A little bit of the Pacific Northwest

Gary Pearsall’s compact O gauge layout

Gary Pearsall’s layout features Northern Pacific passenger and freight trains. The layout measures 5 x 10 feet and features spectacular mountain scenery as well as a town with buildings by Lionel, MTH, Walthers, and Woodland Scenics. Trains made up of equipment from K-Line, Lionel, MTH, Atlas O, and Williams run on two independent loops of […]

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Cresting Tennessee Pass

Steam locomotive with freight train

Rio Grande’s California Fast Freight departs Tennessee Pass station, crest of the Continental Divide, in April 1938. Big 2-8-8-2 3606 will keep the train in check on the 3 percent grade down to Minturn, Colo. H. Kindig […]

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Streamlined steam locomotives

A steel gray streamlined steam locomotive in a rail yard.

  A new aesthetic — “streamlining” — took hold in the 1930s. Objects from telephones to ocean liners were designed to be unified in appearance instead of collections of parts. Curves replaced square corners, and horizontal lines replaced verticals. Streamlining burst upon the railroad scene with the 1934 introduction of two sleek internal-combustion-powered passenger trains. Steam […]

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4-8-2 in an N&W lubritorium

Worker lubricating steam locomotive

Norfolk & Western K2 4-8-2 117, just in from Lynchburg with the Tennessean, is prepared for its next assignment in the lubritorium service building at Shaffers Crossing terminal outside Roanoke, Va., in 1954. A. Akin Jr. […]

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Al Perlman buys some RS11s

Two men in front of road-switcher diesel locomotive

With the real thing in the background, New York Central President Alfred Perlman accepts a model of an RS11 from Alco Products Vice President W. A. Callison in June 1957. NYC bought nine of the 1,800 h.p. road-switchers. Alco […]

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Less-than-carload boxcars in L.A.

Boxcars at freight house

Boxcars assigned to less-than-carload (LCL) service — including several Southern Pacific “Overnight” boxcars — are being loaded on parallel tracks at Pacific Electric’s 8th Street Freight Station in Los Angeles in the 1940s. PE was an SP subsidiary. Pacific Electric […]

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Freight train on Tanglefoot Curve

Narrow-gauge freight train on horseshoe curve

A 70-car Denver & Rio Grande Western narrow-gauge freight train drops down famous Tanglefoot Curve, just east of Cumbres, Colo., in June 1960. Since 1960, Cumbres & Toltec tourist trains have plied this landmark. Robert F. Collins […]

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Inside GN’s Red River

Interior view of coach with passengers seated

Great Northern launched its Red River pocket streamliner between Grand Forks, N.Dak., and St. Paul in June 1950, part of the road’s big postwar push for passengers. The coach seats featured a wheat motif on their upholstery. Great Northern […]

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Tips for mounting couplers on passenger car bodies

A Kadee knuckle coupler mounted on the underside of an HO scale heavyweight passenger car.

On my passenger cars, I use Kadee no. 5 couplers in their own boxes mounted directly to the carbody. As long as your curves are at least 30″ in radius and your turnouts are no. 6 or longer, you can take this simple and direct approach. Forget about mounting couplers on arms connected to the […]

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