Better track, wheels, and couplers: Several years ago Atlas introduced its code 55 N scale track, and soon a great wail rose up from some in the N scale community. Beautiful as the track was, the wheels that came standard with Micro-Trains cars bumped against the track’s molded spike heads as the cars rolled along. The […]
Wheel quality keeps rolling: Over the last five years or so, N scalers have shown increased interest in replacement wheelsets. Maybe it’s just because so many more choices have become available. Up until the ’90s, some cars came with less than satisfactory wheels. Often the trucks didn’t roll freely. Sometimes cars would shimmy down the […]
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators today gave the green light to the historic merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern. Their $31.6 billion deal — thought to be the last merger between two Class I railroads — redraws the North American rail map by creating the first railroad linking Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. The […]
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has asked the National Transportation Safety Board to expand its planned investigation into Norfolk Southern safety practices to cover all Class I railroads, the website Politico reports. The NTSB announced its plan to conduct a special investigation of NS — the first of a railroad since 2014 […]
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern has reached agreements for paid sick time with members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, bringing to eight the number of unions to reach sick-leave agreements with the railroad. The latest agreements cover more than 1,350 employees. As with earlier agreements, they provide […]
WASHINGTON — A decision appears to be at hand in the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger. The Surface Transportation Board has announced a Wednesday press conference at 11 a.m. EDT in which board Chairman Martin Oberman will deliver remarks “regarding the agency’s decision on the proposed acquisition” of KCS by CP, followed by a Q&A […]
Sidewinders, squeezers, and crushers: In Milwaukee, our winter days can be very cold and dry, our summer days hot and humid. We can control the climate indoors, or at least try to, with heating, air conditioning, humidifying, dehumidifying, and such, but still we sometimes run into problems with track kinking on our model railroads. The […]
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen has ratified a new five-year U.S. agreement with Canadian Pacific and its subsidiary Soo Line. The CP/Soo agreement is similar to the national agreement signed in 2022, including a 22% wage increase over the life of the contract, compounding to 24% over the life of […]
McPHERSON, Kan. — A broken wheel is believed to have caused Sunday’s derailment of a Union Pacific train in McPherson, leading to a spill of denatured alcohol, the Associated Press reports. The derailment Sunday morning ignited a small grass fire in addition to causing the alcohol spill [see “Union Pacific train derails …,” Trains News […]
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific today named longtime CSX Transportation executive Brian Barr as its senior vice president of transportation. Barr, who is currently senior vice president of network planning and services at CSX, will join UP on April 15. He will report to Eric Gehringer, UP’s executive vice president of operations. “Union Pacific has […]
Test twice, solder once: It’s one of the best lessons I’ve learned in building layouts. In fact, it’s such a good lesson that I relearn it every once in while. My problem is patience. Testing takes a little time and slows my progress, or so I sometimes start to think. Actually, it can (and I […]
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board has named Richard Erstad and James (Leggett) Kitchin to the board’s Railroad-Shipper Transportation Advisory Council, the board announced Friday. Erstad, the vice president, general counsel, and secretary of Hawkins Inc., a chemical and ingredients company, joins the board representing small shippers. Kitchin, vice president for industrial products and coal […]
