Trains Photo Contest 2019 winners: Go West!

FULL SCREEN Photo by Bryan Bechtold Runner-up: To appreciate the daunting task of the transcontinental railroad builders, you need only go west to Wyoming. The modern Union Pacific Railroad remains tested by the same vast landscape that challenged the pioneers. In a scene repeated for 150 years, a manifest train climbs out of Rock River, […]

Read More…

Trains Photo Contest 2020: In the City

Sumpter Valley trains Ben Duncan Grand Prize winner Trains photo contest 2019

2019 Grand Prize: Ben Duncan This photograph captures my perceptions of American westward expansion. It creates a tension between ideas of East and West, past and future, static and dynamic, confinement and freedom. Taken on my first visit to the western United States, it depicts the Sumpter Valley Railroad, which runs close to one of […]

Read More…

Ask Trains: Can train crews turn off crossing gates?

Q: Do train crews have the ability to activate or deactivate crossing lights and gates? — Richard Collingwood, Milan, Ohio A: No. Here’s why: Crossing circuits have set approaches based off of warning time required and maximum speed of the trains. The modern day crossing processors — mini computers inside a crossing gate bungalow (the metal […]

Read More…

HO scale Georgia Northeastern

HOscaleGeorgiaNortheasternRR

Name: Georgia Northeastern RR Layout owner: Thomas Klimoski Scale: HO (1:87.1) Size: 9′-2″ x 10′-6″ Prototype: Georgia Northeastern RR Locale: Georgia Era: present-day Style: linear walkaround Mainline run: 36 feet Minimum radius: 24″ Minimum turnout: no. 6 Maximum grade: none Benchwork: open grid Height: 54″ Roadbed: cork Track: Micro Engineering code 70 Scenery: extruded-foam insulation […]

Read More…