Cody’s Office | July 2025

Where has 2025 gone? We’re already into July, which means county fair season is in full swing. Right on its heels, back-to-school sales will begin! Between all of that hustle and bustle, take a few minutes to enjoy the July 2025 episode of Cody’s Office.

We have an exciting lineup of products this month. Leading things off is the Rapido Trains HO scale Amtrak Non-Powered Control Unit. Features on the fully-powered locomotive include flashing ditch lights; operating strobe lights, marker lights, and number boxes; and Macdonald-Cartier metal couplers. The sample we received is decorated in Amtrak’s America’s Railroad Salutes Our Veterans scheme.

That’s followed by the Broadway Limited Imports N scale Electro-Motive Division NW2 diesel locomotive. The end-cab switcher has a die-cast metal body and chassis; plastic cab; and factory-applied bell, grab irons, handrails, horn, and smokestacks. The model will operate on codes 55, 70, and 80 rail and has a minimum radius of 9”.

We’ll wrap up the product section by checking out Model Railroader Contributing Editor Tony Koester’s new book Modeling Shortline Railroads. In this 112-page book from Firecrown Media you’ll see how older locomotives and freight equipment get new life on short lines; examples of how modelers have used short lines to create realistic layouts; and how builders can realistically freelance a shortline layout based on a prototype example.

Then we’ll head to the spray booth for the modeling tip. In this month’s episode of Cody’s Office, we’ll help a reader diagnose why his N scale freight cars won’t roll freely after he replaced the factory-installed plastic wheelsets with aftermarket metal wheelsets. Learn how wheel size and axle length can both impact the rolling ability of freight cars.

We’ll wrap up the show with the always popular viewer mail segment. We have a great mix of prototype and modeling questions this time. Among the topics covered are Tightlock, or Type H, knuckle couplers; well car loading practices; working with insulated and magnet wire; and solutions for powering frogs on N scale turnouts.

Do you have questions you’d like us to consider for a future episode of Cody’s Office? You may leave them in the comments field below or contact us via e-mail at asktrains@trains.com.