HO scale Gogebic Iron Range model railroad

Scene on model train layout

Hans J. Schlegel’s HO scale model railroad is based on the Gogebic Iron Range of Northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan in the 1950s to 1960s. The layout features iron mines, ore trains, steam, and diesel. The video is 4-years old and shows about half of what is now completed. Today, scenery is 90 percent complete […]

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Timeworn combine, tiny Pacific

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On Tennessee’s Smoky Mountain Railroad, a ramshackle old combine is pushed by 4-6-2 No. 110 on May 26, 1952. Outshopped by Baldwin in 1911 for another Tennessee short line, the Little River Railroad, No. 110 was the smallest standard gauge Pacific built for U.S. service. Edward Theisinger photo […]

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Pennsy RS1

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The Pennsylvania owned 22 Alco RS1s, acquired 1950–51. In this late 1950s view, No. 5620 idles at South Amboy, N.J., in the company of P5a electric 4709. Don Wood photo […]

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Reefer block of California potatoes

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Santa Fe refrigerator cars loaded with potatoes from Kern County, Calif., head eastward at Topock, Ariz., in 1953. Even though it’s a solid train of one commodity, the cars have many different destinations. The train has just left California by crossing the Colorado River. Santa Fe photo […]

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Mainstreeter near Missoula

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Northern Pacific’s westbound Mainstreeter carries several head-end cars as it rolls near Missoula, Mont., in 1966, including four NP express baggage cars, a Union Pacific baggage car, and an RPO. Philip C. Johnson photo […]

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Man in a hurry

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Making 90 mph on an E7, a Chicago, Burlington & Quincy road foreman of engines whistles for a grade crossing east of La Crosse, Wis., in July 1955. W. A. Akin Jr. photo […]

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Ore train on a PRR branch

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In September 1955, Pennsylvania Railroad M1 4-8-2 6894 leads an ore train west at Alexandria, Pa., on the road’s Hollidaysburg & Petersburg Branch, part of a route that enabled mainline trains to bypass Altoona. Unseen at the rear, a 2-10-0 pushes behind the cabin car. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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Cleaning a grain boxcar

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The Soo Line used what it called Mobile Cleaning Units — trucks with a power sweeper, power washers, and other cleaning and repair equipment — to clean and prep boxcars for grain shipment at its yards in Schiller Park (Chicago) and Shoreham (Minneapolis) in the early 1960s. The rig, with two workers, could clean a […]

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Day’s end for a 4-4-0

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Canadian Pacific 4-4-0 136 waits to enter the one-stall engine house at Norton, N.B., after bringing a mixed train in from Chipman in November 1953. In the background is one of the light bridges on the Chipman line that required the use of three little 4-4-0s. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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