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Magical Exhibit Features More Than a Mountain of Toy Trains YORBA LINDA, Calif., Nov. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A playful special exhibit at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum will take visitors on a magical journey through the world of miniature trains when it rolls into town November 16 through January 10. One of the largest such collections ever assembled, A Holiday Festival of Trains features a breathtaking landscape of toy trains, many whistling through tiny snow-covered turn of the century villages, a 1890 Bavarian castle, and forested mountain passes with over 5,000 miniature trees. Additional highlights include: A "Mountain...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway said Tuesday it will buy railroad operator Burlington Northern Santa Fe for $44 billion. Berkshire (BRKA, Fortune 500), which already has major stake in the company, said it would acquire the remaining 77.4% of the company in a cash-and-stock offer worth $100 per share. Widely regarded as both one of the world's richest men and the investment community's more brilliant minds, Buffett called his firm's investment an "all-in wager on the economic future of the United States." "Our country's future prosperity depends on its having an efficient and well-maintained rail system," Buffett...

After months of thinking it over, Sen. Paula Dockery is poised to kick-off her candidacy for governor, party insiders told the News Service of Florida on Friday. The Lakeland Republican is expected to open a campaign account early next week – as a prelude to a formal campaign announcement the following Tuesday in her hometown. It would set the stage for a potentially combative Republican primary contest with Attorney General Bill McCollum, who had seemed on an unimpeded path to the nomination. Democrat Alex Sink, the state’s chief financial officer, doesn’t appear likely to face a serious primary challenge. For...

FORT WORTH – A deal to make it easier for visitors in town for the 2011 Super Bowl to get to Cowboys Stadium could be close, a spokesman for Union Pacific Railroad said Thursday. UP has been in talks with Super Bowl host committee officials for months over a rare agreement that would let the region run passenger rail cars along busy freight lines owned by the railroad. Passengers headed to the big game could leave from rail stations in Fort Worth or Dallas, and would be dropped off near downtown Arlington, less than a mile from the stadium. Shuttles...

U.S. President Barack Obama has set aside $13 billion in stimulus and budget funds for high-speed trains in America. If he wants an example of how best to use that cash, Obama might take a look at Spain’s growing high-speed network. I’ve just arrived in Madrid from Barcelona during a reporting trip. And for the first time, I chose the high-speed rail system, known locally as Ave, instead of a traditional airline connection. My verdict: The train beats air travel hands down. That certainly wasn’t always the case. It has been years since I’ve traveled between the two biggest Spanish...

Singing competitions can happen anywhere. Just ask Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), who broke into song during a recent House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee hearing on high-speed rail. The subject of the hearing clearly had Cohen thinking about fast trains. “Have you ever heard of [1960s band] the Box Tops?” Cohen quizzed Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo. “Yes, I remember the Box Tops, but I ... ” he stumbled, “you were stretching me a little bit, but ... ” Cohen clearly had a home-field advantage: The Box Tops were a Memphis, Tenn., group whose biggest hit, “The Letter,” came out when...

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia—As an engineer pulls the throttle, villagers track side gawk at the bullet-shaped train as it gathers speed. Soon, forests and wooden shacks are a blur as a dashboard display reads 250 kilometers an hour (155 miles per hour). Ten years in the making, Russia's state-owned railway is testing eight aerodynamic trains that in December will rush travelers from here to Moscow in less than four hours. With fancy kitchens and leather seats in first class, the Sapsans (Russian for peregrine falcons) mark a change in Russia's egalitarian rail tradition. More broadly, though, Russia's new trains mirror a...

PLATTSBURGH — High-speed rail service between Montreal and New York City is one key way to make North America's first green transportation corridor. Pierre Arcand, minister of international relations for the government of Quebec, said that was one of the topics of discussion when Quebec Premier Jean Charest and New York Gov. David Paterson met two weeks ago. Charest noted that former Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau called for high-speed rail in the 1970s. High-speed rail between Buffalo and Albany is almost a certainty, Arcand said at a lunch sponsored by the Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber of Commerce and the Center for...

SYDNEY — One of Australia’s most popular tourist trains, The Ghan, derailed after hitting a cow in the Outback, train company officials said Monday. No passengers were hurt in the incident, which happened Sunday night near the small town of Kulgera in the Northern Territory, said Sophie Dent, spokeswoman for Great Southern Rail, which operates The Ghan. The train was on its 1,850-mile (2,979-kilometer) run between the Northern Territory capital of Darwin and the South Australia state capital of Adelaide when it slammed into the cow. The locomotive ran off the tracks, but there was no damage to the train,...

Construction of the long-awaited rail network that will link the six members of the GCC is expected to start in 2010 or 2011. Abu Dhabi: The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries' proactive approach to building railroad networks, whose estimated cost is more than $60 billion (Dh220 billion), will help boost cross-border trade, cut freight costs and result in faster movement of cargo and passengers, experts have said. "Rail is safer, faster, cleaner and [a] more economical mode of transportation. Strong logistics networks encourage trade and provide industry with a competitive advantage," Hussain Al Nowais, chairman of the UAE's newly created...

PHOENIX (AP) - Congestion in the skies and on the ground may pave the way for bullet train expansion to Phoenix and other western cities. Regional rail planners from Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Reno and Salt Lake City have formed the Western High Speed Rail Alliance. The group says it's goal is to form a network of rapid intercity trains. Transportation officials plan to cite a study released by the Washington think tank the Brookings Institution. It's expected to show Phoenix to Los Angeles is the third-busiest short-hop air travel corridor, with a distance that would make high-speed rail competitive....

A new report out Thursday report warns of an air travel system in trouble. Ten percent of all flights now arrive at least two hours late, that's double the rate from 1990. Researchers say it's likely to get worse as the economy gets better. Adie Tomer, a Transportation Research Analyst, from the Brookings Institution sais, "We do expect that once the economy recovers, that air traffic will pick back up again and congestion will return to where it was before, if not be worse." Congestion, the report says, is not surprisingly a city problem. The six worst cities for delays...

Vegas the logical spot for such development, Brookings says A new analysis of air travel in the Intermountain West suggests Las Vegas would be an ideal hub for a high-speed rail network and — because of the heavy load of travelers between McCarran International Airport and Southern California — is primed for a high-speed rail link connecting the two regions. The report, prepared by the centrist Brookings Institution, points out that McCarran is one of the busiest short-haul airports in the country, shuttling millions of travelers to and from Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake City and other Western cities. About...

HARRISBURG, Pa., Oct. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pennsylvania recently submitted applications to the federal government for $3.1 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to make high-speed rail improvements, Governor Edward G. Rendell announced today. "The applications we've submitted prove that Pennsylvania stands ready to address transportation challenges with forward thinking and community support," Governor Rendell said. "Pennsylvanians want efficient transportation that reduces congestion and is better for the environment; high-speed rail is what we need to meet these demands." The $8 billion initiative in the Recovery Act is part of President Obama's proposal to invest in efficient, high-speed passenger...

Metro, the city of Galveston and a third group are all pushing commuter service conceptsA political turf war has broken out to determine who will bring commuter rail to the Houston area. While actual trains are years in the future, the lobbying and jockeying have begun behind the scenes, spurred by stimulus money and the promise of future federal money for high-speed passenger trains. “If this thing gets built it's going to involve a lot of funding,” said Christof Spieler, a transportation analyst on the board of the Citizens' Transportation Coalition. “Every agency wants to be in charge of that...

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced on Friday that his state would build the first bullet train in the nation, a project that would provide a 10-billion-dollar economic boost to the state.     "I think it is disgraceful for America to be so far behind when it comes to infrastructure," Schwarzenegger told a press conference.     "In Europe and Asian countries, they're traveling now up to 300miles or 480 kilometers (per hour on bullet trains), while we're traveling on our trains at the same speed as 100 years ago. That is inexcusable. America must catch up," he...

ORLANDO (CBS4) ― Walt Disney World wants people to travel easily – with or without the help of pixie dust. The company offered a last-minute boost to Florida in the state's bit for federal money to build a high-speed train linking Orlando and Tampa. Disney says it will support a stop at the Orange County Convention Center and even donate up to 50 acres of free land for a station. Disney's backing is important; the largest and most visited recreational resort in the world could provide millions of riders to the system, helping to underwrite operation costs for the entire...

I have been reading about a fast-rail system from Anaheim, Calif., to Las Vegas for several decades, and I am convinced that this will not come about in my lifetime. It would be Third World mentality for the most technologically advanced country in the world to use 1960s bullet-train technology, as would be the case with the DesertXpress. And anyone who states that maglev is untried in this country without explaining why it works in another country (China) sounds uninformed. Twenty million miles logged by the Shanghai maglev seem like a good testament to the maglev system’s feasibility. As one...

Berlin, Germany (AHN) - Canadian firm Bombardier Transportation won a bid to build 80 high speed trains for China. The project was awarded to the firm's Chinese joint venture, Bombardier Sifang (Qingdao) Transportation Limited. The entire project is worth $4 billion; Bombardier Sifang gets half of the contract. Under the agreement, Bombardier will deliver the first train by 2012 and the last by 2014. The trains are capable of running up to 380 kilometers (236 miles) an hour, using Bombardier's next-generation Zefiro high speed rail technology. The orders will be built at Bombardier Sifang's facility in Qingdao. Engineering will be...

Blame it on Sam Marber. I have had a fascination with trains since I was a small boy growing up in a very tiny Las Vegas, a town that traced its roots to the need for a place to provide water for the trains moving from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles. Yep, water was plentiful in those days — at least for the trains. Sam was an older boy who lived across the street. His garage rarely had a car in it, at least not so any of us noticed. What it did have was a train setup that...

The French national railway SNCF has filed a detailed proposal with the Federal Railroad Administration stating an interest in operating high-speed rail in Texas. The route in question would run from DFW through Austin and into San Antonio. It would not be the Gulf Coast route that's been on the USDOT's official list of 10 prospective HSR corridors or the much-promoted Dallas-Houston link (including the Texas T-Bone). But Houston could be in the distance. From Yonah Freemark on the TransportPolitic blog: At $13.8 billion in construction costs, SNCF expects benefits to outweigh public infrastructure costs by 170% over a period...

Note: The following text Snippet is a quote: Chicago Man Arrested for Interfering with Operation of CTA Trains and Busses Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was joined today by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois in announcing the arrest of a Chicago man for making unauthorized radio transmissions over frequencies utilized by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). MARCEL CARTER, age 20, who resides at 235 West 37th Place in Chicago, was arrested late Friday evening, without incident, by Officers of the Chicago Police Department...

Over the past 10 years, our state has competed in, and won, a national competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation to build the first 300 mph magnetic levitation (maglev) train in the Western Hemisphere, with a $45 million guarantee to the state of Nevada to complete final environmental approvals and start construction. Construction on the first segment of the maglev train -- the fastest train in the world -- can begin in 2010 and would be built entirely in Nevada by hard-working Nevadans. The backers of the high-speed, conventional-rail DesertXpress would like to "reprogram" this guaranteed $45 million...

After quietly toiling for nearly five years on an environmental study, the designers of a proposed high-tech, magnetically levitating train from Pittsburgh International Airport to Downtown, Monroeville and Greensburg are seeking more than a quarter of the federal stimulus money dedicated to high-speed rail across the country. Last week, the Pennsylvania High-Speed Maglev Project and PennDOT submitted a preliminary application for $2.3 billion to help design and build the train system, starting with the segment between the airport and Downtown. The final draft of the project's Environmental Impact Statement could be released to the public by late September or early...

SNIPPET: "WASHINGTON - A terrifying report has surfaced regarding last month's deadly crash on Metro's Red Line. It says the train control system -- designed to prevent Metro crashes -- is malfunctioning across the railroad. This means the technological failure at the heart of last month's crash may be widespread."

The Senate majority leader’s about-face on high-speed rail. On Tuesday, Senate majority leader Harry Reid’s office confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that the Nevada senator no longer favors publicly funding a high-speed magnetic-levitation (“maglev”) train between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, a project he enthusiastically supported for years. Instead, Reid is suddenly throwing his support behind the DesertXpress, a privately funded rail venture between the two cities. Reid is claiming that his change of heart is merely pragmatic — but the underlying circumstances of the move may raise some pertinent questions about his political integrity. The construction of a...

The headline reads “Obama’s Rail Plan Speeds Ahead,” and the article explains that President Obama has “unveiled his plan to develop a high-speed passenger rail (HSR) system in the United States.” These “specifics” are evidently not actually very specific, however, because reporter Bruce Watson tells us only that the plan is three-fold: “initially, it will pour investment into infrastructure upgrades that have been approved but not yet funded. Later, it will fund high-speed rail planning and, subsequently, construction. In the process, it will also seek to improve rail service along existing lines, increasing the quality of current rail service and...

Greg McNeil competed with city, county and state officials for Ohio's federal stimulus money and wound up winning $168,323 to silence train horns at a crossing near his home. McNeil's project, on behalf of his homeowners association, was one of only 149 chosen last week by the Ohio Department of Transportation from 2,222 eligible to receive $774 million in infrastructure money. His is the only submission from a private citizen to receive ODOT's nod. "I tell you, we were ecstatic," he said. "This was just tremendous."

This is simply unbelievable. The Miniatur Wunderland model railroad in Hamburg, Germany is the largest in the world, covering 16,146 square feet of space with more than 10,000 train cars running around its 6.8 miles of HO scale track. Now, the makers of this huge layout have created a video that gives you a jaw-dropping look at the vast scope of this intricate work of art. Its construction started in 2000, and is still underway, with a tiny airport due for completion by the end of this year. This is just the beginning — there are plans to double to...

Kissing banned at Warrington railway station - except in kissing zone 17/02/2009 Kiss under this new railway station sign and you could be in for a right ticketing-off. For killjoy town bosses have banned romantic goodbyes – like the one in weepy movie Brief Encounter – in case shows of affection disrupt departures. And in what some will see as the nanny state gone mad, lovers who can’t resist puckering up must go to a special kissing zone.

In this file photo, a locomotive sounds its horn in caution as it slowly crosses the threshold into Camp Taji, Mar. 5, 2008. For the first time in years, the Iraqi Railroad successfully picked up cargo from Iraqi Transportation Network trucks and moved it to the Port of Umm Qasr, Feb. 10, 2009. Photo by Sgt. Jerome Bishop, 25th Infantry Division. CAMP TAJI — Iraqi national distribution capability took a big step forward Tuesday as the Iraqi Railroad (IRR) successfully picked up cargo here from Iraqi Transportation Network (ITN) trucks and moved it to the Port of Umm Qasr.    The...

MUMBAI: Police and security agencies here have got a specific alert — from the police of a north Indian state — about RDX having been smuggled into the country as part of a cement consignment from Pakistan and the target being an oil refinery. Officials said the high alert sounded at vital installations like railway stations and hotels in Mumbai last December was not a reaction to the 26/11 carnage but had its basis in this specific intelligence input. Officials also told TOI that more RDX could be coming in as part of cement or other consignments. But the alert...

A Saudi Al Qaeda operative suspected of involvement in the London 7/7 attacks has been arrested in northwestern Pakistan, FOX News has confirmed. The operative, Zabi-ul-Taifi, was arrested with six other militants on the outskirts of the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, Reuters reported. "Taifi is among those arrested today," an intelligence official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. The nationalities of the other militants arrested are being established. One intelligence official told Reuters that it is believed Taifi was the "mastermind" of the July 7, 2005 bombings that rocked the London transportation system when homicide bombers set off explosions...

Jerry Calabrese readily admits he's not a "fan boy" when it comes to Lionel trains; he doesn't own every locomotive, freight car or caboose Lionel ever made. But Calabrese, a Montclair resident who is Lionel's CEO, can claim something many rabid Lionel fans can't: He actually worked on the railroad, in his case the Erie-Lackawanna. "The summer of 1966, on an Erie-Lackawanna train gang, laying track," Calabrese said, laughing. "Made $2.34 an hour." He's come a long way, and so has America's best-known toy train company. Calabrese is not only CEO but part-owner of Lionel. Among Calabrese's partners: singer-songwriter Neil...

KIRKUK PROVINCE, Iraq, Jan. 6, 2009 – U.S. forces have transferred the Riyadh train station here back to Iraqis in a move local officials say signals a return to normalcy for the area. Army Capt. Thomas B. Sturm, commander of Company D, 1st Brigade, 67th Armored Regiment, and Shakir Mahmood, director of transportation for Iraq’s Kirkuk province, knock down the last temporary wall by the Riyadh train station, formerly known as Patrol Base Howell, in Riyadh, Iraq, Jan. 3, 2009. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Brian L. Short  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "The train...

The golden age of steam was never more glorious than during the heyday of the Great Western Railway.  As these newly discovered photographs reveal, the everyday workings of God's Wonderful Railway (as it was dubbed) reveal a world of style, order and civility almost unimaginable to harassed commuters. (edit) Uniformed porters carrying bags, dining cars where you would actually want to eat and stations that seem more like temples than places of transit  -  all this is a world away from the crowded, ugly and noisy experience of train travel in Britain today.It is a timely reminder that there...

Nov 26, 2008 5:00 pm US/Eastern "Feds Warn Of Terror Plot Against NYC Subways Homeland Security: Expect Larger Police Presence In NYC And In Major Cities Across U.S. During Holidays" ARTICLE SNIPPET: "NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ― Federal authorities are warning police of a possible terror plot against the New York City subway and train systems during the holiday season, prompting local officials to beef up security at stations. An internal memo obtained by The Associated Press says the FBI has received a "plausible but unsubstantiated" report that al-Qaida terrorists in late September may have discussed attacking the subway system. A...

One has to wonder what the DHS has been doing for the past 7 years. http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=20200234&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8

SNIPPET: "A French couple arrested in connection with a series of anarchist attacks on the country's rail network have been linked by the FBI to a bomb attack in New York." ARTICLE SNIPPET: "French anti-terrorist police are holding 10 alleged members of a violent anarchist movement suspected of sabotaging power cables on high speed TGV train lines. But it now transpires that the alleged culprits were netted thanks to information from the FBI, which allegedly linked two of them to the home-made bomb attack on an army recruitment centre in New York's Times Square in March. Julien Coupat, 34, the...

HAQLANIYAH — Trains delivering precious crude oil continue to arrive here despite harsh conditions and obstacles. Marines and Sailors with Civil Affairs Team 6, Detachment 1, 2nd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 5 are here to make sure the trains are running at full capacity and arriving at the train station without encountering any obstructions. “We’re renovating the train station to have it operable so that trains can pass through and deliver crude oil to the offload station,” said Sgt. Nelson L. Neely Jr., 22, a machine gunner with CA Team 6, from Houston. “We go there and...

3rd Suspect Nabbed in Subway Terror Plot By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN, Associated Press Writer 51 minutes ago The investigation into an alleged plot to bomb the city's subway moved forward on several fronts Friday as a third suspect was arrested in Iraq and authorities looked into whether a fourth person had traveled to New York as part of the scheme, officials said. A law enforcement official familiar with the case said the man's trip to New York was described by an informant who had spent time in Afghanistan and proved reliable in past investigations. "He's been a source of multiple correct...

COLFAX, Calif. -- A train carrying non-hazardous chemicals derailed in northeast California and was partially suspended over a steep cliff Sunday night. One of the train's 73 cars hung over a drop known as China Wall in a rural area away from people and homes, said Placer County Sheriff's Captain Rick Armstrong. No one was injured and authorities said the rail car was not in danger of falling. One of the six cars that derailed contained non-hazardous byproducts and two were carrying an ammonia sulfate powder that is not dangerous by itself, Armstrong said. The Burlington Northern & Santa...

Local report just heard on the top of the hour update.Anomaly: 1. Deviation from the normal or common form or rule. (syn anomalousness)2. A person who is unusual (syn. unusual person) Source-Word Net 1.6 1997 Princeton University

In what may be the biggest understatement since "Houston, we've had a problem" echoed through the cosmos 38 years ago, a Sauk Rapids man said today from his hospital bed that he's lucky to be alive after being struck by a freight train. Christopher Gilhoi, 30, was lying between the tracks when the train, "traveling slower than usual," ran over him Saturday night as he walked home from an evening at the bar with friends. Gilhoi said he remembers almost nothing from the incident, chalking up his foggy memory to the concussion he suffered and being "relatively drunk" at the...

MUSLIM SUBWAY ADS LINKED TO TERROR PLOTS - New York Post Jul 21, 2008 ... An Islamic group plans to blitz 1000 subway cars with advertisements this September in a campaign being promoted by a Brooklyn imam whom ...

MOJAVE - The East Kern Airport District directors approved in principle a plan to add a small live steam railroad to the Legacy Park under development at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The railroad is proposed by the Mojave Transportation Museum as a tourist attraction and means of conveying the community's long history as a railroad town. "We just saw it as a wonderful opportunity for tourism," said Cathy Hansen, museum board member and airport district director. Hansen abstained from the district directors' 4-0 vote on the proposal. The proposed railroad track would circle the park area. It could...

BEIJING (Reuters) — Dozens were injured or killed Monday in a collision of two passenger trains in eastern China, the official Xinhua News Agency cited a medical worker at the scene as saying. Witnesses and a government spokesman also said there were heavy casualties in the crash in Shandong Province, which made 10 cars of the train topple into a ditch, Xinhua reported. “More than 80 people are injured, both seriously and not as seriously,” a hospital official in Zhoucun district told Reuters.

Cars have been a huge part of our lives. We use them to get around anywhere. It might have been the best invention mankind came up with, but we all hate several common things about cars, such as the cost of gas prices and traffic. We think sometimes in our imagination how awesome it would be if cars had wings, so maybe one day we will fly through terrific! We also despise accidents, high insurance and drunk driving. Sometimes, I feel that we need other alternative means of transportation, such as a subway system in the state of Texas; maybe...

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency is announcing strong new pollution controls on the nation's locomotives, ships and passenger ferries. They will have to cut soot by 90 percent and smog-causing chemical releases by 80 percent over the next six to seven years through technology improvements in locomotive and ship diesel engines. Those engines often operate for decades. The pollution improvements would be required of new engines as well as old when they are overhauled. The Associated Press has learned that EPA will announce the new requirements Friday in Washington. These requirements would be in addition to regulations already in...

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...