HOTRAIL PRODUCTIONS

Monday, October 30, 2023

NEW VIDEO! 3 Amtrak "Elephant-Style" P42's at Princeton IL 10/30/22

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

NEW VIDEO! BNSF Coal Train at Princeton, IL 10 30 22

Kentucky Steam’s SD40-2 diesel repainted in Norfolk & Western scheme

By | October 22, 2023

Photo charter with locomotive and additional 1980s-era equipment scheduled for Jan. 27, 2024

Repainted diesel locomotive at dusk. — Repainted Norfolk & Western SD40-2 diesel No. 6162

IRVIN, Ky. — The Kentucky Steam Heritage Corp. unveiled its repainted SD40-2 diesel locomotive, which has been returned to its as-delivered Norfolk & Western all-black color scheme. The project was a collaboration of multiple individuals and parties, led by former Norfolk Southern corporate photographer Casey Thomason.

“It’s a cool pet project that I brought to Kentucky Steam a year or so ago, and I’m glad they were as enthusiastic about it as I was,” said Thomason.

No. 6162 was built in May 1978 by General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division in LaGrange, Ill. The 1982 merger with the Southern Railway creating Norfolk Southern resulted in the locomotive’s repainting as NS No. 6162. It remained on the active roster until being donated to KSHC in June 2020.

According to a press release, Thomason enlisted Steven Holmes for the technical research and graphics, in addition to Josh Putnam and Lindesy Poole who provided numerals for the era-specific number boards. CSX Transportation was reported to have supplied the paint needed for the project.

A photo charter with the headlined locomotive is scheduled for Jan. 27, 2024, in partnership with Thomason and Kentucky Steam. The all-day event will take place at the non-profit organization’s campus in Irvin and will hold multiple staged scenes, a night photo session, a luncheon, and several photo presentations. Former Louisville & Nashville C30-7 diesel No 7067, which was donated to Kentucky Steam and cosmetically restored by CSX in 2022 [See “CSX repaints C30-7 into L&N scheme…” Trains News Wire, April 26, 2022], will also be featured along with the organization’s collection of other 1980s-era rail equipment from the region.

“I’m equally as excited to have a chance to run a photo event with No. 6162 and KSHC’s other locomotives from the same era,” Thomason said.

Ticket sales are scheduled to begin Oct. 26, 2023, on the Kentucky Steam Heritage Corp. website.

First VIA Siemens trainsets begin serving Toronto

By Bob Johnston | October 24, 2023

Tuesday event features Champagne ceremony

Champagne shattered on coupler of passenger equipment — The third time’s a charm: After two previous tries, former VIA CEO

TORONTO — After months of service limited to a handful of round-trips regularly operating between Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City, a VIA Rail Canada Venture trainset made its Toronto debut Tuesday, rolling into the company’s Toronto Maintenance Centre Tuesday after bringing passengers from Ottawa on train no. 41.

The first trip was celebrated with a champagne christening ceremony featuring VIA CEO Mario Péloquin; Yves Desjardins-Siciliano, former VIA CEO and now CEO of Siemens Mobility Canada; and Michael Cahill, president, Rolling Stock North America, Siemens Mobility Inc.

For those interested in riding the new equipment, VIA has published a list of Venture trainset assignments on a special section of its website, but it only lists origin and destination, train numbers, and days of the week, not departure times. According to that listing, there will for now be only one daily round trip serving Toronto, from Ottawa. But trains to which the equipment is assigned vary by day of the week. And some of the trains listed on that page did not appear on the ticketing portion of VIA’s website as of Tuesday afternoon.

The Toronto-Ottawa schedule is above at left. For now, most of the new equipment is in other corridor service, most commonly on Ottawa-Quebec City trains.

Passenger train moves through yard — The first VIA Rail Canada Venture trainset to serve Toronto,

Sunday, October 22, 2023

GEVO/2 AC4400CW's at Hamler, OH 9/26/19

News photo: Massive locomotive move on CSX

By | October 22, 2023

Units bound for LTEX swell train’s locomotive count to 19 units

Train with large number of locomotives on front end — CSX train M576-20 has 18 locomotives on the front end as it heads through northern Kentucky en route to Cincinnatin on Oct. 21, 2023. Jeff Wagoner

Sixteen locomotives bound for Ohio locomotive leasing and resale company LTEX Rail (Larry’s Truck Electric) swelled the power on CSX train M576-20 to 19 locomotives on Saturday, Oct. 21, as it traveled from Nashville, Tenn., to Cincinnati. Photographer Jeff Wagoner reports the consist included CSX ES44AH No. 3161 and ET44AH No. 3261, followed by units including seven switch engines, two former CSX GP39s, four former Southern Pacific/Union Pacific SD40M-2s, a Union Pacific SD40T-2, a former CSX GP40, and a CSX MP15T. The train had another CSX unit as distributed power deeper in the train. The LTEX locomotives had previously been in Paducah, Ky., at NRE Locomotive.