Fred Frailey - Trains Magazine - Trains News Wire, Railroad News, Railroad Industry News, Web Cams, and Forms

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Who got high-speed rail money, and who may not

Posted 13 years ago by Fred Frailey

Any time now, I expect the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives to schedule a vote on rescinding high speed rail appropriations that haven’t actually been disbursed by the U.S. Treasury. Of $10 billion in grants, less than $4.3 billion has actually gone to the state governments overseeing the rail projects. It isn’t that Republicans in Congress hate high speed rail, although some surely do. Rather, the public is alarmed at the size of federal bud...

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The future dims for coal

Posted 13 years ago by Fred Frailey

The year 2011 has hardly begun, and already the news is bleak about coal, the No. 1 commodity that railroads carry. Last year, not a single new coal-fired power plant went online in the U.S. Now, what is soon to become the nation’s largest electric utility has publicly stated it wants to move away from coal. That utility is Duke Energy, which just announced its deal to buy Progress Energy. The two utilities are centered in the Carolinas. According to Reuters, Duke and Progre...

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Guess who’s going intermodal?

Posted 13 years ago by Fred Frailey

One of the last big holdouts against partnering with railroads in intermodal transportation is joining the team. I’m referring to none other than Federal Express, the giant global transportation company. Starting January 31, as it completes a reorganization of FedEx Freight, its less-than-truckload division, the company will become a rail intermodal partner. Ironically, this happens just after another big intermodal shipper takes its trailers off the rails and puts them on the highway.The ...

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Have you voted? Route a steam engine through your town

Posted 13 years ago by Fred Frailey

Kudos to Union Pacific and its senior VP for corporate relations, Bob Turner, for a genuinely good and fun idea: Let the fans and others who enjoy steam locomotives decide where one of UP’s big brutes will travel this summer, the 50th anniversary of its legendary steam program. I am probably the last train lover on earth to know about this contest. Two months ago, Turner himself tried to get me interested in the campaign but I was too distracted to pay attention.So for those who don’...

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For Christmas, a biblical story

Posted 13 years ago by Fred Frailey

Newell Derryberry started railroading in West Texas before I was born, in 1943, began dispatching trains for the Texas & Pacific at age 18, and by age 27, he became chief dispatcher in Big Spring, Texas. He ultimately rose to be one of the top operating executives of parent railroad Missouri Pacific. I got to know Newell when I wrote about Union Pacific’s T&P route for the August 2002 TRAINS, and every so often he emails to make sure I’m still alive. So far, so ...

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The road ahead for passenger rail

Posted 13 years ago by Fred Frailey

The outline of the next couple of years for passenger trains is now pretty clear. What I’m about to say will go down like unwanted medicine for most of you, so I’ll deliver the bad news quickly. There will be no money. Governments, both state and federal, are close to broke. People are starting to sense that what happened to Greece and Ireland could happen here, too, in a few years. I can almost feel the reaction beneath my feet. Did you know that the personal sa...

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The drawbridge to practically nowhere

Posted 13 years ago by Fred Frailey

Railroad drawbridges are rare enough to attract my attention. But what about one that takes an industrial spur over the heavily navigated Illinois River west of Chicago? That’s a lot of maintenance and operating expense. What’s the “back story”?My tale begins a few weeks ago aboard an Iowa Interstate freight train slogging its way from Blue Island to Rock Island, Ill., using trackage rights over CSX. The tracks, until 1980 part of the Rock Island Lines main line from Chic...

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Amtrak Guest Rewards baits the hook, and Fred bites

Posted 13 years ago by Fred Frailey

If anyone from Amtrak marketing is reading this, I have a message for you: Your “Ride 10 Trains, Get 10,000 Guest Reward Points” promotion takes over the minds of otherwise sensible people. I’m the evidence of it. I am ticketing myself aboard Amtrak trains about as fast as slot-machine junkies in Vegas can feed quarters into their monsters. How did this happen anyway? When Amtrak announced the promotion at the start of October, I could care less. The deal f...

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Looking inside the master bedroom of hell

Posted 13 years ago by Fred Frailey

Many of you have ridden in the cab of steam locomotives. Those who have may cease reading this and return to what you were doing. The rest of you may enjoy this brief account of my adventure yesterday riding the Red Rooster, Iowa Interstate’s 24-year-old, made-in-China 2-10-2 steam locomotive. It begins when a taxi drops me at the railroad’s Newton, Iowa, enginehouse (top photo), where the star of the show, Class QJ 7081, had been brought out of sleep by a crew...

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