CHICAGO — “Unforeseen mechanical issues” resulted in the cancellation of Amtrak’s westbound Cardinal out of New York on Wednesday, Aug. 23, despite the fact that the triweekly train’s equipment had arrived at the Big Apple’s Sunnyside Yard late Sunday. As has been recent custom, this resulted in the cancellation of its eastbound counterpart from Chicago […]
Roadbed for main lines and spurs: Lots of modelers in all scales take measures to differentiate mainline track from spurs and sidings. Spurs are dead-end tracks leading to industries, loading ramps, and sometimes stations. Sidings are tracks usually parallel to mainline tracks and are double-ended so a train can take the siding, stop, and wait […]
CHICAGO — Norfolk Southern has selected four teams of structural design consultants for the Belt Junction and 80th Street Junction Replacements, part of the CREATE program’s massive 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project on Chicogo’s South Side. The project, EW2 in the CREATE list of 70 projects to improve rail traffic flow in the Chicago area, […]
NEW CANAAN, Conn. — Metro-North’s New Canaan Branch, which has been idled since May 30 for track work, will resume operation on Saturday, Sept. 2, the Connecticut Department of Transportation has announced. Work on the electrified 8-mile, single-track branch — which normally sees 41 trains each weekday — has included tie and rail replacement, insulated […]
The east tube of the Gotthard Base Tunnel has been reopened for freight traffic and is available for almost 100 trains per day, Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) reports. With that route now handling freight traffic that had been rerouted over the Gotthard Pass panorama route, improved passenger service over the panoramic route is planned as […]
STUART, Fla. — A new double-track bridge for the Florida East Coast Railway at Stuart would cost about $218 million and take four years to build, Brightline Vice President of Community Relations Ali Soule told Martin County officials on Tuesday. WPTV reports Soule appeared before Martin County Commissioners to ask them to pass a resolution […]
BISMARCK, N.D. — The North Dakota Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on a preservation group’s appeal of permits allowing BNSF to build a new bridge across the Missouri River between Bismarck and Mandan, N.D., and demolish its existing bridge — as well as the group’s separate request for the court to determine whether the state, […]
BISMARCK, N.D. — The North Dakota Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments today on a case stemming from a preservation group’s effort to prevent BNSF Railway from demolishing its bridge across the Missouri River between Bismarck and Mandan, N.D., once it completes construction of a new bridge. The group Friends of the Rail Bridge […]
Freight trains should be able to begin using the Gotthard Base Tunnel on Wednesday, Aug. 23, Swiss national rail operator SBB said Friday in its latest update on repairs following an Aug. 10 derailment inside the world’s longest rail tunnel. Thirty cars of a northbound freight train derailed because of a broken wheel, causing damage […]
OTTAWA, Ontario — Service on Ottawa’s light rail Confederation Line was reduced on Thursday, just four days after it resumed following a four-week shutdown, because of issues with a restraining rail on a curve between the Hurdman and uOttawa stations. All trains were routed onto the eastbound track between those two stations when it was […]
Derailments of the curious kind: Several months ago, my operations chief Gordy Spiering and I were orbiting a couple trains on my N scale layout for a group of visitors and the same boxcar kept derailing at the west end switch in the town of Tehachapi. In a situation like that the show must go […]
OTTAWA, Ontario — The reopening of Ottawa’s light rail Trillium Line, the diesel-powered, north-south route which has been closed since May 2020 for expansion, has been further delayed and will not come until “the end of the year,” the Ottawa Citizen reports. The 16-kilometer (9.9-mile), eight-station southward extension of the Trillium line was supposed to […]
