CSX seeks FRA approval to use Trip Optimizer’s automatic start and stop feature

Locomotive with mix of freight cars

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX Transportation is awaiting regulatory approval to become the first railroad to use Trip Optimizer’s Zero-to-Zero function, which allows the advanced cruise control system to automatically start and stop freight trains. The goal, CSX says, is to save fuel as part of the railroad’s effort to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by […]

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B&O Budd cars at Cumberland, Md.

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The Budd Co. of Philadelphia introduced its self-propelled Rail Diesel Car in 1949. The RDC came in five versions with different arrangements of passenger, baggage, and mail compartments. Here, a train of Baltimore & Ohio Speedliners, as B&O called its RDC’s, is stopped at Cumberland, Md., during a westbound run in the early 1950s. B&O […]

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Norfolk Southern to buy CNO&TP line from city of Cincinnati for $1.6 billion

Map of rail line from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Chattanooga, Tenn.

CINCINNATI — Norfolk Southern has agreed to purchase the assets of the Cincinnati Southern Railway, the municipally owned railroad that forms the 336-mile Chattanooga-Cincinnati backbone of NS’s key corridor linking Chicago with Atlanta and the Southeast. Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, the municipal railway board, and NS today announced the proposed sale of the Cincinnati Southern […]

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Ask Trains.com Trailer!

Asktrains.com logo

Ask Trains is a regular video feature of Trains.com for magazine subscribers and Trains.com members, where editors answer the questions readers and viewers are asking. Special guests can include editors and contributors from Model Railroader, Trains, Classic Toy Trains, Garden Railways and Trains.com. Questions can be about any railroad or model railroading topic. These can include questions about railroad operating practices, railroad […]

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Ukraine rail update: Trains return to liberated cities, company CEO suggests steam as backup plan

Man posing for selfie with steam locomotive

Railroads remain a major part of the story of the Ukraine-Russia war. Here are the latest updates on the rail aspect of the conflict: Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia or UZ) has run the first passenger train to the major southern city of Kherson which was liberated from the Russian army on Nov. 11. The first train […]

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Late bid leads to new owner for San Luis & Rio Grande

Colorado Pacific logo

ALAMOSA, Colo. — In late bidding that trustee William Brandt described as “spirited” to a local newspaper, a short line owned by a Colorado billionaire has won the bankruptcy auction for the San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad. The Colorado Pacific Railroad, owned by Stefan Soloviev, a billionaire farmer and son of late New York […]

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