Now On Line: Railway Track & Structures February Digital Edition
Written by David C. Lester, Editor-in-Chief
The February 2023 issue of Railway Track & Structures is now available digitally, with a cover story about Brightline and Progress Rail each completing an important project.
In the Editor’s Notebook, you’ll read about our plans to focus more on project stories from vendors and railroads. Project stories are among the best tools for learning about rail maintenance-of-way and keeping infrastructure in top shape. Moreover, we believe the best way to describe a project is to use the project plan as an outline so you can cover the major milestones, and compare how construction went vs. the plan. I’ve spoken with several vendors and a couple of railroads about this, and the reaction has been positive. We aim to have about six of these types of stories per year, and they will be separate and unrelated to the Top Projects competition in our June issue.
MxV Rail’s column returns this month with a discussion of “Distributional Analysis of Track Inspection Data, written by Stephen Wilk, Ph.D. – Principal Investigator at MxV Rail in Pueblo, Colo.
NewsWatch continues this month with stories about ESG, the rocky road ahead for public transit, and railroads possibly turning the corner on service.
Our cover story features two recently completed projects, one by Brightline and the other by Progress Rail. Brightline has just opened three new stations, and how often do you hear about new rail passenger stations? Not frequently. Progress Rail talks about a complex rail “puzzle” they had to build at the Port of Beaumont in Texas.
We have two product/vendor spotlights this month. The first covers the critical topic of rail grinding and milling, and the second discusses winter preparedness. With many parts of the country, along with Canada, are having extremely cold weather this winter, readers may want to pay special attention to this feature.
We have our regular report from the president of AREMA, Trent Hudak, along with a report on Committee 24’s recent meeting in St. Louis to visit the recently refurbished historic Eads Bridge.
Finally, I offer some thoughts in From the Dome around the future of rail transit now that workers who can have adopted a hybrid approach, usually working at home for three days and going to the office two days each week.
These hightlights and more can be accessed in the Railway Track & Structures February Edition.
