UP’s local arrives at the old M&StL depot in New Prague on Sept. 4, 2012. Steve Glischinski NEW PRAGUE, Minn. – Employees at Miller Milling in New Prague got coal in their Christmas stocking this month when the company announced it was shutting down its mill in New Prague served by Union Pacific. The flour […]
Q3 4500 special was the first Q3 delivered to the B&O on July 4th 1918, Scene 1 roaring through town, scene 2 slowing for a yellow board, scene 3 arriving at the destination. […]
Q3 4500 special was the first Q3 delivered to the B&O on July 4th 1918, Scene 1 roaring through town, scene 2 slowing for a yellow board, scene 3 arriving at the destination. […]
Don Orseno receives a gift marking his retirement as Metra CEO during a Chicago Rail Superintendents Association event in November 2017. Behind him is current Metra CEO James Derwinski. Orseno was named to Metra’s board of directors on Wednesday. TRAINS: David Lassen This Metra locomotive was repainted in Rock Island colors and named for Don […]
KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Kalamazoo will become the latest Michigan city to lose a staffed ticket office at its Amtrak station, WWMT-TV reports. The TV station reports the ticket office will close “at the beginning of 2020.” It follows similar moves East Lansing, Niles, Jackson, and Flint, which saw their ticket offices close in 2018 [see […]
Officials in Yorkville will discuss the four possible sites for a Metra station at a Tuesday meeting. Kendall Extension Study OSWEGO, Ill. — Two communities hoping to bring Metra service to Kendall County, Ill., will retain the service of a Chicago lobbying firm to continue the effort to extend the BNSF Line service, as well […]
A Metra UP Northwest train arrives in Harvard, Ill., on Nov. 23, 2018. Metra and Union Pacific are in talks that could substantially change the nature of UP’s operating agreement with the commuter railroad. TRAINS: David Lassen CHICAGO — Union Pacific Railroad and Metra are in discussions that could give Metra some control of operations […]
The westbound California Zephyr blasts through Plano, Ill., on Dec. 2, 2019. Plano’s Amtrak station could become a station for an extension of Metra’s BNSF line into Kendall County, Ill. TRAINS: David Lassen PLANO, Ill. — The opportunity has begun for the public to inspect and consider aspects of the proposed extension of Metra commuter […]
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators have given Canadian Pacific a limited victory in its dispute with Canadian National over where the railroads should interchange traffic in Chicago. CN’s unilateral request to have Canadian Pacific run 84 miles through the busy Chicago terminal in order to interchange at Kirk Yard in Gary, Ind., is unreasonable, the Surface […]
NEW RICHMOND, Wis. – Canadian National subsidiary Wisconsin Central has begun construction on a new AutoPort automobile processing and transshipment facility just west of New Richmond along its former Soo Line/WC Minneapolis Subdivision. The facility will serve as an unloading site for vehicles, which will then be trucked to dealers in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. […]
A map showing Illinois and Indiana and the proposed takeover of the Eastern Illinois Railway by Decatur & Eastern Illinois. Surface Transportation Board filing WASHINGTON — Watco short line Decatur & Eastern Illinois, which began operations in September 2018, aims to expand by acquiring the neighboring 53-mile Eastern Illinois Railroad. The DE&I, a CSX Transportation […]
Michigan Central’s elusive train to Joliet, Illinois, approaches the Maple Street crossing in Matteson, Illinois, in mid-1968. Ralph Eisenbrandt photo, Paul Jaenicke collection In the mid-1960s, I attended a parochial school in the far south Chicago suburb of Matteson, Illinois, that bordered on the Joliet branch of the New York Central. Old-timers in town referred to it […]
