HO scale Great Northern Ry. Cascade Division

HO scale Great Northern Ry. Cascade Division

The layout at a glance Name: Great Northern Cascade Division Layout owner: Lee Marsh Scale: HO (1:87.1) Size: 12 x 32 feet Prototype: Great Northern Ry., Northern Pacific (trackage rights) Locale: Everett, Wash., and Stevens Pass in the Cascade Mountains Era: 1947 to 1951 Style: island Mainline run: 142 feet Minimum radius: 24″ (helixes) Minimum turnout: no. […]

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Remembering Santa Fe Railway locomotives

Three red and yellow santa fe trains sitting on the tracks

Classic Trains editors are celebrating the heritage, history, and lore of famed (and infamous) railroads. In May 2020, we celebrate the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. Please enjoy a collection of locomotive images located in the David P. Morgan Library archives at Kalmbach Media that include the Santa Fe’s iconic locomotives and classic scenic […]

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Modeling the mighty Pennsy in a small space

Pennsylvania RR Juniata Division

A version of this article appeared in Model Railroader’s special issue from 2018: Build a Small Railroad.  Pursuing my hobby concurrently with my military career meant I needed a portable model railroad that could still suggest the scale and intensity of a gigantic prototype in an impossibly small space. I found what I needed in […]

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Remembering Pere Marquette passenger trains

A train passing over a bridge

In April 2020, Classic Trains is celebrating the history, heritage, and splendor of the Pere Marquette Railway. Enjoy this photo gallery, originally published online in  October 2017, as the perfect salute to the PM. Return each week for another salute to the railroad of the month! See what we did last week for the Pere […]

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How to maintain Lionel toy train operating cars

The operating mechanism of a Lionel milk car without the shell and several callouts together with an inset photo showing the assembled milk car, stand, and milk cans. Inset text: Lionel’s postwar operating milk car added fun and excitement to the simplest loop of track. CTT expert Ray L. Plummer offers some tips to keep this and other operarting cars rolling into the future.; Can inserted with bottom toward camera; Cans roll down chute; Line from power pickup roller; Worker “ejects” cans; Cans ejected on this side

The Lionel operating milk car’s chute is made so that the milk barrels can only be put in the correct way. However, once inside the chute, the barrels can become jammed if the car tips over. Here are some tips for keeping this car in service. Classic Toy Trains file A version of this article […]

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Tidewater transience

20200310

Two Geeps (center left) bring a train into Chesapeake & Ohio’s sprawling coal storage yard at Newport News, Va. Cars are stored here until needed at the nearby port facilities where they are mixed with various other grades of coal while loading into oceangoing vessels. Chesapeake & Ohio, John B. Corns collection […]

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West Virginia varnish

20200317

Western Maryland 4-6-2 No. 207 waits with train 1 at Thomas, W.Va., on April 29, 1951. From here, at an elevation of 3,000 feet, the train will run downhill through the Black Fork Gorge to Elkins. K. F. Merlin photo […]

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Southern steam

20200303

Gainesville Midland 2-10-0 No. 207 switches tank cars at Oconee Height, Ga., in April 1957, just northwest of Athens. The 1924 product of Baldwin was involved in a serious derailment in 1954, turning over in the incident. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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