CSX C44-9W AT MONON, IN
CSX 9012
GW SD18M's
Reynolds, IN 8/11/18
Sunday, March 31, 2024
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Pedal the rails: Railbike excursions guide (2024) By Nastassia Putz | March 25, 2024 | Last updated on March 26, 2024
Pedal the rails: Railbike excursions guide (2024)
By Nastassia Putz | March 25, 2024
| Last updated on March 26, 2024
Rain or shine, get ready to pedal
Railbike excursions
What’s the fuss about?
This concept has existed roughly since the 1850s, when maintenance workers on railroads used handcars and railbikes to get from point A to point B. Something had to be used to carry the crew and materials for track inspections and/or repairs. In 1877, a Michigan farmer named George Sheffield was accredited for inventing the first three-wheeled railroad velocipede — a handcar that used a combination of hand and foot power to propel forward (“push-pull fashion”).
With many variations of this today, railbikes are primarily used for pleasure. The construction of each railbike may differ — some are 2-seaters, others 4 — and can come with electric assist. Essentially, the railbike may offer you a different perspective of the railroad — in essence you become the train. You chug along at a speed that is comfortable for you, while taking in the beautiful scenery along your chosen destination. It’s a great opportunity to relax, try something different, and take some spectacular photos.
Reserving your spot
With several groups of people out on a railroad at any given time, it’s not meant to be a race. The idea is to enjoy your time out on the tracks. Tailgating is not preferred. Each operation will have its own set of rules that you must follow. So don’t just plan on showing up the day of without a reservation and in flip flops — it’s not going to happen.
It’s like riding a bike
These “hands free,” people-powered rail vehicles are gaining momentum all over the United States on a variety of railroads, so here’s a guide to help you find one near you.
Note: Cancellations may occur if weather conditions are dangerous. Riders may be turned away if rules are not observed. Weight/height/age restrictions may be present. If children are allowed to ride, but cannot reach the pedals, a car seat or baby sling may be advised.
This list is not all-inclusive.
Skunk Train
Location: Fort Bragg, California
Season: All year
Price: $265 (2-seater)
Length: 7 miles (2 hours) or 25 miles (4 hours)
Note: Want to bring your pet along? A limited number of dog trailers and crates are available for an extra charge ($30).
River Fox Train
Location: Sacramento, California
Season: All year
Price: $109 weekday, $129 weekend (2-seater)
Length: 10 miles (1 hour)
Rail Explorers USA
Location: California, Rhode Island, New York, Iowa, and Kentucky
Season:
- Amador, Calif. Uses Amador Central Railroad tracks (mid-March thru December)
- Bluegrass, Ky. Uses Bluegrass Scenic Railroad (late-March thru November)
- Boone, Iowa. Uses Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad (mid-April thru October)
- Catskills, N.Y. (late-April thru October)
- Cooperstown, N.Y. Cooperstown & Charlotte Valley Railroad (early-May thru October
- Rhode Island. Uses Newport and Narragansett Bay Railroad (late-April thru early-November)
Price: Varies, $65 to $175
Length: Varies by location
Colorado Railbike Adventures
Location: Erie, Colorado
Season: All year
Price: $160
Length: 8 miles (2 hours)
Note: Learn about the Erie Coal Train
Revolution Rail Co.
Location: Colorado, New York, Maine, and New Jersey
Season: Cape May, N.J. (March to December),
Colorado, New York, and Maine (May to October)
Price: $90/$160 (2-seater/4-seater), Maine $60/$100
Length: Varies by location
Note: Full moon rides are available at specific locations
Blue Ridge Scenic Railway
Location: Blue Ridge, Georgia
Season: March to December
Price: $48.75 (per seat)
Length: 5.7 miles (1.5 hours)
Tracks and Yaks
Location: Frostburg and Berlin, Maryland
Season: Feb. 17 to Dec. 31 (Frostburg), Apr. 1 to Nov. 24 (Berlin)
Price: Varies, $99 to $299 (2-seater/4-seater)
Length: Varies by location (2 to 4 hours)
Hobo & Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad
Location: Laconia, New Hampshire
Season: Begins in May
Price: TBD, 4-seater
Length: 5 miles (1.5 hours)
Scenic Railriders
Location: Concord, New Hampshire
Season: May 11 to Nov. 3
Price: $75 to $90, $145 to $160 (2-seater/4-seater)
Length: 6.2 miles (1.5 to 2 hours)
Adirondack Railbike Adventures
Location: Thendara or Tupper Lake, N.Y.
Season: May to October and/or July to October (Timber Ridge)
Price: $45 per seat or $150 per private bike (2 to 3 seats)
Length: 7 miles (1.5 to 2 hours)
Note: Haunted Halloween option $25
American Rail Bike Adventures
Location: Boulder City, Nevada or Seven Valleys, Pennsylvania
Season: All year
Price: $80 to $170
Length: 7 to 8 miles (1.5 to 2 hours)
Mount Hood Railroad
Location: Hood River, Oregon
Season: April to October
Price: $199 (2-seater)
Length: 11 miles (2.4 hours)
Joseph Branch Railriders
Location: Joseph, Oregon
Season: May 18 to Sept. 30
Price: Varies, $60 to $240 (2-seater and 4-seaters available)
Length: Varies, 6 to 20 miles (1 to 4 hours)
Note: Evening tours available. Onsite unsupervised boarding ($10 to $20) available for pets comfortable with crates — only offered during daytime trips.
Secret Valley Excursions (Colebrookdale Railroad)
Location: Boyertown, Pennsylvania
Season: May through November
Price: $155/$175 (3-seater/4-seater)
Length: 45 mins. to 1.5 hours
Note: Explore magical rock cuts hand-dug by Civil War veterans.
Pennsylvania Rail Bike
Location: Hawley, Pennsylvania
Season: Memorial Day through Halloween
Price: Price varies $125/$315 (2-seater/4-seater)
Length: 10 miles (2 hours) or 20 miles (3.5 hours)
Vance Creek Railriders
Location: Shelton, Washington
Season: May 18 to Sept. 29
Price: $24 (11 and younger), $36 (12 plus), 4-seater
Length: 13 miles (2 hours)
What to bring with you?
- The No. 1 thing to bring with you on a railbike excursion — an adventurous spirit
- Weather appropriate clothing: hats, gloves, etc…
- Closed-toed shoes (no opened-backs shoes either)
- Helmet (some places may provide them)
- Water or other non-alcoholic beverages
- Snacks
- Sunscreen
- Insect repellent
- Sunglasses
- Light jacket/poncho (rain gear)
- Camera/smartphone
- Benadryl/EpiPens
- Binoculars
- Small bag/fanny pack
- Car seat/baby sling
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
CPKC, shipper urge STB to resolve Texas trackage rights dispute
CPKC, shipper urge STB to resolve Texas trackage rights dispute
By Bill Stephens | March 25, 2024
Union Pacific says grain from the Upper Midwest is not eligible to use trackage rights over UP south of Beaumont, Texas
WASHINGTON — Canadian Pacific Kansas City says it has shippers lined up to export grain through the ports of Houston and Galveston, but they’re awaiting a regulatory decision regarding whether unit trains can move over Union Pacific trackage rights south of Beaumont, Texas.
CPKC told the Surface Transportation Board last week that it has four customers in CP’s Soo Line territory who would like to ship grain to the Gulf Coast via Kansas City.
“CPKC has had at least four concrete requests, including being notified this week that a customer that needs to move grain to Houston is delaying the shipment in hopes that a resolution by the Board will confirm the availability of the KCSR-direct route,” CPKC told the board. “Unfortunately, UP continues to object to KCSR providing that competition, preferring that CPKC interchange traffic to UP at Kansas City so that UP can charge its tariff rates south of Kansas City.”
CPKC sought to route grain trains from the Upper Midwest to Houston and Galveston last summer. But UP says grain from the Upper Midwest is not eligible to use the trackage or haulage rights south of Beaumont.
UP says the trackage rights, which are related to UP’s 1988 acquisition of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, were never intended for grain shipments originating outside of the Omaha/Council Bluffs-Kansas City corridor.
“As KCS’s letter recognizes, Union Pacific stands ready and willing to cooperate with CPKC to serve shippers seeking to move grain via Kansas City to Houston and Galveston, so no shipper is being deprived of service to any destination served by Union Pacific,” the railroad told the STB. “Further, and as relevant to the parties’ dispute, CPKC-served shippers continue to have access to essentially the same routing options that existed before the ICC approved the Union Pacific-MKT merger in 1988, consistent with the ICC’s goal of preserving—not expanding—the pre-merger level of competition.”
UP last year sought to have a federal court rule on what it considered to be a contract dispute. But in February the court dismissed the case and sent it back to the STB.
Ceres Global Ag, a grain shipper based in Golden Valley, Minn., that wants to use a CPKC route to Houston/Galveston, wrote to the board last month. “A timely decision confirming KCSR’s rights would improve the competitive rail environment and benefit our company and other market participants by creating efficient, single-line transportation options that are not yet available,” Carlos Paz, the company’s CEO, wrote.
Monday, March 25, 2024
Sunday, March 24, 2024
Brightline bond document revises forecast for 2024 as monthly delivery steadies: Analysis
Brightline bond document revises forecast for 2024 as monthly delivery steadies: Analysis
By Bob Johnston | March 23, 2024
Information includes booking, capacity, and repeat customer details
MIAMI — As the Spring Break surge approaches, Brightline continues to seek
the right pricing strategy when operating 16 daily fixed-consist round trips
between South Florida and Orlando, plus another two to handle early morning
and late evening Miami-West Palm Beach travel.
A password-protected, 2,044-page supplement to a “Preliminary limited
remarketing memorandum relating to $770 million in Florida Development Finance
Corporation Revenue Bonds” contains a wealth of information most transportation
providers aren’t required — or willing —to share. It reveals revenue and ridership
data for February, released Wednesday, which reflects the balance Brightline
marketing strategists face as demand varies by time, day, and dramatically
different prices for city-pair combinations.
The table above adds two operating months to an initial Trains News Wire evaluation
[see “Brightline growth continues …,” Feb. 5, 2024]. During January and February,
fares were deeply discounted on some runs while others sold out at higher prices.
The supplement provides additional context behind the numbers:
— Approximately one of three trains operates at or near capacity; about half of
departures have load factors of 80% or more.
— Restricting available capacity for short-distance trips is responsible for the
continuing year-over-year decline of Miami-West Palm
patronage. Higher
short-distance fares could also be a factor.
— Daily bookings have risen from an initial 2,800 in October 2023, to 4,300 in
February 2024, and 4,500 for the first half of March.
— South Florida-Orlando repeat customer bookings are increasing 15%
month-over-month
— Confirming that 10 additional coaches are to be delivered by Siemens in 2024,
the company estimates strategic placement of this extra capacity would have added
an additional 50,000 passengers to the February totals.
Brightline is now predicting 4.9 million passengers will use its trains in 2024.
This is a downward revision from the 5.5 million it projected in December after it became clear that capacity constraints were impacting the Orlando-South Florida month-over-month trajectory
Additional growth sources are anticipated. An intermediate Treasure Coast
station at Stuart, Fla., 37 miles north of West Palm Beach, could be ready as early as 2026
[see “Brightline ceremony marks the selection of Stuart, Fla. …,” News Wire, March 4, 2024].
Adding the stop in a congested coastal area that lacks speedy public transportation will clearly
strengthen overall demand as stations at Aventura and Boca Raton, Fla., have done south of
West Palm Beach.
With another “infill” stop at Cocoa, Fla., under development
[see “Brightline to add Cocoa, Fla., station,” News Wire, March 13, 2024], it appears
that congestion-free regional travel is poised to become a more important component
of the Orlando-Miami mix than originally envisioned.
A more immediate wild card continues to be not if, but how many, non-Florida U.S.
and international travelers will augment the growth as summer travel months approach.
The company has stepped up its efforts to incentivize distribution channels that could
help steer increased patronage its way.
However, figuring out when to add coaches to certain round trips is sure to make
operations more complicated—but necessary, if Brightline is to accommodate the
additional demand its marketing is able to generate. Will six-car trainsets be the
answer? If so, which departures? Will amenity offerings change?
The bond memorandum projects that by 2026, Brightline will carry 8 million
passengers, generating $695 million in ticket revenue. This is based on a WSP
consultant’s study that assumes a 0.8% “real” and approximately 2.0% “nominal”
fare growth in 2021 dollars.
This is how that forecast translates on a monthly basis.
Comparing these numbers with what has been achieved in the first five months
of operation shows there is a long way to go. Monthly delivery throughout the
remainder of 2024 will likely fluctuate as the company tests different capacity and pricing.
Trains News Wire will continue to monitor the journey in the months and years ahead.
Saturday, March 23, 2024
Friday, March 22, 2024
Thursday, March 21, 2024
Amtrak GP7 diesel locomotives
Amtrak GP7 diesel locomotives served for decades in supporting roles for America’s passenger carrier throughout its network.
Electro-Motive Division produced the 1,500-hp, four-axle GP7 from 1946 through 1958, making a total of 2,729 units, including five cabless B units, for more than 40 railroads. By the time Amtrak needed more support motive power in the late 1970s, the GP7 had fallen out of favor with its original purchasers and was plentiful on the secondary market.
Amtrak rostered 26 GP7 locomotives for maintenance-of-way and switching service. They carried Nos. 760-785. A majority were acquired through dealer Precision National in March 1978. This acquisition came less than two years after Amtrak acquired the Northeast Corridor infrastructure and became directly responsible for its maintenance and improvement. They were built for Chicago & Eastern Illinois; Chicago & North Western; St. Louis-San Francisco; Louisville & Nashville; Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis; Quebec North Shore & Labrador; Rock Island; Union Pacific; and Wabash between 1950 and 1957.
Amtrak GP7 diesel locomotives
By Brian Schmidt | March 18, 2024
The units served Amtrak in a variety of paint schemes. Those include solid maintenance-of-way orange, three-stripe “phase 3,” a variation of the large “phase 1” “pointless arrow,” and plain platinum mist-and-black.
They often appeared as terminal switchers, especially at Chicago Union Station where visiting railfans would photograph them from the famous Roosevelt Road overpass. But they are perhaps best remembered in maintenance-of-way service on the Northeast Corridor wearing bright safety orange paint, often pulling matching orange cabooses. They would also be called upon as rescue engines when an electric locomotive, or the larger electric supply infrastructure, would become disabled.
Retirements started in the early 1990s. The last purge ran throughout 2005 with the last units coming off the roster in September of that year. Today, a mix of General Electric P32-8BWH and EMD GP15, GP38-3, and MP15 units share the same duties.
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Illinois senators meet with CN CEO about Chicago Hub project
Illinois senators meet with CN CEO about Chicago Hub project
By David Lassen | March 20, 2024
Legislators describe meeting to advance passenger improvements as ‘productive’
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth (both D-Ill.) met with Canadian National Railway CEO Tracy Robinson on Tuesday to discuss the railroad’s involvement in the Chicago Hub Improvement Program, the plan to modernize Chicago Union Station and rail routes leading to the station.
U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Chicago) also participated in the meeting by phone.
Durbin, in a press release, described the meeting as “productive,” saying, “we want all stakeholders, including CN, to share the same vision of modernizing Midwest rail for the future,
though improvements to Chicago Union Station and its connectivity.” Said Duckworth,
“To move forward with the improvements needed at Chicago’s Union Station that will improve rail service and reliability across the Midwest, it’s critical for all parties to work together. … I’ll keep pushing for more funding and to move this forward, because this critical project isn’t just beneficial for Chicago and Illinois, it’s also a win for the Midwest and a win for our entire country.”
According to the press release, CN has been closely engaged in the project and Robinson expressed her willingness to help it advance.
The Hub program is a more than $1.1 billion plan that would involve track realignment on Chicago’s south side and infrastructure improvements near Dowagiac, Mich., as well as improvements at Union Station. Amtrak and its partners have made unsuccessful bids for major federal funding each of the last two years. They sought more than $250 million from the National Infrastructure Project Assistance (or Mega) Program in 2022, and an $872.8 million Federal-State Partnership grant last year [see “Chicago Hub project vies for big chunk of federal grant money,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 3, 2023].
Union Station did receive $93.6 million in Federal-State Partnership money for station platform and ventilation-system improvements, as well as a project to repurpose the station’s mail platform, out of use since 2005, to be repurposed for passenger use [see “Chicago Union Station to receive more than $93 million …,” News Wire, Dec. 6, 2023].
Saturday, March 16, 2024
Friday, March 15, 2024
Canadian government provides more than $13 million for Ontario rail safety projects
Canadian government provides more than $13 million for Ontario rail safety projects
By Trains Staff | March 8, 2024
Money funds 112 projects for grade crossings, other measures
MARKHAM,
Ontario — The Canadian government is providing more than C$13.5 million
for 112 rail safety projects in the Toronto and Hamilton areas, as well
as other regions of Ontario, Minister of Transport Pablo Rodriguez and
Member of Parliament Paul Chiang announced Thursday, March 7, at the
former Unionville station in Markham.
The funding is under the Rail Safety Improvement Program, which addresses safety at grade crossings and elsewhere along rail lines; supports research study and new technology pilot projects, and funds safety outreach and awareness initiatives.
The announcement in Markham highlighted a dozen projects in that community, such as a nearly C$280,000 grade crossing improvement project at Main Street Unionville where pedestrian gates, fencing, and other protective measures have been added.
“We’re investing to improve the safety of Canadians, especially those who work and live along our railway lines,” Rodriguez said in a press release. “The projects we’re funding in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas and across Ontario will keep our communities safe and our railway systems efficient.”
The Rail Safety Improvement Program has funded more than 1,000 projects with a total value of more than $230 million since its inception in 2016.
Thursday, March 14, 2024
Union Pacific to launch new domestic intermodal service between Southern California and Chicago
Union Pacific to launch new domestic intermodal service between Southern California and Chicago
By Bill Stephens | March 8, 2024
The service will link the Inland Empire intermodal terminal with Global 2 in Chicago
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific will launch domestic intermodal service between its Inland Empire terminal in California and its Global 2 terminal in Chicago on April 1.
“This service will provide access from the Los Angeles Basin’s busiest warehouse district direct to the heart of the Chicago metro, supplementing existing service between IEIT and Global 4,” UP said in a customer advisory this week.
The service between the Inland Empire and both Global 2 and Global 4 will be available to all domestic container shippers, the railroad says.
UP is offering priority service with four-day transit times eastbound and six-day transit times westbound, and standard service featuring six-day transit times. The services will run daily.
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Monday, March 11, 2024
Sunday, March 10, 2024
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8/12/18
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Phone Holder with Wireless Speaker for iPhone/Android/Tablet,
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This view looks north on the Chesapeake & Ohio branch line with the GTW diamonds in the foreground, and the B&O diamonds in the back...
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LOGANSPORT AND EEL RIVER PROPERTY
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