Athearn HO AT&SF 50-foot ice reefer A distinctive ready-to-run plastic model of a World War II-era 50-foot steel refrigerator car is now available in HO scale. It features new plastic body tooling, formed wire grabs, cleanly molded details, and magnetic knuckle couplers. The prototype. In early 1940, in anticipation of heavy war-time traffic, the Atchison, […]
Micro-Trains HOn3 reefer This diminutive ready-to-run model of a narrow gauge composite-frame wooden refrigerator car is a well-detailed plastic and metal car. It has a molded styrene body, a die-cast metal floor, and many separate detail parts that come factory installed. The car marks Micro-Trains’ entry into the ready-to-run HOn3 market, so it includes trucks […]
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IF YOU RECALL the 1970s TV comedy Welcome Back Kotter, one of the more eccentric characters, Arnold Horshack, had a unique way of signaling his excitement. He would get nervous and shout something that sounded like “Uho uho, uho uho.” Well, that happens to me when I see an SD40 or SD40-2s. Forget your 21st-century […]
This powerful Norfolk & Western class Y6b 2-8-8-2 is an HO scale late-steam-era articulated locomotive capable of operating on curve radii as sharp as 18″. The locomotive is the latest addition to Precision Craft Models’ line of steam locomotives. It’s available with an automatic Digital Command Control (DCC) decoder and the Electronic Solutions Ulm (ESU) […]
Micro-Trains Line Z scale EMD GP35 diesel This extremely accurate model of an Electro-Motive Division GP35 is detailed enough for even the most demanding modeler. Rivets are visible (with a magnifying glass, unless you have young eyes), dimensions are right on, and the delicate, etched-metal handrails are accurate down to the number of stanchions. Micro-Trains […]
Digitrax HO scale DCC sound decoders New to the ever-expanding market of Digital Command Control (DCC) sound decoders is the Digitrax SoundFX. These decoders produce realistic sounds, come with a 28mm, 32O speaker, and are designed to fit newer Kato HO scale locomotives that feature fuel-tank speaker enclosures. The firm’s first three SoundFX decoder offerings […]
THE PENNSYLVANIA Railroad GG1-class locomotive would almost certainly win the title of best all-around North American electric-profile locomotive, both in terms of performance and popularity. But who would have thought that a rather Plain Jane New Haven Railroad boxcab was the progenitor of the Pennsy classic? The New Haven Railroad wasn’t a fan of motor-generator […]
WHO WOULD HAVE thought that oddball tooling from 50 years ago would ever become a hot product in the digital era? Not me. But that’s the case with the most recent rendering of the Budd Co.’s Rail Diesel Car, known in railroad slang as an RDC or a Budd car. Ready Made Toys first made […]
MORE THAN a decade ago, I bought a postwar Lionel no. 2056 Hudson. I paid close to $300 for the steam locomotive – on installments – at a local hobby shop. The rush of buying a “real, vintage Lionel train” lasted a few years before it faded as newer and better trains entered the marketplace. […]
OUR CANADIAN COUSINS need to stand up and take a bow. The EMD F59 was commissioned by and developed with Toronto’s GO (for Government of Ontario) Transit railroad. The commuter authority needed a 3,000-horsepower locomotive with a separate head-end power generation system packaged in a full-cowl body with safety-cab front. The F59 was the winning […]
Bachmann N scale Acela Express passenger train A sharp-looking ready-to-run model of Amtrak’s Acela Express is the newest arrival in Bachmann’s Spectrum N scale line. The model is equipped with a dual-mode Digital Command Control (DCC) decoder and is usable on DC or DCC layouts. The powered café car and dummy locomotives and passenger cars […]
