NEW YORK — Rob Free, who has served as acting president of the Long Island Rail Road since last October, was named to the position permanently by Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Janno Lieber on Thursday. Free, who began his career with the LIRR as a station cleaner 31 years ago, climbed the ranks to become […]
Four railroads have filed lawsuits in federal court to block the Federal Railroad Administration’s requirement for two-person crews for most freight trains, the Associated Press reports. Union Pacific, BNSF Railway, the Indiana Rail Road, and Florida East Coast Railway filed individual suits this week in different appellate courts, all saying the rule is arbitrary, capricious, […]
Former UPS executive Jim Barber Jr., an activist investor’s candidate to replace Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw, says his experience at the parcel giant is directly applicable to a railroad. UPS’s package network relies on the very same principles as the low-cost Precision Scheduled Railroading operating model that Ancora Holdings wants to fully implement at […]
Modelers David Popp, Brian Schmidt, and Bryson Sleppy continue the scenery process on their T-TRAK modules in an attempt to make them look more like the prairies of Colorado. T-TRAK is a modular N scale railroading system that uses foot-wide boxes plugged together to build tabletop layouts. In this sixth installment, the three modelers explain […]
WASHINGTON — Union Pacific is not preserving dispatching information relevant to its handling of the Sunset Limited, Amtrak has claimed in a new filing with the Surface Transportation Board that asks the board to order UP to show cause why the railroad is not complying with an STB order to do so. The “petition to […]
DENVER — A bill that includes provisions to protect rail lines for Colorado’s proposed Denver-Craig rail service, even if coal traffic drops below sustainable levels, has cleared its first step in the state Senate. SB24-190, sponsored by Sen. Dylan Roberts (D-Frisco), also enhances the ability of the state to sell the Moffat Tunnel, which it […]
WASHINGTON — The well-established pattern for U.S. rail traffic continued for the week ending April 6: carload traffic was down compared to the same week in 2023, while intermodal traffic was up. Overall, that added up to 450,142 carloads and intermodal units, a 1.6% increase compared with the corresponding week a year ago, according to […]
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Vermont Rail System has reached an agreement to purchase assets and operating rights of the New Hampshire Central Railroad to expand its operations in northern New Hampshire, the companies announced Tuesday. “VRS has a 60-year tradition of helping local businesses with efficient and reliable freight service,” Selden Houghton, Vermont Rail System president, […]
WASHINGTON — Nighttime visibility made it impossible for the train engineer to prevent or mitigate the accident in which a Norfolk Southern conductor trainee was struck and killed by protruding metal from a gondola car on an adjacent track in a incident in Bessemer, Ala., the National Transportation Safety Board said in the final report […]
WASHINGTON — Alvin Brown and J. Todd Inman have joined the National Transportation Safety Board, filling two vacancies and restoring the board to its full five members. Both members were sworn in on Monday. Brown’s term runs through 2026 and Inman’s concludes in 2027. Brown, mayor of Jacksonville, Fla., from 2021 to 2015, was previously […]
CHICAGO — Quentin Schulte has been named president of Northern Lines Railway, Anacostia Rail Holdings has announced. Schulte has previously been the general manager of the 25-mile railroad that operates BNSF Railway trackage in the St. Cloud, Minn., area, handling more than 10,000 carloads annually. He joined the short line after 15 years with BNSF […]
Welcome back to the Olympia & Sand Creek series with host David Popp. While David has been sidetracked with efforts to build the cart before the horse, now’s the time to put that tandem into its place! In this installment, you’ll see how to shape up a removable tipple scene that sits atop a plateau. […]
