DENVER – OmniTRAX Co-CEO Dean Piacente will retire at the end of the year as part of a planned leadership transition, the company said on Tuesday. Piacente will continue to serve on the OmniTRAX board and will focus on the shortline holding company’s eastern growth strategy. Co-CEO Colby Tanner, a former BNSF executive, will assume […]
WASHINGTON — The Short Line Safety Institute has named Chris Machenberg as its hazardous materials program director, the organization announced today (Dec. 15). Machenberg, a veteran of nearly 30 years in the rail industry, has worked as a conductor, engineer, yardmaster, and trainmaster, with increasing levels of responsibility for hazardous materials shipments and safety. He […]
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — Eleven workers at the D&I Railroad have voted to join the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the union has announced following certification of election results earlier this month by the National Mediation Board. The BLET says it is the 14th short line where workers have voted to join the union since […]
FILLMORE, Calif. – Sierra Northern Railway’s Ventura Division hosted a Dec. 6 toy drive in partnership with Operation Toy Train on its line from Piru to Ventura, Calif., operating a train between Ventura and Santa Paula and using trucks from Fillmore to Piru. A specially decorated train consisting of a genset locomotive, open-air car, and […]
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen has reached a tentative agreement with the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway on a new contract, the union has announced. Terms were not disclosed. The union said the agreement includes wage increases and work rule improvements, and would see union members covered by the […]
WASHINGTON — The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association has selected three inductees to the Short Line Railroad Industry Hall of Fame: Richard Jay Corman (posthumously), R. Lawrence McCaffrey, and Michael V. Smith. Each has left indelible marks on the short line industry, the ASLRRA said this week. “The Short Line Railroad Industry Hall […]
SAGINAW, Mich. — Lake State Railway Co., the Michigan regional railroad, today announced that it is purchasing four SD70ACe-T4 locomotives from Progress Rail. LSRC received an emissions grant to replace five older locomotives with four newer Tier 4 locomotives. The railroad says it chose the SD70ACe-T4 built by EMD successor Progress Rail due to several […]
WASHINGTON — Inadequate training methods contributed to a November 2024 incident on the Coastal Carolina Railway in which a conductor suffered amputation of his left leg after being struck by a railcar in a gravity-drop move, the National Transportation Safety Board said its final investigation report released today (Dec. 8, 2025). The Nov. 19, 2024, […]
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Seminole Gulf Railway is in the midst of renewing 11.5 miles of its railroad between Fort Ogden and Cleveland, Fla. The $18.2 million project will allow for increased train weight and higher track speeds, the railroad says. Funding for the 18-month project includes a $9.6 million federal Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and […]
DURANGO, Colo. — Rio Grande Southern 4-6-0 No. 20 recently traveled from its home at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden to the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. The trip, aboard a semitruck, took the locomotive over Colorado’s 10,222-foot-high Lizard Head Pass, where it once operated. No. 20 last crossed this pass in the […]
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board has approved Fortress Investment Group’s acquisition of the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway and Akron Barberton Cluster Railway. The acquisition will be effective Dec. 26. In a press release today (Nov. 26), the board notes that the two properties will join six Class III railroads already in the Fortress […]
Genesee & Wyoming has unveiled the latest in a series of locomotives honoring America’s 250th anniversary — and the first in a modified paint scheme reflecting changes after two units were originally painted with a lighter blue as the primary color. The Buffalo & Pittsburgh locomotive, C44-9W No. 4434, features a Liberty Bell design. It […]
