SEATTLE – Starting today, the Mount Bachelor, the Talgo Series 8 trainset that has been out of service since its cab car was impaled by a tree in a November storm, is back in service with the other Talgo, the Mount Jefferson, on Cascades service linking Vancouver, British Columbia, and Eugene, Ore. The move will […]
WASHINGTON – Amtrak has wrapped a pair of ACS-64 locomotives in Crayola-inspired “Creativity on the Go” schemes in a nod to the iconic crayon manufacturer. ACS-64 No. 621 wears a violet blue livery that features eight crayon colors that Crayola recently brought out of retirement. No. 620 is wrapped in Crayola’s dandelion, a golden yellow […]
WITTMANN, Ariz. – BNSF Railway held a contentious community meeting this week in Wittmann, Ariz., regarding its proposed $3.2 billion logistics and intermodal hub. The project spans 4,270 acres and would be BNSF’s first to include an intermodal terminal, warehouse and distribution facilities, and rail-served sites for carload and bulk commodity customers. Many residents, particularly […]
A moribund Norfolk Southern coal-hauling branch in Alabama last month hosted its first train in more than a decade. NS coal train 702 rumbled over the revived Berry Branch, carrying Warrior steelmaking coal to export at the Port of Mobile, Ala., via the railroad’s 3-B Corridor. “Right now it is one train a week, and […]
ATLANTA – Norfolk Southern has launched a Trades on Track scholarship program to help the railroad attract vocational students to its workforce. The $5,000 scholarships can be used for tuition, computer equipment, tools, and other expenses for people living in any one of the 22 states that NS serves. Atlanta-based SkillPointe Foundation is overseeing the […]
WASHINGTON – Amtrak said today that it has eliminated 450 management positions as it looks to cut costs and reach operational profitability by 2028. The cutback equals just over 10% of Amtrak’s management jobs, the railroad said in a memo to employees. “We took the difficult step of informing about 250 people that their positions […]
U.S. weekly rail traffic for the week ending May 3 totaled 498,693 carloads and intermodal units, up 7.6 percent compared with the same week last year, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR). Carloads totaled 225,641 units, up 5.6 percent compared to prior year, and intermodal volume totaled 273,052 containers and trailers, up 9.4 […]
Newark, N.J. — According to a joint May 7 press release, NJ Transit and its largest labor union, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), have reached a tentative contract agreement. NJ Transit is the nation’s third largest provider of bus, rail, and light rail transit, linking major points in New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia. The […]
Track selection is among the first decisions you’ll have to make when you get started in model railroading, second only to scale. In HO (1:87.1), the two most commonly used track sizes are code 100 and code 83. “Code” refers to the height of the rail, measured in thousandths of an inch. For a lot […]
WASHINGTON – The Association of American Railroads has asked the Department of Transportation to scuttle the Federal Railroad Administration’s two-person train crew rule. “For too long, outdated, arbitrary regulations have stood in the way of implementing data-backed solutions that can further strengthen railroads’ already remarkable safety record,” AAR CEO Ian Jefferies said in a statement. […]
DALLAS – A bill advancing through the Texas legislature threatens to dismantle the public transportation system in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Dallas Area Rapid Transit said yesterday. “This bill isn’t a tweak to funding. It’s a full-on dismantling of the DART system,” said DART’s chief communications officer, Jeamy Molina. “The people of North Texas voted […]
WASHINGTON – Amtrak’s Office of Inspector General issued an investigative report to Amtrak on Tuesday that detailed the widespread scheme in which at least 119 employees conspired with New York health care providers to bilk the railroad’s health care plan of more than $12 million from 2019 to 2022. Of the 119 employees implicated, 28 […]
