Classic Toy Trains Senior Editor Roger Carp and Editor Hal Miller talk about Lionel’s fun freight cars from the 1960s during the Feb. 28 show, Happy Hour! This is a recording of the live event. For more about Lionel trains of the 1960s, check out the new special issue. Watch what all the fun in […]
Era: 1946 - 1970
HO scale Norfolk & Western of the 1950s
Name: The Norfolk & Western of the 1950s Layout owner: Gary Hoover Scale: HO (1:87.1) Size: 24 x 49 feet Prototype: Norfolk & Western Ry. Locale: Virginia and West Virginia Era: 1954 to 1957 Style: multi-level walk-in Mainline run: 120 feet Minimum radius: 30″ (N&W), 27″ (Virginian Ry.) Minimum turnout: no.8 (main), no. 6 (yards) […]
Super C celebration
Santa Fe’s high-priority Super C freight between Chicago and Los Angeles debuted with much fanfare in 1968. High rates, charged to placate other Santa Fe customers, limited traffic, however. Santa Fe photo […]
Two cars to Tidewater
Eastern Gas & Fuel’s modern Wharton No. 2 mine southwest of Barrett, W.Va., will load 105 hoppers, including subject C&O 134594 and 47859, with coal on June 2, 1955. Trains’ Editor David P. Morgan tracked the cars from mine to ship in the April 1956 issue. W.A. Akin Jr. photo […]
Steam prototype
The 2-10-4 wheel arrangement, the “Texas type,” originated with a modified Santa Fe 2-10-2 — No. 3829, built by Baldwin in 1919. The railroad would eventually roster 36 additional Texas-type locomotives, built by Baldwin between 1930 and 1944. T.H. Cole Jr. photo […]
Story City service
In fall 1942, Minneapolis & St. Louis 2-6-0 No. 331 heads for Story City, Iowa, northwest from Minerva Junction and Marshalltown. In the 1950s, GE and Alco diesels would replace steam and the local would run just Tuesdays and Fridays. William F. Armstrong photo […]
Main Street of the Northwest
Mountains and rivers defined the scenic attraction of the Northern Pacific. Here, an A-B-B-A set of F units leads a six-locomotive consist on a freight following the Yakima River near Ellensburg, Wash., in 1964. Tom Gildersleeve photo […]
Minute Man maroon
Surrounded by the new wave of motive power, a Boston & Maine worker rests at Boston’s Charlestown engine terminal in May 1952. E7 3818, a Budd RDC3, and Alco RS3 1515 and siblings at right can ignore the steam locomotive facilities, all but obsolete by now. B&M’s “Minute Man” emblem dated from 1945. Frank and […]
Big Easy’s big terminal
The plaza for newly minted New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal remains unfinished in this 1954 view. Previously, the site was occupied by the former Union Station. In the distance, past the Claiborne Avenue overpass, is the NOUPT coach yard and diesel shop. Leon Trice photo […]
Gravity assisted railroading
A Chesapeake & Ohio Mallet starts downgrade for Barrett, W.Va., with loads from Eastern Gas & Fuel’s Wharton No. 2 mine in June 1955. Trains’ Editor David P. Morgan tracked two cars from mine to Tidewater in the April 1956 issue. W.A. Akin Jr. photo […]
Highballing Hudson
New York Central J-1 Hudson No. 5403 accelerates west at Mattoon, Ill., with an express train for St. Louis in September 1954. When built in in 1927, the Central was given to throwing up marble monuments of stations, running seven-section Centurys, and paying 8-percent dividends. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Photo gallery: Gary Hoover’s Norfolk & Western in the 1950s
Gary Hoover models the Norfolk & Western Ry. in the late 1950s through Virginia and West Virginia. Many of the scenes on his 24 x 49 foot model railroad are inspired by the famed railroad photographer, O. Winston Link. Gary’s model train layout is also the cover story of the April 2020 Model Railroader. Enjoy […]
