WASHINGTON, Pa. — An icon of Pittsburgh transit and sports history, the “Terrible Trolley,” has returned to Western Pennsylvania after 25 years in Ohio, with plans for its restoration to operating condition. The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum has acquired former Pittsburgh Railways Co. Presidents’ Conference Committee (PCC) car No. 1713, a 1949 product of the St. […]
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Caltrain has reached a major milestone in the electrification of its San Francisco-San Jose main line, with the commuter rail operator announcing Tuesday that electrified trains have begun operating under power from the overhead contact system. The agency posted video Tuesday of trains making low-speed initial tests. These initial runs will […]
When we drove off Illinois Route 92 onto former Rock Island property recently at Silvis, I was singularly focused on seeing steam locomotives. Three of them, to be specific, including one very special engine, former Union Pacific 4-6-6-4 Challenger No. 3985. The Challenger was among equipment that made headlines last year as Railroading Heritage […]
Throughout the past few months, I have shown you how different small Amtrak trains can be modeled with only a few pieces of equipment. If you’ve read those previous articles, you might have noticed a pattern. Amtrak trains that operate between a big city and a much smaller city or town, such as Chicago and […]
If you model the modern era like me, you may still have some equipment in your collection that doesn’t fit the era. Maybe you are a fan of one of the famous steam locomotives operating today, such as Nickel Plate Road No. 765 or Union Pacific’s Big Boy. Or maybe you have another steam engine […]
When the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; Great Northern; Northern Pacific; and Spokane, Portland & Seattle merged to create the Burlington Northern on March 2, 1970, the new railroad had an interesting fleet of cabooses. While there were plenty of cars built by commercial builders, mainly International Car Co., BN’s fleet was also filled with cabooses […]
Second of two parts Part 1 of this report, available here, examined how lack of capacity has adversely impacted Amtrak’s long-distance trains compared with the mobility the company has been able to provide in the Northeast Corridor. Part 2 considers possible solutions. Foreseeable shortfall The shortage of active bilevels was evident when deployment plans for […]
Great Northern’s 1947 streamlined Empire Builder featured 44-seat leg-rest coaches for long-distance passengers. GN photo […]
WASHINGTON — The 164th car of a Norfolk Southern train triggered a critical hot box detector alert before a May wreck in Pennsylvania, but the train continued on its journey for 15.34 miles before derailing because neither the crew nor the railroad’s network operations center received the warning that would have required the train to […]
Tips for body mounting couplers: “Oh, no,” I can hear you saying, “He’s off on couplers again.” Well, sorry, I am, and perhaps not for the last time. Almost all N scale rolling stock until recently has come with truck-mounted couplers. It’s true that cars so equipped can handle tighter curves, but it’s also true […]
First of two parts WASHINGTON — While the U.S. Transportation Security Administration reported a record 2.7 million passengers processed at the nation’s airports on Friday, May 26, a lack of capacity means intercity passenger rail travel was not a Memorial Day weekend travel option for many Americans served by Amtrak long-distance trains. The problem is […]
WASHINGTON — Launch of service for Amtrak’s next-generation Acela trainsets has been pushed back into 2024, the Washington Post reports, as testing and computer simulations continue to find problems, most recently with the train’s wheelsets. That means the new trains will enter service at least three years late, placing increasing pressure on the existing Acela […]
