What the sudden surge in orders means for carbuilders and their customers. A giant bulge in freight car orders in this year’s first quarter sent waves of optimism through an industry that is the bedrock of the railway supply business. There were also undercurrents of concern.
U.S. freight carload traffic for the week ending May 21, 2011 rose 2.3% compared with the same week in 2010, the Association of American Railroads reported Thursday. U.S. intermodal volume for the
Amtrak runs North America’s only existing high speed rail corridor between Boston and Washington, D.C. Maintaining the more than 450 miles along the Northeast Corridor presents its share of challenges in the form of time coordination, machine productivity, and long-lasting, quality maintenance.
National Railway Equipment Company’s new, six-axle 2GS-37C DE N-ViroMotive utilizes existing SD40-2 main frames, rebuilt trucks with D87B traction motors (70:17 gear ratio), and twin gensets equipped with 1,850-hp Cummins QSK50 ULEL certified diesel engines.
Pricing concessions vs. pricing freedom: A battle is won, but the threat lingers.
TTCI seeks a remedy for uneven flange profiles.
Senior Consulting Editor Luther Miller aptly describes a sometimes-adversarial relationship that is at least partially fueled by the success of our freight railroads, which are without a doubt the best in the world. The testy relationship involves the railroads and a small but vocal group of customers that seek to re-regulate them.
Recently I fielded a call from the president of a regional railroad who is an old friend. He had some boxcars on his railroad that he was leasing from one of the major operating lessors. The cars were up for renewal and when he received the lessor’s rental quote, he went into sticker shock. He was calling me to get my view on the rents he was quoted to see if the market rates had, indeed, risen to the heights he was quoted.
Railroads have made powerful strides in efficiency with the diesel-electric, and more are on the way. Here’s what the experts see. Of all the technological advances that have occurred in the railroad industry in the past half-century or so, maintenance-of-way mechanization is the one most closely associated with major productivity gains.
Although the Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2008 was written primarily for the Class I’s, many of the short line and regional railroads that touch roughly one out of every five carloads the Class I’s handle will have to deal with this mostly unfunded mandate.