Calmed South Wind

20190121

Louisville & Nashville 4-6-2 No 295 stands at Winchester, Ky., with local train 3 for Hazard on May 3, 1952. Built in 1925 with three cylinders, the Pacific lost its middle cylinder and gained a big tender and some decorative sheet metal in 1940 to pull the Louisville–Montgomery, Ala., leg of the Chicago–Miami South Wind streamliner. Ed […]

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Montana Rail Link folded back into BNSF Railway

Blue and white locomotives on train in mountains covered with snow under blue skies

FORT WORTH, Texas — Montana Rail Link officially became a fallen flag on Jan. 1 when the regional railroad ceased operations and became BNSF Railway’s MRL Subdivision. Burlington Northern leased the former Northern Pacific main line from Jones Junction, Mont., to Sandpoint, Idaho, in 1987. In January 2022 BNSF and MRL announced an agreement to […]

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European rail freight to see major changes in 2024

Green and gray diesel lcomotive with tank cars

Europe’s biggest rail freight companies are facing major challenges in 2024, despite efforts by politicians to encourage more freight movement by rail and less by road. In some countries, new ownership or new companies are challenging established operators and providing business opportunities for smaller companies. In most of Europe, the biggest rail freight company is […]

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Burly PRR Ten-Wheeler

20190128

Pennsylvania Railroad 5711 was one of 121 class G5s 4-6-0s the road’s Juniata Shops in Altoona, Pa., built in the 1920s. Designed for commuter and secondary passenger work, 90 of the heavy Ten-Wheelers worked on PRR’s own lines, while 31 were for subsidiary Long Island Rail Road. Harold K. Vollrath photo […]

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Top 10 stories of 2023, No. 3: The Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger

Red and gray locomotives on freight train

You know it’s been a big news year when the first merger of Class I railroads in more than two decades — and likely the last — is judged the No. 3 story of 2023. In a typical year, Canadian Pacific’s $31 billion acquisition of Kansas City Southern would have topped the headlines. The Surface […]

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Trains LIVE — ‘Trains’ milestone

Two men seated at a table for an interview. Trains milestone.

Trains LIVE — Trains milestone — 12-27-2023 — For the 1,000th time the presses have rolled to produce another issue of Trains Magazine. As Carl Swanson, current Trains editor, noted: It is rare for a publication to reach the milestone of 1,000 issues. Trains is the second magazine in the Kalmbach family to do so […]

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MBTA to continue Green Line work in January

Portion of MBTA rapid transit map

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will suspend service on a portion of the light rail Green Line for two extended periods in January, while also scheduling service outages for the ongoing repairs on the Green Line extension. From Jan. 3-12 and again from Jan. 16-28, Green Line service will be suspended on the Green […]

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