NEWS
By Tricia Bishop | April 13, 2009
The beats start slow, then swell with speed, clickety-clacks giving way to chucka-chuckas and shoo-shoo-shoos. A whistle, a squeal, a whoo-whoo. Low rumbles and trembling tracks - a percussion symphony led by a conductor in a pin-striped cap. "There are a lot of rhythms in the railroads," Charles "Bill" Kinzer says just as a train slides by outside in Leakin Park. He pauses to listen. "Choo, choo, choo!" he chimes, mustache jumping. Kinzer is president of the Chesapeake & Allegheny Steam Preservation Society, which kicked off its annual season of free train rides Sunday, part of a quarter-century-old deal struck with the city: Members allow the public to ride their miniature trains - one-eighth the size of the real thing - on the second Sunday of the month, April through November, in exchange for 10 park acres, which they lease for a dollar a year.
NEWS
By michael sragow | September 5, 2008
If you saw Vin Diesel on Late Night with Conan O'Brien last week, you had to feel for the guy. There he was on a hip talk show, trying to spin a funny-scary anecdote about a snowmobile nearly crushing him during a stunt for Babylon A.D., his DOA action film, and no one was laughing or applauding. The chuckles only came when O'Brien compared him to Wile E. Coyote. Then Diesel showed a clip from the movie, and you could see why he had the audience confused. The clip had nothing to do with that stunt: It was full of post-Matrix, follow-the-flying-projectile effects that had no payoff except a major explosion.
NEWS
By Michael Cross-Barnet | June 28, 2008
If the planet runs out of oil just a smidgen later than it otherwise would have, Mark Nagurney will deserve some of the thanks. The Laurel physicist isn't waiting for auto companies or the government to act when it comes to alternative fuels. As The Sun's Tom Pelton reported, Mr. Nagurney has taken matters into his own hands, converting his diesel car so it can run on used vegetable oil. It's seemingly a triple win: Mr. Nagurney avoids pain at the pump, a local restaurant is rid of its waste oil, and the environment is a bit cleaner (most scientists believe that vegetable oil is less polluting than petroleum-based fuels)
NEWS
By Tom Pelton | June 22, 2008
With fuel prices soaring, Mark Nagurney thought he had figured out a clever way to drive free - and save the Earth at the same time. The 49-year-old Laurel physicist is one of thousands nationally who have converted their diesel cars and trucks to run on straight vegetable oil. But in burning a cleaner fuel than diesel, Nagurney never imagined he'd end up on the wrong side of federal environmental laws. Or break Maryland's fuel tax regulations, which require even folks driving on grease thrown away by fast-food restaurants to get a "special fuel" license, obtain a $1,000 bond from an insurance company, file monthly forms and pay the same 24 cents per gallon tax as drivers using diesel.
NEWS
By Michael Dresser | April 19, 2008
For most Maryland drivers, the $4-a-gallon fill-up is still a dire prediction. But for those who depend on diesel to power their trucks and tractors and family cars, four-buck fuel has been a fact of life since February. AAA Mid-Atlantic reported yesterday that diesel was selling for an average $4.24 - up $1.30 from a year earlier. Regular unleaded was up, too, to a record $3.40 a gallon. But diesel prices have risen at percentages far outstripping the cost of regular gasoline. Last year at this time, diesel cost only 6 cents more than gasoline.
NEWS
By Mary Gail Hare | January 6, 2008
Sisters Kaetlyn and Mikaela Gordon visit the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum monthly, relish a ride on the rails and know their train lore. They raced to window seats with their father yesterday and settled in for a short trip. "I have been about 400 times, and I still get excited," said Kaetlyn, 8. Right on schedule, the bright red diesel engine departed from the museum's platform for the first of three rides yesterday. It pulled three coach cars filled with passengers, many of them children, enthralled with a railroad experience.
NEWS
October 25, 2007
Prince George's man charged in tanker theft A Prince George's County man was arrested and charged yesterday with hijacking a diesel fuel tanker truck from a Curtis Bay fuel depot last week. Willie Orlando McKinnon, 43, of the 4800 block of 66th Ave. in Hyattsville was arrested by Prince George's County and Baltimore police in the 4800 block of Ravenswood Road in Hyattsville about 3:30 p.m. on a warrant charging him with armed robbery, hijacking and theft. Cpl. Arvel Lewis, a Prince George's police spokesman, said McKinnon's arrest came after police received reliable information from concerned citizens.
NEWS
By Gus G. Sentementes and Kelly Brewington | October 20, 2007
For eight hours yesterday, city, state and federal law enforcement officials mounted a multistate search for a hijacked tanker loaded with 7,100 gallons of diesel fuel. Authorities doubted terrorism was afoot in South Baltimore, but -- in this post-Sept. 11 era -- couldn't be too careful, particularly in a city so close to the nation's capital. By midafternoon, after authorities flashed alerts across the Interstate 95 corridor, the tanker was found abandoned -- and emptied -- on a street in southeast Washington near Bolling Air Force Base.
NEWS
By Karen Nitkin | October 18, 2007
I read a funny article recently noting that New Yorkers love to eat outside, even though sitting at a sidewalk table in Manhattan often means enduring diesel fumes, the sounds of jackhammers and the rudeness of passing strangers. I thought of this recently as I enjoyed a wonderful outdoor meal at Desert Cafe, the six-year-old Middle Eastern restaurant in the trendy heart of Mount Washington. -- Poor:]
NEWS
February 23, 2007
Good morning -- Shaquille O'Neal -- It's time to show if The Diesel has anything left in the tank.