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Lightning-Striped. The third MTA Metro-North Railroad/Metro-North Railroad 40th Anniversary "heritage unit" was outshopped from North White Plains on the night of Tuesday November 7, 2023, and captured by Marc Glucksman. The lightning stripes of New York Central will soon roll again on the its former road as P32AC-DM 211 has a very sharp new wrap. The locomotive is seen near the former NYC tower at MO in Mott Haven in the Bronx, New York on the way to the Croton Harmon shops.
In November, the Altoona Railway Museum was donated an ex-Conrail SD60I Former Norfolk Southern SD60I 2020, was donated by Penn State's Altoona Campus (for assistance in training University Engineering Students), to the Railroaders Memorial Museum, and was shot by Calvin Spector posing at Curry Rail Services, in Hollidaysburg, PA, prior to being moved to the museum in Altoona, PA. NS employees have free access.
CRO GREEN NEWS: CSX is going to replace 3-older switchers at its Curtis Bay terminal in Maryland. with 3 new battery-electric switchers. Tacoma Rail is going to replace 2 older switchers with 2 new battery-electric switchers. US Steel unveiled its first battery-electric switcher Rebuilt from GOMX SSB1200 556 (and built by EMD as ATSF SW9 2423). More details still to come.
CSXT DERAILMENT: At 9:30AM in Romulus, MI, 14 railcars including tank cars with sodium derailed on CSX freight train M510 derailed between Shook and Wick (Near the Wick Siding). This is the third derailment in Romulus, Michigan in just two years. (There were no locomotives derailed, or Hazardous Chemicals involved, and no one was injured, however my CSX Colleague said to me on the train crew were shaken up - WHB).
NTSB on BNSF coal train incident: The National Transportation Safety Board are looking specifically at BNSF track inspection and maintenance procedures. This is following the October 15 derailment of a BNSF Railway coal train near Pueblo, Colorado. Many of the 30 loaded coal hoppers that derailed came off the tracks at a passing siding switch and struck the railroad bridge at Pueblo West passing over Interstate 25 which partially collapsed onto the highway, six hoppers dropped down onto the highway. One killed the driver of a northbound truck. The NTSB investigating team believe the incident wreck likely was caused by a broken rail. BNSF Train CNAMCRD0-31D departed Denver at 9:41 a.m. on the day of the derailment, bound for La Junta, Colo., according to the NTSB's preliminary report. The train consisted of two locomotives at the head end, three distributed power units, and 124 cars loaded with coal. The conductor and engineer were not injured in the 3:24 p.m. derailment at Milepost 109.654 of the Pikes Peak Subdivision. At the site of the wreck, the Pikes Peak Sub is single-track with an adjacent passing siding that begins just east of the bridge. The southbound train was moving at 32 mph, well below the maximum authorized speed of 45 mph. "While on scene, National Transportation Safety Board investigators completed interviews; reviewed data from locomotive event recorders, forward-facing image recorders, and radio logs; inspected locomotives and railcars; tested and downloaded data from positive train control and signal systems; examined track near the derailment site; reviewed BNSF track maintenance and welding procedures; and recovered a section of rail for analysis at the NTSB Materials Laboratory," the preliminary report said. Parties to the ongoing investigation include BNSF, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen division of the Transportation Communications Union/IAM; the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen; the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes; and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers.
BNSF and J.B. Hunt to shift Mexico cross-border intermodal service to Ferromex via Eagle Pass gateway: BNSF Railway and J.B. Hunt are shifting their Mexico intermodal service to Ferromex via the Eagle Pass gateway, a route they say is a day faster than the current BNSF-Canadian Pacific Kansas City routing via Laredo, Texas. The cross-border service will move to Eagle Pass on Jan. 1, BNSF and J.B. Hunt announced in November 2023
South of the border, the intermodal service will reach Monterrey, Silao-Bajio, and Pantaco-Mexico City regions, key markets in Northern and Central Mexico, via Grupo Mexico's Ferromex. The six-day per week service — which will use BNSF's trackage rights over Union Pacific between Caldwell, Texas, and Eagle Pass — will be a day faster for Chicago-Monterrey traffic, BNSF said. BNSF and J.B. Hunt say they also will offer an alternative option via the El Paso, Texas, gateway.
UP LAYOFFS: Union Pacific Railroad has begun trimming dead wood off their upper Management with a round of layoffs underway at Union Pacific headquarters under new CEO Jim Vena. UP was unable to provide a precise number of layoffs because some people whose jobs are being eliminated will be assigned to special projects that may last several months, while others may move back to union jobs. "Union Pacific is changing its culture and announced organizational changes to reduce layers, expand spans of control and focus on empowering employees on the front lines to drive decision-making," spokeswoman Kristen South says. "These changes included some reductions, which represent less than 5% of the total management workforce. All employees whose roles were impacted were given the opportunity to apply for hard-to-hire craft professional roles in other parts of the railroad."
On UP's third-quarter earnings call October 19th, Vena emphasized the need to reduce bureaucracy. "We need to make decisions quicker, we need to react quicker, we need to quit having so many layers that slow down the decision making," Vena said.
Overall employment at UP has dropped by 25% since the railroad adopted a Precision Scheduled Railroading operating model in October 2018, according to STB data. The railroad's ranks of executive officials, staff, and assistants has fallen by 12.4%, while professional and administrative employment has dropped 24%, according to STB data.
Canadian-built EMD BNSF GP60B's: Built back in 1991 in London, Ontario, currently there are only 4 BNSF GP60B's still in service: BNSF 329, 334, 341 and 343. The Stored BNSF GP60B's units are BNSF 325, 326, 327 328, 330, 331, 332, 333, 335, 336, 337, 338 339, 340 ,342, 344, 345 and 346.
GE Erie, PA-built BNSF B40-8Ws in service: BNSF 500 501 502 503 504 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 514 515 517 518 520 521 522 525 526 527 528 529 533 535 536 538 539 541 542 543 544 546 547 548 551 552 553 554 556 558 559 Stored: 505 516 519 523 524 532 534 540 545 and 549. (Jeffrey Streiff photo).
The following Retired/Sold units (of Hundreds in storage) were noted in LTE in Lordstown, OH in late-October.
• LTEX 1281 ex LTEX 1231:1, ex IHB SW9 9002, Serial 18790, Frame 4239-1, Built 10/53.
• LTEX 1532 ex LTEX 1029, ex UPY 1029, ex UP 1029, ex NS 2319, nee SOU 2319
• BUGX 7400 ex LTE/IORY/CEFX 9500, SP SD45R 7400, SP SD45 8809. Serial 32000, Frame 7887-10. Built 8/66.
• BUGX 9400 ex LTE/IORY/CEFX/SP/SSW SD45T-2 9400. Frame 74696-30. Built 6/75.
• LTEX 66 ex USSX SW8 66 / ET-7 / 109. Serial 14187, Frame 6256-1. Built 6/51.
• LTEX 66B ex UP S28, ex MP Slug 1419, ex MP 1219, ex TP 1219, nee TP SW9 1024
• LTEX 104 ex Cargill, Inc. 104, nee ETL SW8 104:1
• LTEX 948 ex LTEX 949:1, nee US Steel/Minnesota Ore Operations SW1500 949
• LTEX 1545 ex CSX GP15-1 1545, nee CR 1637. Frame 787249-53, Built 10-11/79.
FERROMEX INCIDENT UPDATE: Around 09:30 local time the morning (October 29, 2023, Ferromex experienced an extremely bad wreck (with fatalities) in Mendoza, Zacatecas, Mexico. The Engineer and conductor of FXE 4609 were killed and the Brakeman is in critical condition at hospital. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the crew of the Torreón Mexico-bound train and who lost their lives, and their families. The units involved are reported, and confirmed via photos, as the following:
FXE 0004 LNG Fuel Tanker (Derailed, Lifted Off Track on B End On Autorack), FXE 4029 (Derailed, Overturned On Conductors Side, Heavy Damage), FXE 4063 (Derailed, Overturned On Engineers Side, Heavy Damage) FXE 4558 (Derailed, Partly Overturned, FXE 4609 (Derailed, Overturned On Engineers Side, Heavy Damage), FXE 4804 (the DPU, derailed Upright and Leaning), and FXE 4844 Derailed but remained Upright, it Smashed Into An Autorack, lifting the rear end (Gracias mi amigo).
RAILWAY INCIDENTS can cause tragedy as can be seen in Ferromex yesterday's accident in (with several fatalities) in Mendoza, Zacatecas, Mexico. More on this event is slowly coming to light as investigators continue to painstakingly sift through the on-site evidence and analyze the recorded information. We honour these men and the FXE Crew that lost their lives and the employees, colleagues, and most of all the poor families of those men who lost their lives, and those that were injured. Stay safe out there (WHB).
The units involved are reported, and confirmed via photos, as the following:
FXE 0004 LNG Fuel Tanker (Derailed, Lifted Off Track on B End On Autorack)
UPDATE Just speculating here…. But looking at my photos… the way all the power is scattered in the opposite direction of the auto racks .. what's becoming more clear is that maybe it was a rear end collision into the auto rack train into DPU's and what we are seeing is the power from 2 trains .. lead units glancing a blow then plowing into field at track speed??
Just a speculation... but it is looking more like a rear end collision at about 40MPH into (Distributed Pawer DPU's on the rear. If it was a head on, the locations of power would have stopped faster and piled up, or climbed .. and a lot of locomotives were involved indeed... that train that hit along with DPU's that were behind the auto racks … Pieces of auto rack Cst peeled off like sardine can … for the locomotives to travel as far as they did in the field... guessing 40-50 mph A Mexican Media article says there were additional injuries with migrants riding onboard the railcars. Translation from Spanish said "there occurred a loss of control and a collision happened" but no details.
A media article says additional injuries occurred because migrants were riding on train, and in my vague translation said, "there occurred a loss of control and the collision happened" (The FXE infobae photos were taken October 29 2023).
On November 8, 2023, NJ Transit 4210 (GP40PH-2B, Erie Railroad Heritage) made its first road trips in its new heritage paint. It was appropriate that its first day was spent on former Erie Railroad Line, seen at the NJ Transit Suffern, New York station while awaiting the return to Hoboken, New Jersey. While neither Erie nor Erie Lackawanna Railroad owned any GP40s, the paint scheme was adapted from Alco/EMD models of that era. The present day Pascack Valley and Bergen/Main/Port Jervis lines were a part of the Erie Railroad and became part of Erie Lackawanna, Conrail and later NJ DOT and NJ Transit upon its inception.
NS 992800 C40-9W - Norfolk Southern's newest MPM maintenance of way locomotives, NS 992800 and 992801, are paired up and resting for the weekend with the R3 rail train in the house track at Orangeburg, South Carolina. Now considered "on-track M-of-W equipment", these power units were rebuilt by RELCO in Albia, Iowa, (from NS Dash 9's 9553 and 9623), were beautifully captured by Casey Thompson on November 12, 2023, in Orangeburg, South Carolina.
NS-CSX DERAILMENT: An incident in northwest Atlanta, GA, involving a train derailment and subsequent fire caused major concern among residents. On November 17th, at approximately 6:28 a.m., the tail end of a Norfolk Southern train collided with a CSX train inside CSX Howell's Yard, leading to the derailment of eight rail cars of the NS Train and igniting a fire under Rebuilt EMD SD40E (CSX 1702). The incident occurred at the NS-CSX switch interchange point, resulting in the containment of a significant quantity of diesel fuel (1,200 gallons) that spilled and burned during the fire. However, the remaining 2,800 gallons were successfully contained. The area near Chattahoochee Avenue NW and Defoor Avenue witnessed the aftermath, with a sizable train off its tracks. Fortunately, despite the severity of the incident, there were no reported injuries, providing relief to local authorities and residents. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G69eZpyG5Ig
CTA DERAILMENT: A Chicago CTA commuter train collided with R-o-W Track equipment on Thursday morning, (November 16) injuring nearly 40 people, some of them critically, fire officials said. The Chicago Transit Authority train crashed into snow-removal equipment (A Snow Blower), just before 10:35 a.m. on the city's North Side near the Howard CTA station, the Chicago Fire Department said.
The CTA Yellow Line (EMU) Train was carrying 31 commuters, and seven CTA workers were heading south from Skokie when it collided with the slower-moving rail equipment, said Robert Jurewicz, the Chicago Fire Department's second district chief. Thirty-eight people, including four children, were injured. Twenty-three were taken to area hospitals and three of the injured were in critical condition, although no one suffered life-threatening injuries, said Keith Gray, assistant deputy chief paramedic. The train's operator was among the most seriously hurt but survived the collision. 15 others who were on the train declined medical treatment at the scene. The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to investigate the incident. (This story has been updated to correct that 38 people were injured and 23 were taken to hospitals).
The 81st running of the "Santa Train" on the CSX former Clinchfield route is now in the books. Here we see them as they depart St. Paul with fall colours still hanging around in most spots take by Allan Williams Jr, on November 18, 2023.
BNSF MPVODEN-01 MOFFAT DERAILMENT From Gilpin County Sheriff's Office: The Gilpin County Sheriff's Office reported Sunday that a train derailed near Pinecliffe. The sheriff's office said the report about the derailment came in around 6:49 a.m. with it happening adjacent to private property midway between South Beaver Creek Road and Lincoln Hills Fly Fishing Club. He took these shots at roughly 0830 before most of the ground crews arrived. He was out already and wondered why things came to an abrupt stop. Things are back up and running today (by Coloradorailphotographer) on the Union Pacific Moffat Tunnel Subdivision in Lincoln Hills, Colorado.
MLW-Built White Pass & Yukon DL-535E, seen here on home rails, will soon be heading for the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. Photo Courtesy of White Pass & Yukon. The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic is acquiring a rare wide-nosed, narrow-gauge, Alco-designed and Bombardier-built DL-535E from Alaska's White Pass & Yukon. (Photo by ED Motis).
On November 11, the Cumbres & Toltec Commission, the board that oversees the 64-mile narrow gauge railroad, approved a deal to acquire WP&Y 114 for $120,000. The locomotive will arrive next year. According to a summary of the meeting by Samuel B. Seiber, the locomotive will be used in work train service as well as a backup for the steam locomotives that regularly run over the former Denver & Rio Grande Western trackage. The commission noted that two of the former D&RGW 2-8-2s are usually fired up to be on standby in case a mechanical issue crops up at either Chama or Antonito, where excursions originate. But now, the diesel could be used in that service, saving the railroad the effort of keeping a steam locomotive hot just in case.
The DL-535E would not be the first White Pass locomotive to come to the former Rio Grande. The Durango & Silverton purchased four DL-535 locomotives in 2020 and has been using them ever since. While some online have griped about the prospect of a road diesel arriving on the C&TS, which until now has only employed a few industrial diesels for yard work and light work trains, the DL-535E the railroad is getting is unique in its own right. The locomotive was one of four ordered by the White Pass in the 1980s from Bombardier, which had acquired the Alco/Montreal Locomotive Works designs. The White Pass had previously ordered ten DL-535s in the early 1970s from both Alco and MLW. While internally, the DL-535Es were similar to their predecessors, they had one major exterior difference: they featured the full-width "safety cab" common on Canadian MLWs. However, by the time the locomotives were complete, the White Pass had suspended freight operations. The DL-535Es, among the last Alco-designed locomotives built for domestic use, sat in Quebec with nowhere to go. Then in 1991, U.S. Gypsum purchased two of the locomotives for us at its Plaster City, Calif., operation. A few years later, after wrecking one of the locomotives, it went back for a third. The fourth locomotive was eventually acquired by the White Pass & Yukon once that railroad resumed operations as a tourist line. Locomotive 114 arrived in Alaska in 1994, 12 years after it was originally ordered. Since then, the locomotive has been used in excursion service but was recently replaced by newer units.
Replacing the Former VIA (Nee-CN) MLW FPA4's:
The Napa Valley Railroad took delivery of a 1560HP unit from Knoxville unit about three weeks ago. There is another unit coming and will be joining KLWX 1864. These two Knoxville units are to replace four FPA4's, a GP9R that came from Portland and Western. George C Manley followed the KLWX 1864 to the end of the run and caught up with the 65 tonner NVR #52 with a two-car train that was ahead of the 1864. They stopped by the Napa Valley engine house and the NVR RS11 62 was stored at the south end of the shop area. Word has it that there is a Rolls Royce engine that is to be put into the 62. For a while we all thought that the four FPA4's were going to be turned into cab cars, but not so. The NVRR RS11 62 (Ex-SP) looks like she may come back to life soon.
How just two Knoxville units are to replace the seven MLW units (NVRR 69,70,71,72,73,52 and 57, and the former NS high-nose GP40 in black numbered NVRR 5076... (all parked in the shop area) is still not clear.
The Knoxville 1864 sounds like an EMD unit and is very colorful in its new paint scheme. The train we chased had a 10-car consist. Today, it was high clouds and filtered sun gave us time to get some fair shots...The Napa Valley Railroad should we chased south to Napa offered good light to work with. Our next chase would be northbound, but the high clouds reduce a light that would have been our shooting time. Photos by George C Manley and James Taylor (Fresno, CA).
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BEFORE AND AFTER: NS 3412 SD40-2 one week before in Chattanooga, TN, (January 2012 - C.E. Armstrong photo), and NS 3412 SD40-2 fresh out of the paint shop February 2012 in Chattanooga, TN, by Mike Ray.
This great photo of CSX ES44AH 1869 (C&O Heritage) on CSXT L70003 was taken by the Occidental Tourist on the CSXT Palmetto Subdivision, near the Tropicana plant in Bradenton, FL, in September 2023.
CSXT 1827 (B&O) Heritage was leading L303 Livonia MI 10 15 23 Chris Paciocco.
The NS 17-V has upgraded NS C44-9W 9808 leading repainted CP SD40-2 6037 (Out of Progress Rail) in tow, in Hammond, Indiana by Mike Garza on September 30th.
Eastbound CSX ethanol train (CSX B631) was also shot by Mike Garza led by CP SD70ACU 7014 (and an NS GE), in Dolton, IL, on October 1st.
A CSX ethanol train has the CN ES44DC 2257 leading at Riverdale, IL on September 28th, 2023. (Mike Garza photo).
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In patched-Erie Lackawanna paint, Conrail E8A 4014 {built 2/51 as Erie 825} is pictured here at Chicago, IL on 7/1/77. (Willie Brown scan of a Paul Hunnell slide).
Home-Built RS3r MKT 152 was shot by ED Motis in Kansas City, KS on December 10, 1977.
MKT 617 SD40-2 Ft Worth TX February 1982 Dean Motis.
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