Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2023 i Trains

TRAINS CORRESPONDENT BILL STEPHENS spoke with Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw after the railroad’s quarterly earnings call on April 26. This is an abridged version of their conversation; the full version is available on Trains News Wire at Trains.com. Shaw’s railroad and the industry in general have been under scrutiny since the Feb. 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, and subsequent hazardous materials release. Q Has East Palestine changed the way the industry looks at safety? And if so, how? A We understand the role that we play in the U.S. economy. We take safety very seriously. All my colleagues and I at the CEO level are always looking to improve. You’ve seen improvements in our safety performance and the industry’s safety performance over time. What…

IF, AS A VISITOR TO NEW YORK, you’ve blundered through the corridors of Penn Station, you know it to be as confusing as it is vital. So imagine how locals feel. Actually, you don’t have to imagine. They’re quick to tell you, starting with Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has called Penn Station a “hellhole.” NJ Transit and Long Island Rail Road passengers view the adjacent Moynihan Train Hall — bright, airy, and largely for Amtrak customers — with envy. “We all acknowledge that since the demolition of the original station, which was a tragic event in the history of this city, the station is completely inadequate for the purposes for which it serves,” says Jamie Torres-Springer, president of MTA Construction & Development. The MTA is working to improve Penn: building…

“A new look at Union Station” (pages 45-47) depicts a station built adjacent to an existing freight line replacing an expensive-to-maintain legacy facility. The hypothetical situation, created by Kalmbach Media’s art department personnel, bears an uncanny resemblance to what happened a decade later when Penn Central shuttered Albany, New York’s Union Station in 1969. Constructing a facility across the Hudson River on what was then a freight bypass required fewer tracks to host a dwindling number of departures. Making the switch thus allowed the sale of valuable downtown real estate and abandoning a bridge used only by passenger trains. New York State and federal funds later helped upgrade the station, Albany-Rensselaer, into the functional complex Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited and Empire Corridor trains call at today. What’s different from the…

REACHING ITS ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY, this video series is recorded live, unscripted, and on location. Associate Editor Bob Lettenberger hosts a casual, behind-the-scenes examination of topics ranging from cooking with dining car-inspired recipes to chasing the Big Boy to riding rail gliders. Each video segment is packed with entertaining content that will pull you right into the topic with him. So brace yourself for a fun ride as you travel to museums, trackside locations, and other railroad-related venues. You’ll find these videos under the Trains.com Video tab. Just scroll over to “Behind The Scenes,” and then down to Trains LIVE. Scan the QR code below to start your digital journey. Note: Trains.com Unlimited Membership required. A new episode goes live every other Wednesday at 2 p.m. CT.…

IN ITS SECOND SAFETY ADVISORY in three weeks, the Federal Railroad Administration in April encouraged railroads to address the complexities of operating long trains. The non-binding advisory follows three recent derailments involving trains with more than 200 cars, length of 12,250 feet or more, and weight over 17,000 tons. The advisory said that “while research is ongoing related to operational aspects of long trains, including brake system performance, it is known that the in-train forces longer trains experience are generally stronger and more complex than those in shorter train consists.” It did not recommend a specific cap on train length or tonnage. The April 27 train-length advisory builds on an April 6 advisory on train makeup. Among its eight recommendations to address operations of long trains are: • A review…

Big things are happening in New York. This is nothing new. But in this case, they involve remaking commuter rail boundaries that have existed for generations. That is definitely new. A trio of construction projects, among the nation’s largest public-works programs, are creating new options for riders and for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. For the MTA, the options provide welcome opportunities as it explores life in a commuter rail landscape reshaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. The projects, two of which are now complete, are: ▪ Long Island Rail Road’s Third Track, the 9.8-mile addition to the commuter road’s Main Line between Floral Park and Hicksville, N.Y. The third track, which entered service in October 2022, was a key to a schedule introduced in February that saw the LIRR increase weekday…

An hour northwest of Chicago O’Hare International Airport, on the edge of bucolic Union, Ill. (2019 population: 580), amidst a sea of cornfields, is a train enthusiast’s paradise. It’s a sprawling 110-acre property packed with railroad yards, giant storage barns, historic structures, and railway equipment of every description. On a busy day, you may be able to ride more than half a dozen different trains pulled by steam locomotives, diesels, or electric power. You’re as likely to see a 1904 Chicago streetcar as a 1988 GE Dash 8. The Illinois Railway Museum, or IRM, isn’t your typical museum with a switcher pulling a coach and a couple of cabooses. It proudly proclaims itself to be America’s largest railway museum, and if you use the size of the rolling stock collection…

WELCOME to the first of my monthly travel investigations, where I’ll explore a great railroad journey, a special destination, or a historic experience. I plan to visit some of the most interesting railroads operating today, while also leading Trains readers down less-traveled paths to seek out the hidden gems of railroading. PLACES TO GO Due to its importance to me, I begin with the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum because it has preserved rural New England railroading and historic equipment representative of my early interest. It’s also where I have friends who have worked to make this a fun place to visit. Founded in 1984, Berkshire Scenic abides by its motto — “We are not just preserving history, we’re making it!” — and aims to preserve the rural railroading of the…

AN INCREASING NUMBER of Siemens-built Venture passenger cars — delayed by a variety of production and acceptance issues — are now in service on Amtrak state-supported routes in the Midwest. That includes the first of the business/coach class cars, which at least initially are available to riders for no additional fare. Meanwhile, there is no firm date for introduction of California’s Venture equipment, although a spokesman for the state’s Department of Transportation said in April that it would come this summer. Siemens is building 137 cars for the two state-supported operations: 88 for Chicago-based services and 49 destined for California’s San Joaquins trains. In the Midwest, three Venture business/coach cars and 40 coaches were accepted and available for service as of the last week in March, according to Scott Speegle,…

HAD THE LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD’S Third Track project only been what its name implies — adding a third track — it would have been complex enough. But the work over 9.8 miles between Floral Park and Hicksville, N.Y., was much more. The two existing tracks were rebuilt, and in places relocated. Five stations were reconstructed, as were electrical substations. New underpasses eliminated grade crossings. A new signal system was put in. For good measure, public utilities had to be relocated, because they also used the 66-foot-wide right-of-way that squeezed in the third track where there had previously been just two, along with the occasional siding. Essentially, the railroad was completely rebuilt over four years, while still continuing to run its full commuter schedule. “It was such a complex project…

Still in use more than 180 years after they were built, the keystone arch bridges of western Massachusetts stand as enduring monuments to the skill of their creators. AN ECONOMIC CRISIS Boston had a problem in the late 1830s. The newly completed Erie Canal was drawing more and more trade to the ports of New York and New Jersey, where easy canal access made shipping to the growing interior United States much cheaper. The businessmen of Boston had to do something or their city would continue to lose trade and economic development, and Boston would dwindle. With the Berkshire Mountains standing between Boston and the rest of the U.S., a canal wasn’t an option. This led to consideration of another possibility: a railroad. At the time, railroads were not seen…

Through many “car in point” photos, DPM depicts rolling-stock examples that would eventually become ubiquitous on the passenger rail scene: a Chicago & North Western push-pull commuter bi-level cab car (the first of these was then on order from Pullman Standard), and a pair of Santa Fe Hi-Level coaches (built by the Budd Company in 1956). He praises the operating economies of bidirectional equipment not needing to be turned at terminals, as well as the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway fleet’s pounds-per-seat savings and capacity advantage over single-level cars. Decades later, push-pull bi-level commuter trains would proliferate: M.U. electric NJ Transit and Long Island Rail Road double-deckers now pass through clearance-restricted eastern tunnels. Amtrak officials would be sufficiently enamored with the Hi-level concept to extend it to dining, lounge,…

THERE IS A RICH TRADITION being carried out inside the 1907 enginehouse at the Nevada Northern Railway Museum in Ely, Nev. Here mechanics work to restore No. 40, a 1910 Baldwin 4-6-0. The engine is a National Historic Landmark and the official Nevada state locomotive. Just how that is done is not information that you can simply find by asking Google or Alexa. It comes from shared knowledge passed down through the generations. “There are books out there about this kind of stuff, but the problem is they usually tell you how it’s supposed to work. They don’t tell you how to make it work,” says Master Mechanic John Henry McDonnell. “I was pretty fortunate because I was here when we restored locomotive No. 81 [a 1917 Baldwin 2-8-0]. The…