More Thursday morning rail news: Transportation Safety Board cites sudden track failure in CN derailment A sudden track failure, likely reflecting wide-gauge conditions which developed quickly because of unit train traffic, is the likely cause of the January 2020 derailment of a Canadian National train en route to Prince Rupert, British Columbia. The Transportation Safety […]
Canadian National still isn’t talking about them, but the railroad’s fleet of locomotives with heritage paint schemes is taking shape. On Oct. 24, CN train M396 is east of Schoolcraft, Mich., with Wisconsin Central; Illinois Central; Elgin, Joliet & Eastern; and British Columbia Railway units en route to Montreal. […]
Woodstock is a city of 38,000 in southwestern Ontario, located between Hamilton and London. The city promotes itself as “The Friendly City” and is known as the Dairy Capital of Canada. Woodstock is the seat of Oxford County and is a center of automotive manufacturing. Both Canadian National and Canadian Pacific own track through Woodstock, […]
Located 45 miles southwest of the Chicago Loop, Joliet is a city of 147,000, the fourth largest in Illinois. Just as much of the former Santa Fe Railway accompanies the former Route 66 across the Southwest, the two pair up briefly in Joliet — now as BNSF Railway and Illinois Route 53. TRAIN WATCHING For […]
Gibson City, Ill., located in the heart of Central Illinois’ grain-growing region, is the headquarters for the Bloomer Shippers Connecting Railroad, otherwise known as the Bloomer Line. Gibson City also serves as a junction and interchange point for two Class I railroads, Canadian National and Norfolk Southern. CN runs up to two locals a day […]
Nestled among hillside dairy farms, corn fields, and rock quarries, Byron Hill, Wis., sees more than 20 trains per day on Canadian National’s busy Waukesha Subdivision. Positioned halfway between Fond du Lac and Lomira, Wis., the main line is paralleled by two vital roadways, Highways 175 and 41. Branching off of those main arteries are […]
Three Canadian National locomotives have been repainted into heritage paint schemes, and more are reportedly on the way. Photographs circulating on the internet show locomotives painted in Grand Trunk blue and red; the red, white, and blue BC Rail paint scheme; and the black Illinois Central scheme known to railfans as the “death star” design. […]
More Monday morning rail news: CN sets Canadian grain record for seventh straight month Canadian National moved a record amount of Canadian grain for the seventh straight month, transporting 2.43 million metric tons of grain in September. The railroad moved 7.76 million metric tons in the third quarter of 2020. As is the case with […]
MONTREAL — Canadian National’s traffic is accelerating back to normal levels, driven by strong growth in intermodal, grain, lumber, and frac sand traffic. “We are clearly seeing a recovery happening,” Chief Financial Officer Ghislain Houle told an investor conference on Thursday. Last week the railway’s domestic intermodal volume was up 30%, international intermodal gained 19%, […]
Friday morning rail news: CN, CP call Saskatoon shared-main proposal ‘unworkable’ The proposal by the city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to have Canadian National and Canadian Pacific share a rail corridor through the city to decrease traffic disruptions has been shot down by both railroads. CTV News reports both railroads sent letters to City Manager Jeff […]
MONTREAL — Canadian National is working to build what it’s calling “intermodal of the future” by experimenting with terminal improvements and fully integrating the operations and people from its recent trucking-company acquisitions. “We know that in order to compete down the road with the truck, that we have to not only be safer, more efficient […]
MONTREAL — Canadian National is recalling furloughed train crews and pulling locomotives and freight cars out of storage as traffic rebounds. “We are pivoting to recovery,” Chief Financial Officer Ghislain Houle told a webcast on Wednesday, noting strong growth trends in domestic intermodal, Canadian grain, and Canadian coal traffic. Overall, CN’s July traffic was 5% […]
