RailAmerica, the conglomeration of 45 short line and regional railroads, is for sale. Fortress Investment Group, which took RA private in 2007, has employed Deutsche Bank to find a buyer for its majority (56 percent) interest in the company, several...

The Southern Pacific Brooklyn Roundhouse in its last days in May 2012. Jim Wrinn photo PORTLAND, Ore. – Few historic locomotive shops in American railway preservation have earned icon status. The Brooklyn Roundhouse in Portland, Ore., is one...

All four operating Mount Rainier Scenic steam locomotives running together make for a fine sight at the railroad’s shops in Mineral, Wash., on May 4. Jim Wrinn photo MINERAL, Wash. – I spent last Friday and all of Saturday at Washington state’s...

I'm spending this week in Chicago with some dear old friends, and a whole lot of wonderful new ones at the Wheel/Rail Interaction Seminar in Chicago. It's Trains ' new publisher Diane Bacha's first industry event, and I'm really enjoying...

“It’s sealed,” a securities analyst emailed me today about the fight to control the future of Canadian Pacific. Institutional Shareholder Services had condemned the stewardship of CP by its present board of directors and recommended...

When you leave Fort Sumner, N.M., on U.S. 60, there's a turnoff to an unnamed, unmarked, unsigned road that hugs BNSF Railway’s Transcon toward the west coast for 61 miles, to Vaughn, N.M. I am not recommending you take it, because it is...

There is a beautiful hillside overlook near Curtis, Okla., where westbound freights on BNSF Railway’s Transcon must labor mightily to overcome a long 1 percent grade. I was standing there this morning with my fellow traveler, Tom Hoback, president...

Pressure is mounting on the warring parties battling over the leadership of Canadian Pacific to negotiate a truce prior to the scheduled May 17 annual meeting and shareholder vote for directors. That pressure is greatest on the board of directors of...

As we drive through the Kansas Flint Hills, toward Emporia, I turn to Tom Hoback and say, “Wouldn’t it be cool to encounter some really bad thunderstorms tomorrow — maybe see a tornado?” Tom gives me a look that says, why do...

I lived on the Atlantic Coast for a quarter century before I admitted that eastern railroads really are railroads and actually deserving of some affectionating. Today my wife says the CSX North End Subdivision in southern Virginia is “Fred’s...

"If you want to see the last Interstate unit to leave Andover, you'd better get up here!" The voice on the other end of the phone was Sonny Burchfield, an operator for the Southern at the newly combined Interstate-Southern yard at Andover...

I had been interviewing D.J. Stadtler for about 15 minutes several weeks ago when a thought crossed my mind. So I asked: Would he consider throwing his hat into the ring to become vice president of operations of Amtrak, rather than the acting VP? At...

In the forthcoming July issue of Trains, Ross Capon of the National Association of Railroad Passengers describes Amtrak’s long-distance trains as “meat waiting to be roasted” by fiscal conservatives and insists there is no guarantee...

I'm in Philadelphia this week for the Joint Rail Conference, in which professionals and engineering students present papers on their research into or application of new railroad technology. The primary reason I'm here is to find ideas for our...

I’ve been called to account for my column in the April issue of Trains Magazine that argues Hunter Harrison would make a better chief executive officer of Canadian Pacific than the incumbent, Fred Green. The arguments against my opinion piece...

Since Norfolk Southern made a big splash with the announcement of heritage paint schemes, I thought it might be time for BNSF to do the same. Norfolk Southern joined the ranks of railroads like Union Pacific, Amtrak, Iowa Interstate, and others who are...

But only upon the third conviction. After all, I am not a vindictive man. On the first conviction, those who spray paint on railroad equipment would only have their first two fingers of each hand amputated, making it more difficult to press the button...

Eastbound Norfolk Southern train 38Q passes through serene countryside at Atkins, Va., on March 23, 2012 with Southern Railway heritage unit No. 8099 on its maiden run in revenue service leading the train. Jonathan McCoy photo OK, first a confession...

By the time I was 12 I had narrowed my occupational choices to a mere two. One was to be, like my father, a newspaperman. The other option was train dispatching. I chose the former, but my, I have always admired the men and women who direct the trains...

Yesterday morning near St. Augustine I watched two of Florida East Coast’s blue GP40-2s wheel 177 containers and trailers (yes, I counted) northward at a brisk 55 mph. Two smallish diesels can do that because the vast majority of those boxes...

Well, CSX sure made a mess of things in Emporia, Va. The town of almost 6,000 people, some 10 miles north of the North Carolina border, was invaded yesterday morning by System Tie and Surfacing Gang T-2. T-2 and its allied contractors proceeded to...

The coal and railroad businesses go hand in hand. CSX and Norfolk Southern get almost one-third of their revenues from coal, Union Pacific and BNSF Railway roughly one-fourth. So when BNSF has almost 130 trainsets of coal cars in storage — think...

Riders enjoy their trip on Amtrak’s Piedmont as part of a daylong event in Greensboro, N.C., devoted to passenger rail, cosponsored by Trains magazine. Matt Van Hattem photo Here’s a great idea to promote more interest and awareness...

I met the man who became Union Pacific's chief executive officer at a political convention in 2004 in New York. He was with Dick Davidson, then the CEO, and I was with my wife. Young was already the heir apparent. We exchanged introductions. The...