New model trains for the week of March 28, 2019

Broadway Limited Imports HO scale Reading Co. class T1 4-8-4 steam locomotive

Broadway Limited Imports HO scale Reading Co. class T1 4-8-4 steam locomotive HO scale locomotives Reading Co. class T1 4-8-4 steam locomotive. Chessie System Special (one road numbers), American Freedom Train (one number), Delaware & Hudson Centennial locomotive (one number), in-service scheme (two numbers), and “Iron Horse Rambles” excursion (two numbers). Also available painted black […]

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Model Railroader Readers Choice Winners

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WINNER: The HO MP15DC locomotive is available in DCC ready and DCC and sound-equipped versions. HO SCALE DIESEL LOCOMOTIVE WINNER | Atlas Model Railroad Co.: HO MP15DC Locomotives RUNNER UP | ScaleTrains.com: Rivet Counter GE Tier 4 GEVo N SCALE DIESEL LOCOMOTIVE WINNER | Broadway Limited Imports: EMD F3/F7 RUNNER UP | Kato Trains: EMD […]

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What’s in a photograph?: C&O’s ‘Sportsman’ at Staunton, Va.

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A single photo from the 1950s of C&O’s ‘Sportsman’ at a small-city station at Staunton, Va., reveals plenty of small, easily overlooked details. 1 – Freight house Staunton (“Stan-ton”) in 1950 had a population of 19,927. All towns of this significance once had a freight house where less-than-carload (LCL) freight was handled. Warehousemen used a […]

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Computer desktop wallpaper from the May 2019 Model Railroader

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Click on the links at left to download the image sized appropriately for your computer screen. Union Pacific no. 8444, an Electro-Motive Diesel SD70ACe, and a patched-out former Southern Pacific General Electric AC4400CW barrel through the countryside on Jeffrey Meyer’s HO scale diorama. This month you can use this image as a computer wallpaper image. […]

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If a Transcontinental Railroad were Built Today

Union Pacific transcontinental railroad construction crew

Construction crews working westward on the Union Pacific encountered rough going when they reached Utah’s Weber Canyon. Trains collection If you built a transcontinental railroad today from scratch, how long would it take, given the regulatory environment of the modern world? Nobody knows for sure, but the best guess is about 57 years. Here’s a […]

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Year-by-year, a timeline of completing the Transcontinental Railroad

Timeline Union Pacific transcontinenta lrailroad building Archer Wyoming

Union Pacific trains and ocvered wagons congregate near the end of track at Archer, Wyo., in 1867 during construction westward. Union Pacific 1832: Proponents call for transcontinental railroad 1845: New England merchant and traveler, Asa Whitney begins advocacy for Pacific Railroad 1853: Congress appropriates $150,000 for survey of five routes 1855-1860: 12 volumes of findings […]

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‘California Zephyr,’ Missouri trains disrupted by floods

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CHICAGO—Flooding in eastern Nebraska, western Iowa, and northwest Missouri has caused delays, truncations and outright cancellations to the Chicago-Emeryville, Calif., California Zephyr and two state-sponsored Missouri River Runner round-trips between St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo. Today’s eastbound Zephyr is cancelled entirely out of California; Amtrak has blocked sales east of Denver until at least […]

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