Genesee & Wyoming Industries
GWI TO ACQUIRE RAILAMERICA: On July 23, 2012, Genesee & Wyoming Industries announced that it plans to acquire the short line railroad holding company RailAmerica for $1.39 billion in cash. The expanded Genesee & Wyoming will own 108 short line and regional railroads in the United States comprising 12,900 miles of track, 1.6 million annual car- loads, and 900 locomotives in 37 states. With corporate headquarters based in Greenwich, Conn., GWI expects to close the transaction into a voting trust as early as the fourth quar- ter of this year as it awaits formal approval from the Surface Transportation Board. Since then, RailAmerica has been sued by
KBC Asset Management NV, which claims that RA was “improperly valued and share- holders will . . . not receive adequate or fair value . . . for their common stock.”
MBTA Norfolk & Western No. 1776 is Repainted
AFTER THE NORFOLK SOUTHERN HERITAGE UNITS gathered for their Family Por- trait in Spencer, N.C., on July 3 and 4 (see September RAILNEWS), the Virginia Museum of Trans- portation unveiled heritage units of its own in Roanoke, Va. Funded by a preservation grant from Trains magazine, Norfolk & Western SD45 No. 1776 had been repainted in its Bicentennial col- ors by Norfolk Southern at Chattanooga in March and was dedicated on July 7. On July 6 it moved from the NS Shaffers Crossing facility to VMT (above), accompanied by the NS exhibit car, the Roanoke Chapter NRHS’s N&W GP30 No. 522, and three NS heritage units: Interstate ES44AC No. 8105, Virginian SD70ACe No. 1069, and Norfolk & Western ES44AC No. 8103. Also new at VMT is Chesapeake Western Baldwin DS 4-4-660 No. 662, one of the Lost Engines of Roanoke which had been cosmetically restored this spring by volunteers at the nearby Roanoke Chapter facility at 9th Street in Roanoke. The Baldwin was moved to the museum by the Chap- ter’s N&W Alco T6 switcher No. 41 on July 5.
MORE DIESELS ORDERED; CARS LATE: The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Au- thority has added seven units to its order for 20 new HSP46 diesels from MotivePower, Inc., set for delivery beginning in 2013. The HSP46 is a completely new design from the builder of the popular MP36/40PH-3 commuter locomotives and are built around a General Electric GEVO prime mover, as opposed to the EMD 645 and 710 engines used in the MP series.
MORE TRAINS FOR WORCESTER LINE: After it closes on the purchase of 21 miles of CSX trackage between Framingham and Worcester in October, the T plans to increase the number of weekday round trips on the line to 20 from the present 13, including one or two expresses by the end of the year.
Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Amtrak Cascades Service Publicizes King Tut Exhibit
AMTRAK F59PHI NO. 470 HAS BEEN WRAPPED with special graphics to promote the “Tu- tankhamun: the Golden King and the Great Pharoahs” exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Wash., as part of the museum’s 50th Anniversary of the 1962 World’s Fair celebration. The King Tut exhibit contains more than twice the number of artifacts than the original Tut ex- hibit that toured in the 1970s and runs until January 6, 2013. Amtrak passengers who book through
Amtrak.com and
AmtrakCascades.com will receive discounts on admission tickets and on the official exhibit book;
www.kingtut.org/amtrak.
24 OCTOBER 2012 •
RAILFAN.COM
OIL TRAINS = TRAFFIC SPIKE: The Bakken crude oil trade has benefitted another Eastern railroad. Unit trains loaded on Cana- dian Pacific in New Town, N.D., are being rout- ed to the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick, via CPR to Montreal, Quebec, and then Montreal, Maine & Atlantic to Brownville Junction, Maine. The Eastern Maine Railway and New Brunswick Southern complete the move to Saint John. Earlier this year, Bakken oil originating on BNSF trackage began mov- ing to Saint John via BNSF, CSX Transporta- tion, Pan Am Railway, EMRY and NBSR. To handle the added traffic, MMA has been borrowing Canadian Pacific SD40-2s in the short term and has purchased three rare for- mer Conrail/Norfolk Southern C39-8s from the Greenbrier Presidential Express which had been stored on Pennsylvania’s New Hope & Ivyland. Upon shipment to Maine, the GE’s re- tained their NS numbers: 8202, 8207, and 8208, and their black or blue paint.
United States Postal Service
REPORT GIVES NOD TO INTERMODAL: A report issued by the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General’s Risk Analysis Research Center entitled Strategic
DAN SIMMERING
GARY PANCAVAGE
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