On May 12, 1962, Rock Island “motor” 9006 has a typically short train as it heads west with mixed No. 79 near Horton, Kan. The first of the 10 “baggage-car locomotives” left the roster in 1948, and by 1960 only the 9006, 9013, and 9014 remain. Frank Tatnall photo […]
No railroad was better equipped to shoulder the heavy burden of wartime traffic thanks to the three types of Union Pacific steam locomotives that constituted its front line of defense: the 4-6-6-4 Challenger, arguably the most successful simple articulated ever made; the 4-8-8-4 Big Boy, which easily wore the mantle “world’s largest steam locomotive”; and […]
PIERRE, S.D. — South Dakota’s Railroad Board has terminated its lease agreement with the Dakota Southern Railway on a section of state-owned track for failure to make an annual payment. KELO-TV reports the railroad board terminated the lease on the state-owned Napa-Platte line in the southeastern portion of the state, where Dakota Southern stored railcars. […]
The union representing Canadian Pacific Kansas City conductors is polling members on a possible strike, claiming the railroad took advantage of a service crisis to make workplace job changes on the former Kansas City Southern. The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division (SMART-TD) Local 457’s General Committee of Adjustment is […]
GUNTER, Texas — BNSF Railway and the city of Gunter, Texas, have reached agreement on a plan to allow the railroad to develop a 900-acre business park north of the small town north of Dallas. KTEN-TV reports the agreement requires a buffer zone of 500 to 800 feet from existing residences, and limits on the […]
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Heartland Flyer passenger service has received a one-year funding reprieve, thanks to a decision by the federally designated planning organization for the Dallas-Fort Worth area to divert funding from regional highway tolls to cover the Texas portion of the train’s operating grant. The Regional Transportation Council of the North Central Texas […]
WASHINGTON — A conductor who made an incorrect cut during switching, fouling a main track, was killed when a car he was riding on sideswiped the car fouling the main during a subsequent move, the National Transportation Safety Board said in its preliminary report on a fatal accident that occurred June 9, 2025, at Union […]
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, […]
Two 4-8-4s, Baldwin products of 1943, lead a westbound freight with a long string of open hoppers through Sandy Hook, Mo., about 19 miles west of Jefferson City on Missouri Pacific’s River Line. The railroad had 15 such locomotives, Nos. 2201–2215, and 25 more home-built examples, Nos. 2101–2125. C. T. Wood photo […]
MADRID — Renfe, Spain’s national railway company, has shut down its U.S. affiliate, Renfe of America, giving up on its hopes of operating the Texas Central high speed project. Spanish newspaper El Economista reports Renfe has taken a €4.5 million Euro ($5.17 million) loss in the company’s 2024 financial report, saying that it sees “no […]
WASHINGTON – Canadian Pacific Kansas City expects service to return to normal by late July in former Kansas City Southern territory that has experienced congestion, delays, and missed customer switches since a May 3 computer cutover. “CPKC’s level of service performance on the legacy-KCS network since May 3, 2025 — as reflected in part in […]
High winds and a tornado are blamed for a pair of derailment in North Dakota on Friday and Saturday. Thirty cars of a CPKC train were derailed on Friday, June 20, about three miles southeast of Enderlin, where a tornado killed three people. The Fargo Forum newspaper reports the storm was so destructive that authorities […]
