Visit a garden-railway display at a nature center

A family watches a large-scale train display

For many years I have been a volunteer at our local nature center (Sandy Creek Nature Center of Athens-Clarke Co., GA). It occurred to me that their circular flower and nature gardens would be a perfect setting for a garden railroad. I approached personnel at the center, and they were enthusiastic, as it would create […]

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CSX announces new roles for three executives

CSX logo

JACKSONVILLE — Executives Mark K. Wallace, Kevin S. Boone, and Sean R. Pelkey will move into new roles in changes announced today by CSX Corp. Wallace, who had been executive vice president of sales and marketing, becomes executive vice president, a role focusing on special projects and initiatives supporting CEO James M. Foote. Wallace is […]

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Digest: At least 40 reported dead in rail accident in Pakistan

Overturned, damaged passenger cars

At least 40 dead after passenger train derails, is hit by another train in Pakistan At least 40 people are believed dead after a rail accident today in southern Pakistan. The BBC reports the accident in Sindh province saw one train derail onto an adjacent track, where it wsas then hit by a second train. […]

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House Democrats propose transportation bill with $109 billion for transit, $95 billion for rail (updated)

Trains Washington Watch logo

WASHINGTON — Democrats on the House of Representatives’ Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Friday proposed a $547 billion plan including $109 billion for transit and $95 billion for rail, with $32 billion for Amtrak. The rail portion of the group’s Invest in America Act also includes funding for corridor planning and high speed rail development, […]

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U.S. Sugar interested in acquiring second steam locomotive

Steam locomotive on display behind fence

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — U.S. Sugar Corp. is interested in buying and restoring to operation an Atlantic Coast Line steam locomotive currently on display in Jacksonville, the Jacksonville Daily Record reports. Locomotive No. 1504, a class P-5-A 4-6-2 built by Alco in 1919, would be declared surplus by the city council, which would also rescind its […]

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Digest: Illinois EPA asks state attorney general to take action on tank car hazmat incident

Illinois Environmental Protection Agency logo

Illinois EPA seeks action on tank car incident in Wood River, Ill. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency said it has asked the state’s Attorney General’s Office to pursue legal action against the Phillips 66 refinery in Roxana, Ill., over the venting of sulfuric acid from four tank cars in Wood River, Ill., that began last […]

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General Electric C44-9W profile

Freight trains with orange diesel locomotives pass on curve

General Electric’s 4,400 hp C44-9Ws were, by far, the most popular D.C. traction locomotives the company every produced, with almost 3,600 copies built for North American customers. Sales began in the early 1990s just as A.C. traction was taking hold in the industry. Many railroads were still either wary of the new A.C. technology and […]

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Amtrak CEO voices opposition to CSX-Pan Am Railways deal (updated and corrected)

Amtrak logo.

WASHINGTON — Amtrak CEO Bill Flynn says the company opposes CSX Transportation’s acquisition of New England regional Pan Am Railways, saying the deal in its current form “represents a significant threat to the American traveling public” and “will negatively impact current passenger train service and future routes in Massachusetts and Northern New England.” Amtrak has […]

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Last Year’s Walthers Winners Prove That Age Is Just a Number

Bo and Ian Afdahl sit in front of an Afdahl Farm sign.

WAUKESHA, Wis. — Out in the quiet countryside of Arkansaw, Wisconsin, brothers Bo and Ian Afdahl wake up every morning at 5 a.m. to milk and feed the cows on their family’s small dairy farm. After school, they come back home and do it all over again, typically working late into the evening. On the […]

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Digest: Official says many displays at Mississippi station museum can be saved

Wooden station building damaged by fire

Mississippi station museum director vows to rebuild following fire The executive director of the McComb (Miss.) Railroad Depot Museum says he is “encouraged” by what he has seen after viewing the interior of the station and museum, which was badly damaged by an arson fire on Sunday. WVUE-TV reports that executive director Ralph Price said […]

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