CARBONDALE, Ill. — For a few hours Thursday, travelers along Illinois’ Chicago-Carbondale Amtrak corridor could book a daytime round trip to next Monday’s solar eclipse “path of totality,” thereby avoiding monumental traffic jams along parallel highways that occurred during a similar event in August 2017. But that window of opportunity closed when seats that briefly […]
Delayed in transit Grain cars in transit were stalled by a brief strike in 1946. To keep grain from overheating and spoiling, cars were opened and a few (the Missouri Pacific car at left) had some grain removed. This was on the Missouri-Kansas-Texas in Oklahoma. Preston George photo […]
News & Products for the week of April 1st 2024 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 April 1st […]
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will pay an additional $148 million to Chinese railcar manufacturer CRRC as part of an agreement to complete the order for its long-delayed, problem-plagued Red and Orange Line subway cars, the Boston Globe reports. That will push the total cost of the order to more than $1 billion. […]
CHICAGO — Three cars making their first appearance will highlight the tours of Pullman-built railcars offered as part of Pullman Railroad Days, set for June 1-2 at Pullman National Historic Park. Dover Harbor, built in 1923, is the only heavyweight car still in an original Pullman configuration that is fully operational for use on Amtrak […]
Today, home insulation is probably the first thing that comes to mind when you hear people talk about spray-on foam. But in the 1960s and ’70s, railroads wanted to see if the material’s insulating properties could be leveraged on rolling stock. Would foam-coated freight cars change the way perishable materials were transported by rail? Might […]
LONDON — British passenger charter train operator and car leasing company West Coast Railways has announced it is suspending operation of the world-famous “Jacobite” train between Fort William and Mallaig on Scotland’s west coast, popularly known as the “Harry Potter train” for the train’s role in the popular movies. The decision, announced just a week […]
SAN CARLOS, Calif. — Caltrain has retired 32 of its bilevel gallery commuter railcars to make room for coming electrified equipment, sending them to Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit for storage until a buyer can be found, the agency has announced. The nearly 40-year-old cars were built in San Francisco by Nippon Sharyo and entered service […]
Built by Others in an article series showing layouts constructed by modelers using plans and projects from the pages of Model Railroader and its associated products. The Soo Line Red Wing Division originally appeared in the December 1994 issue. In this installment on Cody Grivno’s Red Wing Division, MR’s senior editor shares how he adapted […]
WASHINGTON — The Railway Supply Institute, the trade group representing the companies that build and lease freight cars, today asked federal regulators to take action that would prevent the North American boxcar fleet from hurtling over a looming retirement cliff. The problem: Boxcars are being scrapped at a faster rate than they are being built. […]
News & Products for the week of March 25th 2024 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 March 25th […]
PUEBLO, Colo. — Stadler Rail’s hydrogen powered multiple-unit passenger trainset has set a record by traveling more than 1,700 miles without refueling or recharging. The FLIRT H2 trainset, destined for use on the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority’s Arrow service, covered 1,741.7 miles on the test loop at the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo. The […]
