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Walthers HO scale Electro-Motive Division NW2 Scale: HO (1:87.1) Price: Direct-current model with Next18 DCC plug, $154.98; with dual-mode ESU Sound & DCC, $209.98 Manufacturer: Wm. K. Walthers Inc., 5601 W. Florist Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53218; 414-527-0770; walthers.com Walthers HO scale Electro-Motive Division NW2 features: Dual tall conical exhaust stacks Factory-installed grab irons on hood […]
SALT LAKE CITY — A maintenance-of-way worker for the Utah Transit Authority has died from injuries suffered on April 24 when he was struck by a vehicle while working at a grade crossing. The UTA said in a statement today (May 4, 2025) that it was “deeply saddened to share the loss of our colleague, […]
Livestock shipments and railroads had a love-hate relationship that kindled in the 1850s, blossomed after the Civil War, matured with the growth of big-city stockyards and giant meat-processing plants, then slowly faded in the 1960s and 1970s. While it lasted, livestock shipments were a major part of the railroad scene. Hammered by aging physical plants […]
Back in 2010, I was part of a group of contributors to Scenery by the Seasons by Kalmbach Publishing Co. The 98-page book featured stories on modeling seasons on your layout. Among the topics covered were spring backdrops; lily pads, cattails, and pond scum; easy autumn trees; and ice and snow. Though the title is […]
Railroad dome cars are a gleaming symbol of postwar passenger train status. The streamliner era in North America bookended the World War II era in the U.S., since new streamlined passenger cars were not a priority between 1942 and 1945. Following the end of the war in the latter year, they began to […]
STEELTON, Pa. — Steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs has announced plans to temporarily but indefinitely close its Steelton plant near Harrisburg, Pa., one of only three locations in the U.S. making railroad rails. It is one of three U.S. plants the company will close. The others are in Conshohocken, Pa., and Riverdale, Ill. WHTM-TV reports the closure will […]
BOSTON — Conductors and assistant conductors have ratified a new five-year agreement with the contract operators of Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuter trains. Some 92% of members of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division, or 359 out of 387 who cast ballots, voted in favor of the agreement with […]
WASHINGTON — The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a hearing on nominees for Federal Railroad Administration administrator and the last remaining open seat on Amtrak’s board of directors. The hearing for FRA nominee David Fink, Amtrak nominee Robert Gleason, and two other officials — David Fogael, assistant secretary of commerce, and Pierre Gentin, general counsel […]
The Fertilizer Route, more formally The Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line Railroad, featured 75 years ago in Trains Magazine was, in a word, “astonishing.” For a railroad that almost nobody has ever heard of beyond its own neighborhood, the 27-mile Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line Railroad is an astonishing property. It has only eight stockholders, […]
WASHINGTON — Details have yet to emerge regarding how much money the Trump Administration and Congress might be willing to appropriate for Amtrak in Fiscal 2026, beginning on Oct. 1, 2025. Amtrak is not mentioned in the $163 billion of “non-defense discretionary spending” budget cuts in the spending plan released today (May 2, 2025) — […]
Model railroad operators and builders can get the latest information about locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, tools, track, and more by reading Model Railroader’s frequent product updates. Athearn recently released an F89-F TOFC flatcar in its Genesis line. The flatcar is based on a prototype built in the 1960s by Bethlehem Steel Co. at its […]
An assortment of Electro-Motive Division and Alco locomotives waits between assignments at the diesel shop in Barstow, Calif. It appears that a few Santa Fe employees are interested in taking a closer look at the EMD SD45 demonstrator in the foreground. Bill Pearce of Wichita, Kan., photographed the scene on his N scale Cajon Pass […]
