Mountain State Tourist Train Loop Proposed
February 22nd, 2012

The West Virginia Tourism Commission has proposed a 90-mile rail excursion to be known as Highland Adventure of Mountain & Rail. The plan would relay 25 miles of former Western Maryland track between Durbin and Elk River Junction near Glady using rail salvaged from the flood-damaged West Virginia Central (ex-WM) line between Spruce and Bergoo (that section would be converted to a trail). The commission envisions a schedule of eight trains a day which would serve Elkins, Durbin, Cass, Spruce, Glady, and back to Elkins for a total run of 90 miles. Backpackers, hikers, fishermen, kayakers, and bikers could use the trains to reach the many trails and watercourses in the region. The $20 million plan is expected to bring $50 million a year to the regional economy.

-- Railfan & Railroad

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Southern Railway Depot Spared
February 22nd, 2012

A former Southern Railway depot has been spared the fate of demolition. The Chuckey, Tenn., depot has been purchased and dismantled by the Historic District of Jonesborough, located 25 miles to the northeast. The depot components are in dry storage and will be reassembled in a city park beside the Norfolk Southern Knoxville to Bristol line. A local theme railroad museum will be housed in the restored building. The depot was purchased with two weeks remaining on a demolition notice posted by Norfolk Southern. It was constructed by the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad, a Southern Railway predecessor, in the 1890's.

-- Railfan & Railroad, from Paul Masters

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First Class Sleeper Service to Start in October
February 21st, 2012

The Pullman Sleeping Car Co. LLC, a new member of the Iowa Pacific Holdings family, plans to institute first class sleeping car service over Amtrak routes between Chicago, New York, and New Orleans beginning next October. The Pullman cars will be moved in the consist of the Lake Shore Limited between New York and Chicago, and in the Panama Limited between Chicago and New Orleans. The sleepers will not be accessible from the Amtrak consist and will be accompanied by dining cars which will serve freshly prepared food to Pullman patrons.

Pullman is currently having several sleeping cars renovated at various contract shops. In addition to providing scheduled first class accommodations on Amtrak routes, along with Iowa Pacific's High Iron Travel the company will provide equipment for chartered trains.

-- Railfan & Railroad

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Piedmont & Northern is Revived
February 21st, 2012

On February 20, 2012 the first train in more than 20 years ran over the former Piedmont & Northern Railroad between Gastonia and Mount Holly, N.C. The trackage is owned by the North Carolina Department of Transportation, which has leased the line to Patriot Rail, the short line holding company based in Boca Raton, Fla., which operates it as the Piedmont & Northern Railway (PNRW). The line was rehabilitated using with federal, state, and local funding. PNRW interchanges with CSX at Mount Holly and with Norfolk Southern at Gastonia.

-- Railfan & Railroad

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Nebraska to Issue UP License Plate
February 18th, 2012

In conjunction with Union Pacific Railroad's 150th anniversary this year, the Friends of the Union Pacific Railroad Museum is sponsoring a special license plate for Nebraska residents. The Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles will produce the plates after it receives 500 applications. The plates cannot be personalized and cost $70. Union Pacific employees have the opportunity to purchase the plates from February 17 through February 29, 2012. Once 500 applications have been submitted to the DMV, the UP specialty plates will be offered to the public on the DMV website.

-- Railfan & Railroad

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Norfolk Southern "Heritage" Program
February 17th, 2012

Reports have been circulating regarding a proposed program of "heritage" paint schemes honoring predecessor railroads that are now a part of Norfolk Southern, much in the same way Union Pacific honored their fallen flags more than five years ago. The reported roads to be honored include Central of Georgia; Conrail; Erie; Erie Lackawanna; Lehigh Valley; New Haven; New York Central; Nickel Plate Road; Norfolk & Western; Penn Central; Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh & West Virginia; Reading; Savannah & Atlanta; Southern; Tennessee, Alabama & Georgia; Virginian; and Wabash. As of this writing, nothing has been published on Norfolk Southern's web site to confirm this report, though the Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation society has acknowledged their cooperation with NS on appropriate graphics and colors for an Erie Lackawanna paint scheme.

—Railfan & Railroad, via various Internet reports

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Amtrak Releases Revised Specs for Bi-level Equipment
February 16th, 2012

Amtrak has released the revised specification for bi-level passenger equipment under the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008. The nearly 600-page document includes floor plans for all three variations (coach, control cab/baggage, and cafe/lounge). The cars will be capable of 125-m.p.h. operation and are intended for use in California and on Midwestern routes radiating from Chicago.

-- Railfan & Railroad

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VRE Orders Gallery Cars
February 16th, 2012

Virginia Railway Express will purchase up to 50 new gallery-style commuter coaches from Sumitomo/Nippon Sharyo. The initial eight-car order will be delivered in 2014 with an option for another 42; VRE already operates 71 of the cars. They'll be built at the Nippon Sharyo plant in Rochelle, Ill.

-- Railfan & Railroad

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Drawbridge to be Replaced in California, New Bridge Opens in Texas
February 15th, 2012

Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit wants to replace the 109-year old swing bridge over the Petaluma River on the former Northwestern Pacific with a former Santa Fe bascule span from Galveston, Texas. Built in 1903, the existing swing bridge at Haystack Landing provides a 56-foot wide navigation channel, which would be increased to 87 feet when the drawbridge replaces it. (As it existed in Texas, the 125-foot drawbridge span provided a 105-foot wide channel.) Powered by an antique and increasingly unreliable system of belts and gears, the existing bridge pivots on a center turntable and takes several minutes to open. The bascule span can be raised and lowered in 90 seconds. The swing bridge will be dismantled and its steel used elsewhere on the former NWP to upgrade smaller water crossings and wooden trestles.

Rehabilitating the swing bridge would cost $20 million, and it would eventually need to be replaced at a cost of probably $30 million. SMART says the much newer Texas bridge can be dismantled, moved to California, and reinstalled for for $20 million.

While the Galveston bridge was built in 1989, the Coast Guard declared it the most hazardous bridge on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and directed that it be replaced with a 382-foot vertical lift bridge and a 300-foot channel. The new bridge is being installed this week.

-- Railfan & Railroad

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New England Regionals Join Forces
February 14th, 2012

RailAmerica's New England Central (NECR) and Providence & Worcester (PW) have teamed up to form the Great Eastern Route between Canada and Atlantic Ocean port facilities in Rhode Island. The Great Eastern Route will provide seamless service between NECR's connection with Canadian National at St. Albans, Vt., southern New England, and ports located on the Providence & Worcester via the connection at Willimantic, Conn. P&W serves the Port of Providence and the Port of Davisville in the Quonset Business Park in North Kingstown, R.I. (The Port of Davisville is switched by Seaview Transportation.) The Great Eastern Route will offer streamlined service for traffic to and from the west routed via Canadian National, and also for Canadian Pacific haulage traffic moving via the Vermont Rail System between Whitehall, N.Y., and the NECR connection at Bellows Falls, Vt.

Since 2007 NECR and P&W, along with the states of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, along with the federal government, have made substantial investments in the two roads' physical plant, improving track and increasing clearances on the Great Eastern Route. Inspection trains have run in late 2011 over the Vermont Rail System from Whitehall, N.Y. to Bellows Falls and beyond on NECR and P&W to showcase the route to Canadian Pacific officials, and most recently last week's St. Albans/Worcester trip gave Canadian National officials a close look.

-- Railfan & Railroad, with information from Kevin Burkholder.
Photo of joint inspection train at Willimantic, Conn. on February 7, 2012 by Tom Nanos.

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