One of Amtrak’s new ALC-42 Long Distance Chargers has been heavily damaged after being involved in a grade crossing accident within the Siemens Mobility plant in Sacramento, CA. A Siemens media representative told us in an exclusive interview, “The locomotive was being moved around for initial testing before leaving the plant for delivery when it struck a pickup truck at a grade crossing within our property. It sustained considerable damage and will likely be scrapped and replaced by another ALC-42.” Several Roseville area railfans, bravely venturing to a spot other than the Roseville Railfan Hut for the very first time to photograph and videograph the testing were injured in the accident when debris was thrown several hundred feet. This tragically resulted in 4 deaths. We reached out to Amtrak for comment, and they urged us to purchase an ALC-42 locomotive christmas sweater (Currently on clearance in the Amtrak store.)
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On friday, Roaring Camp & Big Trees railroad announced that the Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Authority, or RTC, would be voting on forced abandonment of Roaring Camp’s line to Santa Cruz, in a decision which was made behind closed doors. “It’s a complete no-brainer for us,” said the public relations representative of the RTC when asked for comment. “We desperately need to remove all rails and trains from our county. Desperate times call for desperate measures. If we can vote to force abandonment of Roaring Camp’s line to Santa Cruz, we will also move forward and force them to drill holes in the engine of the locomotive they use on the Santa Cruz line, in accordance with CARB emission regulations.”
“We need to rip up those cancer-causing railroads ASAP! It’s all about bike trails!”
In a monday press release, Roaring Camp stated plans to declare war on the RTC in response. “This is a direct attack on our existence with no logical motive,” Roaring Camp said in the press release. “With the RTC attempting to remove us for dubious reasons, we are left with no option but to fight back.” “We will begin by moving in military vehicles via the Santa Cruz rail line and declaring martial law on the city of Santa Cruz over the next 2 weeks. Any police or military resistance to our imperialism will be met with swift destruction. We will not end our military campaign until the concept of forced abandonment is dismissed. We have access to additional weaponry courtesy of Union Pacific railroad, including a Death Laser which was recently constructed and has the ability to vaporize things including, but not limited to the headquarters of a regional transportation authority.” Follow RailNews on WordPress, Instagram, and Twitter for up to date news on the invasion of Santa Cruz!
Golden West Service, a Class 1 railroad operating in the western US, has recently been facing a peculiar challenge – theft.
Yes, in the rail yards of the city of angels, the rate of theft from intermodal trains has increased over 350% from only a year ago. “These intermodal trains aren’t simply carrying bulk materials like most trains, they’re carrying valuable consumer goods, everything from electronics to vital covid tests, and they’re being ransacked,” said a representative from Golden West Service.
“We contacted the Los Angeles city council at the beginning of this month, bringing the crimes to light and asking for help to come up with a solution, and requesting an increase of policing in the affected areas, but the city government ignored our pleas and responded with papers containing new C.A.R.B. emissions regulations against our locomotive fleet.”
After assembling a task force and going through some research and development over the past few weeks, GWS has come up with some solutions to this complicated issue. “The first thing we plan to implement over the coming days and weeks will be “decoy” containers packed with empty boxes and explosive devices,” she stated. “We believe this will work very well in the short term to deter thefts.”
In the same press release, the representative later said, “As for long term plans to deter theft from our trains, we plan to increase the presence of Golden West Service police. We will be using our predecessor, Southern Pacific’s police tactics, including refurbishing and outfitting special cabooses to carry officers (Including gun bays with automatic weapons) and chase cars on the ground to intercept. We are also in talks with Union Pacific railroad regarding use of their newly constructed Death Laser. We would likely park an intermodal train full of fake packages in the area of LA where theft occurs most often, and use the death laser to vaporize the entire area when thieves begin stealing from the train. Talks with Union Pacific have not yet reached an agreement or conclusion, but we hope that we will soon be able to move forward with those plans.”
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On Monday, Missoula police released a report that Warren Buffet, famous businessman, had killed Dennis Washington, owner of industrial group The Washington Companies. The coroner’s report states that Washington died of deep stab wounds characteristic of a sword. It is currently believed that the death of Dennis Washington was the result of a fight to the death over ownership of Montana Rail Link, a class 2 railroad in Montana. MRL was owned by The Washington Companies, Washington’s corporation, and was founded in 1987. We will update as more details become available.
On Sunday, Union Pacific Railroad CEO Lance Fritz and VP of Rail Operations Tim Burt spoke to the public at a press conference located at the Union Pacific headquarters in downtown Omaha.
Fritz discussed UPRR’s annual report, as well as their 5 year plan to investors at the media gathering. A focal point of their 5 year plan was the reveal of plans to erect a death laser at the Hinkle Yard of Hermiston, OR.
Photo courtesy of Union Pacific.
Hinkle Yard is located near the city of Hermiston in Umatilla County, OR. It is the site of a discontinued Hump Yard, as well as locomotive and car shops.
Tim Burt, the man charged with overseeing operations on Union Pacific’s Portland Service Unit, which includes Hinkle yard, and the man tasked with overseeing the railroad’s planned capital expenditure of more than $10 billion to upgrade the disused yard says the Hinkle hump yard project will begin construction this spring. At the press conference, Burt stated “The Hump at Hinkle has been shut down since 2019, when we began our PSR business strategies and downsized our operations nationwide. Converting the yard into the site of the death laser is a great way to use the asset, now that we’re pivoting into a period of growth as a company.” “In addition to the laser cannon itself, the former hump yard’s tower will be converted into a strategic operations center for controlling the laser and other weapons of mass destruction the railroad will acquire at a later date.”
The company’s CEO, Lance Fritz, discussed the ambitious plan for the giant, 360-degree pivoting laser at the media gathering.
“The Hinkle death laser will become a great asset for the company, and provide many jobs for the locals in Umatilla county. It’s the first step in shaping the railroad’s new division for Weapons of Mass Destruction, and it’s a massive leap forwards in technology. We have more plans for the future regarding the WMD Division which we will discuss in depth as they progress. The next project will likely be an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile launching site at the disused, former Southern Pacific hump yard in Eugene, Oregon.” “One thing I’ve learned in my time here at UP is in order to keep up to pace with competitors in this rapidly changing industry, we’ve got to scramble to close down more humps and lay off more workers. We especially need more Weapons of Mass Destruction to fight those pricks at BNSF!” “This will be the first time any class 1 railroad has been able to embark on a project of this scale,” Fritz told the gathering. “I think this will be a game-changer.”
BNSF Railway, the other western Class 1 railroad and Union Pacific’s main competitor, declined to comment on the matter.
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As the winter holiday season rolls around, it is once again the time for Trainorders.com to announce their Christmas discount. Created in 1997, Trainorders has been one of the most popular online train forums to date, and has served as a home to baby boomer railfans of all shapes and sizes. It plays host to arguments of all kinds, and notably, it’s home base for slander of Ed Dickens and the present day UP Steam Team. Another interesting note is that Trainorders is a paid forum – yes, in 2021, you must pay to use a forum. Fear not however, for they offer a yearly discount during Christmas time, so that you can spread holiday cheer by giving the gift of this grumpy forum where boomers discuss the matter of how Ed Dickens is the reason for the downfall of society.
Truly a must have for any railfan existing in the time period before 2007, trainorders (which works best in microsoft internet explorer 3.0 or up) is a perfect gift for your train loving friends or family. This year’s christmas discount differs from that of years past. Normally, the discount would simply allow you to subscribe for a reduced price. However, this year the website has decided to pioneer a revolutionary new discount concept, where you can obtain 13 months of free use of the site, in exchange for the house wiring of your neighbor, and also their catalytic converter.
At your request, Trainorders.com will ship you packaging to accommodate these items, so you can load them up and ship them back to Trainorders (with your choice of Priority mail, UPS or FedEx.) It’s as easy as tearing the wires out of your neighbor’s walls, then going underneath their car and cutting out their catalytic converter. And, if you’d like, for 24 months of free Trainorders, you can ship the copper piping from your neighbor’s house in addition to everything else! (Homes with lead piping do not apply, we regret to inform.)
If you know a railfan who is just dying to discuss the BNSF Bellingham Subdivision, or to slander the Union Pacific Steam Team for retiring 3985, or who just wants to get a jpeg of some locomotive from 19 years ago, this is the perfect gift!
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all from Railnews.
In addition to the recent puppy-related allegations against him, Dr. Anthony Fauci has been revealed to be a member of the infamous railroad-enthusiast forum Trainorders. Posting under the name “AmtrakSucks1940,” Fauci reportedly posted several comments complaining about Amtrak. These include demanding the return of full dining service, better equipment maintenance, and that Amtrak stop allowing dogs on trains. “We all know dogs are only good for two things. Lab experiments and black market liver transplants. At least make them wear masks on trains, those dog droplets are deadly!!!!” At publishing time he had also posted demanding Athearn begin producing kits again.
Virtual Railfan, the streaming site perhaps known best for getting extremely angry over having Culver’s food thrown at their cameras, has run into some trouble recently. Over the past month, not only has there been a police involved shooting onboard an Amtrak train filmed on one of their cameras (which was later uploaded as a standalone video to the VRF channel) But now, in the past week, a video of an individual being hit and killed by a BNSF coal train. As a result of these objectionable videos, Youtube has made the decision to take down Virtual Railfan’s streams until further notice, citing the shooting and train strike videos as Terms of Service violations. We reached out to youtube for comment. A representative from the multi-platform video website stated “Cope and seethe.” In response. When also contacted BNSF, the Class 1 US railroad whose train hit the person on a VRF railcam last week, for a statement on the situation. A BNSF representative said “We prioritize our freight, especially coal and grain, over human life. Crews are encouraged to simply throttle up the locomotives in situations like these, to ram through any obstacles, whether it be animals or humans, maintain the speed limit and avoid having to make FRA rulebook mandated stops to inspect the train and perform an investigation when a human is struck by a train.” Virtual Railfan remains optimistic about the situation so far. “Our plan, currently is to simply phase out our current channel, as the streams are taken down and it is no longer viable,” Said a Virtual Railfan representative when we reached out for comment. “The next step for us is to remove all our cameras and sell the equipment on Facebook Marketplace. In the process of this, we’ll find a sufficiently young railfan, ideally age 9 or 10, at one of our webcam locations and abduct them to operate our new webcams. We’ll strap them to a utility pole so they can hold an iPad and film the trains as they go by, for the livestream.
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Genessee & Wyoming (GWI) announced on friday their plans to begin electrification on one of their subsidiaries, the San Joaquin Valley Railroad. (SJVR) Yes, this shortline railroad of California’s Central Valley, known for its highly scenic rail lines to beautiful destinations such as Bakersfield and Fresno will be doing its part to cut down on air pollution. The idea came about due to an incident on SJVR earlier this year. “Half our locomotive fleet was destroyed in a head on collision outside Bakersfield, resulting in a severe shortage of motive power, and also the deaths of our only train crew,” Stated an SJVR representative in Friday’s press conference. “Thankfully however, we saw a genius idea in a Facebook post made by a child inside a group full of grumpy old men. The post contained a crudely drawn SJVR electric locomotive in a nonexistent railroad’s livery, which sparked the idea to electrify our railroad and replace our diesel-electric fleet with all new Electric locomotives. Since we already needed to replace a large portion of the locomotive fleet, we decided it was a good time to electrify.” The first line to recieve electrification upgrades will be the Exeter branch, a line from Exeter to Lindsay, CA. The line will serve as a trial to see whether or not electrification is viable for the entire railroad. Locomotives will be built by Siemens in nearby Sacramento, CA. SJVR has made an initial order of 25 locomotives, with the option to expand the order to 50. Used GE E60C-2 locomotives will be used to supplement the current fleet of locomotives before the newly built locomotives arrive on property.
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(Sacramento, CA) On tuesday, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) Held a press conference in which they detailed upcoming emissions regulations which will be going into effect as part of their “Zero Emissions 2022” Plan. Likely the most major and shocking detail of this project is the banning of all modes of locomotion and transportation.
Yes, walking, driving your car, riding the train or plane – all will be banned by as early as 2022 in the new CARB master plan. “Banning transportation and ensuring that the polluting equipment is destroyed to eliminate the possibility of secondhand use in another state will help considerably in California’s effort to eliminate all transportation related emissions,” a CARB representative stated at Tuesday’s press conference. “We realize that some complications will result from all transportation being banned from our state, but believe that overall, the state will be improved by this, and it will be a fantastic step towards having cleaner air.”
We reached out to BNSF Railway, one of the two Class 1 freight railroads to serve the state of California for comment on the matter. A representative at BNSF stated “CARB’s new regulations will not affect our operations in CA. Recently, we’ve been making some new decisions regarding locomotives – Namely, scrapping a large portion of our fleet to recover spare parts, and assigning what remains of our fleet to the Galesburg, Illinois hump yard. We’ve been considering the implementation of a similar system to that which Canadian National has found success in; simply pushing every train off the hump with a single set of power and hoping it gets to the destination. However, we’re not moving forward with that plan quite yet. Anyhow, given all this, we won’t have any locomotives left for operating in California, so this development should not affect us or our business.”
When reached out to for an interview, Lance Fritz, the CEO of Union Pacific (The other class 1 freight carrier operating in the state of CA) Stated “As a result of the 2021 wildfire season, which severed our Black Butte and Feather River lines, as well as the Caliente subdivision being shut down, we have made the difficult decision to abandon our rail network in California altogether. All locomotives left in the state will be placed into permanent storage at our Tracy, CA facility. Accordingly, the CARB regulations will have little to no effect on our railroad’s operations.”
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