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Bay area rails to host 6th annual reunion lunch

Retired conductor John Herrmann of Local 694 invites all active and retired railroaders in the San Francisco Bay area to the sixth annual lunch and reunion from 1-5 p.m. on Oct. 26 at Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto, 1919 Fourth St. in Berkeley, Calif. The cost of lunch, dessert, [...]

Unsafe rail cars carry oil through U.S. towns

The number of freight trains carrying oil across America has soared in the past five years, but federal officials warn that the massive steel tank cars that carry most of that oil through towns and past schools – the same cars that exploded in Quebec this summer, killing 47 – [...]

UP unveils streamlined railroad car

Omaha, Neb.-based Union Pacific Railroad, which has significant operations in Roseville, is launching drag-reducing freight train technology not too far removed from the aerodynamic designs used by open-wheel race cars. It’s called Arrowedge, and it will be showing up this mo [...]

MM&A could be sold by year’s end

PORTLAND, Maine – The bankrupt railroad whose runaway train sparked a fire and explosion that killed 47 people in Quebec could be sold by year’s end, the company’s trustee said Thursday. Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway has made no secret that its sale will [...]

Great Lakes plane has landing gear failure

TELLURIDE, Colo. – A small passenger airplane skidded to a halt on the Telluride Regional Airport runway on Sunday afternoon after part of its landing gear failed, but no injuries were reported. The Great Lakes Airlines two-engine Beechcraft 1900 was flying in from Denver wit [...]

Pan Am Railways violated whistleblower rights

BOSTON – The U.S. Department of Labor has ordered Pan Am Railways Inc. to pay $50,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, as well as take corrective action, on behalf of an injured worker. The North Billerica-based commercial railroad adversely charged the worker with lying [...]

Train safety move delayed decades

WASHINGTON – It was an accident investigators say didn’t have to happen: Five years ago a commuter train collided head-on with a freight train near Los Angeles, killing 25 and injuring more than 100. Technology is available to prevent the most catastrophic collisions, b [...]

Lac-Megantic adds voices on crew size issue

WASHINGTON – The nation was on the brink of a crippling national strike by railroad workers in the summer of 1963 when Congress stepped in to settle a years-long battle over how many men it took to safely operate a train. The bill, signed by President John F. Kennedy in Augus [...]

Oil-by-rail squeezing plans for pipelines

CALGARY – The tug-of-war between railroads and pipelines in North American oilfields is only just getting started. In recent months, the popularity of moving crude on tracks has sapped commercial support for new pipelines from oil fields in West Texas to North Dakota’s Bakken [...]

South Shore conductor has seen it all

As a young child, Greg Wiseman had the world in his view. Sitting on the lap of his grandfather – a train engineer – Wiseman was given an up-close look of life on the tracks. Nearly 50 years later, walking down the aisle of the South Shore Line commuter train headed from Mich [...]