunnel beneath downtown Baltimore. The tunnel, which […]

Read More…

Private company AmeriStarRail proposes cross-country Auto Train service with Amtrak

Passenger train rounds curve

WILMINGTON, Del. — AmeriStarRail, which for some time has been proposing privately owned and operated passenger service on the Northeast Corridor, has gone in a new direction with its latest proposal — literally and figuratively. The company is now proposing a long-distance train that would offer coast-to-coast service in less than 72 hours between New […]

Read More…

STB aims to check more items off its to-do list

Surface Transportation Board logo

WASHINGTON – Surface Transportation Board Chairman Patrick Fuchs provided an update today on efforts to clear a backlog of cases that have languished for years. The cases include: Colorado Landowners — Adverse Abandonment — Great Western Railway of Colorado, LLC, in Weld County, Colo.: On Oct. 5, 2022, a group of landowners filed an application […]

Read More…

News & Products for the week of June 30th 2025

A model locomotive in a mural paint scheme

News & Products for the week of June 30th 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 June 30th, […]

Read More…

BNSF fails to convince regulators it should be able to serve two UP locations

WASHINGTON — BNSF Railway’s efforts to serve two shippers located on Union Pacific trackage were dealt a setback today when federal regulators said they were not persuaded that BNSF had the right to reach the customers as part of conditions granted during the UP-Southern Pacific merger. The separate decisions from the Surface Transportation Board, however, […]

Read More…

Parallel Systems and G&W see huge potential for autonomous container cars

Parallel Systems is only in the early innings of testing its self-propelled, autonomous flatcars on Genesee & Wyoming short lines in Georgia and already CEO Matt Soule says he’s likely to have a problem on his hands. “Parallel is going to have a manufacturing backlog problem,” the Parallel Systems founder predicted on a webcast last […]

Read More…

Three suffer minor injuries in Wisconsin & Southern derailment (updated)

Aerial view of train derailment

HARTFORD, Wis. — Three crew members were injured when a Wisconsin & Southern Railroad train derailed today (June 30, 2025) in the town of Hartford, near Independence Ave. The derailment occurred about 9:30 a.m. Hartford Fire Chief Tony Burgard told a press conference that the three people had walked to a nearby road and were […]

Read More…

East Troy Industrial Park, Ep. 15 | Installing Switch Motors

David and Bryson share the steps they used to install a complete Walthers Switch Machine system on the HO scale (1:87.1) East Troy Industrial Park project layout. To get things started, the pair first explains the features and function of each component. Then it’s straight to the task of installing the parts used to pivot […]

Read More…

Port of LA agreement seeks to generate more export traffic from California’s Central Valley

Aerial view of collection of large warehouses

LOS ANGELES — The Port of Los Angeles has signed a Memorandum of Agreement to generate more export traffic for the port from California’s Central Valley through an agreement with the city of Shafter and the developer of a logistics hub there. Central to the agreement is the Wonderful Logistics Center, a 3,400-acre development in […]

Read More…