Northstar commuter service to Twins games to return

Trains at station with baseball stadium in background

MINNEAPOLIS — Metro Transit will resume Northstar commuter train service for 38 Minnesota Twins home games this season, the transit agency announced Friday, March 8. Trains will run for the Twins’ home opener April 4, for all Saturday and Sunday games, week day day games, and on Memorial Day and July 4. A complete game […]

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Metra station at Homewood, Ill., set for 50-day closure

Metra_Electric_Homewood

HOMEWOOD, Ill. — The Homewood station on Metra’s Electric District will close from April 1 to May 20 to replace the single stairway leading to the station platform, Metra has announced. The station has been undergoing a $20.7 million reconstruction since May 2023, and has remained open during the project, but must close during this […]

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Court dismisses Norfolk Southern suit seeking to share East Palestine costs with rail car owners, chemical company

AKRON, Ohio — A federal court has ruled against Norfolk Southern in a suit seeking to share cleanup costs for the February 2023 East Palestine derailment with railcar owners and the maker of the vinyl chloride involved in the incident. In a decision filed Wednesday, Judge John R. Adams of the U.S. District Court for […]

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NTSB chair tells Senate hearing East Palestine chemical burn could have been avoided

Black cloud of smoke above town

WASHINGTON — The controlled burn of vinyl chloride following last year’s derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, was unnecessary, National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy told a Senate hearing today — and might have been avoided with better communication. Homendy, testifying at a Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing on NTSB investigations, said in […]

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California Zephyr resumes full route after a week of cancellations

Passenger train on three-track main line

CHICAGO — Beginning today (Wednesday, March 6) Amtrak’s westbound California Zephyr will depart Chicago for California for the first time the Feb. 27 departure encountered freight congestion and weather obstacles that resulted in arrival into Emeryville, Calif., 10 hours, 35 minutes late. Those cars and locomotives, stranded for more than a week at Amtrak’s Oakland […]

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United Railroad Historical Society sets 2024 schedule for Hudson River Rail Excursions

Heritage observation car on back of Amtrak train, with New York skyline in the distance.

BOONTON, N.J. — The United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey continues to expand offerings of its Hudson River Rail Excursions, this year scheduling more than 50 day trips beginning and ending in New York City, as well as six overnight trips between New York and Chicago. Tickets for the 2024 trips go on sale […]

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FRA hydrostatic test ‘satisfactory’ for Reading No. 2100

Pressure gauge showing 300 PSI

CLEVELAND — Restoration of Reading T-1 4-8-4 No. 2100 reached a significant milestone with a Federal Railroad Administration hydrostatic test, the American Steam Railroad Preservation Association reports. “It is with the upmost appreciation and gratitude to our supporters that after nine years of work and $1.3 million dollars in funds and volunteered labor value invested, […]

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Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad announces two-month suspension of operations

Yellow, maroon, and black FA locomotive with passenger train

PENINSULA, Ohio — The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad will suspend operations for almost two months beginning this Friday, March 8, “to make substantial upgrades to safety and operating procedures,” the tourist railroad announced today (Monday, March 4). The railroad says in a press release that the suspension, through May 2, will allow “a comprehensive initiative […]

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Spaces to Places V | A new path to the underpass, part 3

In this episode of Spaces to Places, we find host Gerry Leone in the thick of two projects! The main objective of his efforts was to build out the highway underpass and scenery along a layout peninsula. But Gerry also scrambles to complete trackwork reconfiguration that will improved the operation of his HO scale Bona […]

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Spaces to Places V | A new path to the underpass, part 3

In this episode of Spaces to Places, we find host Gerry Leone in the thick of two projects! The main objective of his efforts was to build out the highway underpass and scenery along a layout peninsula. But Gerry also scrambles to complete trackwork reconfiguration that will improved the operation of his HO scale Bona […]

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Pere Marquette Berkshire steam locomotives

One of Pere Marquette Berkshire steam locomotives with freight train by gas holder

  By the late 1930s, the Pere Marquette Railway had made a big splash in motive power acquisition. And rightly so, as the tired and second-rate fleet of steam locomotives was not enough to pull the Michigan railroad out of the hardship of the Great Depression. An order of 15 N-class 2-8-4s initially was rolled […]

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