All through January 2022, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history and heritage of the Norfolk & Western. Please enjoy this photo gallery of Norfolk & Western passenger trains selected from the image files in Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library. This gallery was first published in October 2019. […]
WASHINGTON – Railroads have not been immune to the skyrocketing number of COVID-19 cases across the U.S. as the more contagious Omicron variant spreads nationwide. The number of railroad employees infected with COVID-19 reached its highest point of the pandemic in the week ending Jan. 1, according to Federal Railroad Administration data released on Friday. […]
DENVER – Alpenglow Rail, a Denver-based firm specializing in investment, operating, and growing rail businesses, in partnership with Connor, Clark & Lunn Infrastructure, will acquire Orange Rail Inc. from LJA Investments, Inc. Orange Rail is a newly constructed rail terminal in Orange, Texas, with access to Union Pacific and BNSF Railway. Orange Rail consists of a […]
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — David McKenna has been named president and chief executive officer of Rocky Mountaineer. McKenna began his new duties Jan. 4. McKenna has extensive experience in Canada’s tourism industry. Prior to joining Rocky Mountaineer, he was president of the Banff Jasper Collection by Pursuit where he led tourism expansion and acquisition projects […]
PERTH, Australia — Fortescue Metals Group announced today it has purchased two new battery-operated locomotives from Progress Rail to haul ore from mine to port in northwest Australia. The new eight-axle locomotives will have an energy capacity of 14.5 megawatt-hours and will be built at Progress Rail’s facility in Sete Lagoas, Brazil. Fortescue Chief Executive […]
WASHINGTON – Canadian Pacific today won Amtrak’s support for its proposed merger with Kansas City Southern after CP and Amtrak reached a deal to expand passenger service in the Midwest and South. CP agreed to more frequent Amtrak service on the Hiawatha route linking Chicago and Milwaukee, as well as extending the corridor to St. Paul, […]
BNSF Railway led the big six Class I railroads in growth in 2021, a year in which rail volume rebounded from the pandemic-related lows of 2020 yet struggled to overcome kinks in the global supply chain. BNSF’s traffic was up 7.4% for the year, with intermodal surging 8.3% and coal up nearly 11%. CSX Transportation […]
LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. – The adoption of precision scheduled railroading may be causing railroads to downsize their locomotive and car fleets, but freight carbuilder Greenbrier Cos. still received new orders of 6,200 units valued at $670 million for the first fiscal quarter of 2022. Car orders include intermodal, boxcars, gondolas, tank cars, covered hoppers, and automobile carriers. […]
Finding the best approach for a track plan isn’t always easy. Even if you’re building your layout in a small room, you still have an almost infinite number of choices, decisions, and trade-offs to make. What scale? Around-the-room or island shape? Duckunder/gate or walk-in? Staging? And if so, what kind? To illustrate my thought process […]
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Adolph N. Ojard, former general manager of both the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway and the US Steel Great Lakes Fleet in Duluth, Minn., died Dec. 30 in Augusta. He was 72. While DM&IR general manager, he also served on the board of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and was instrumental […]
WASHINGTON — Karen J. Hedlund has been sworn in as the newest member of the Surface Transportation Board, the board announced, allowing the board to maintain to its full complement of five members. Hedland, confirmed by the Senate on Dec. 16, served as chief counsel and deputy administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration from 2010 […]
Norfolk & Western Railway history has two distinct phases. Before 1964, it was a coal hauler controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad. It even looked like the Pennsy in places: Tuscan Red coaches, position-light signals, and a short electrified district — but no Belpaire fireboxes. In 1964, possibly as a reaction to the proposed merger of […]
