Alex Mayes’ top 10 railfan spots

CSX Railroad Foley Overlook

Westbound CSX train Q261 climbs the Sand Patch grade at Foley Overlook, near Fairhope, Pa., on Oct. 9, 2011. Three photos, Alex Mayes Trying to come up with just 10 favorite train-watching spots posed a challenge for me, as I have a lot of favorite spots, all of which have their particular characteristics. For this […]

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Drew Halverson’s top 10 hot spots

BNSF Railway intermodal train in California

A westbound BNSF intermodal train leans into the famous elevated curves at Siberia, Calif., in April 2014. Four photos, Drew Halverson I witnessed an endless array of trains while growing up in the Midwest. Despite the diversity of railroads, the surrounding landscape was lacking. I needed mountains and deserts to go with the ubiquitous cityscapes […]

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Matt Van Hattem’s top 10 railfan spots

CSX intermodal train at Bear Mountain, N.Y.

A southbound CSX intermodal train skirts the Hudson River at Bear Mountain, N.Y., on May 12, 2011. Three photos, Matt Van Hattem Every region has fascinating places to watch trains, and working at Trains brought me to locations I had always longed to visit as well as great spots I might not have otherwise come […]

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Tom Danneman’s top 10 retreats

Montana Rail Link traveling through the mountains

Two Montana Rail Link GP9s head up the Paradise Local as it crosses the Clark Fork River in Paradise, Mont. Three photos, Tom Danneman When I was asked to come up with 10 of my favorite spots to view and photograph railroading, I knew it wouldn’t be difficult. The difficulty was picking just 10 spots, […]

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Train-superiority checklist for model railroad operation

OnoperationJanuary2018

In his On Operation column for the January 2018 issue of Model Railroader, Jerry Dziedzic describes dealing with train superiority and time-table-and-train-order (TT&TO) operation for model railroads. Jerry mentioned a train-superiority checklist developed by Mark Amfahr that greatly simplified TT&TO decision making for train crews during operating sessions on his railroad. Click on the link […]

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Video: ScaleTrains com HO scale GEVO Tier 4 diesel

ScaleTrains com HO scale GEVO Tier 4 diesel

The Rivet Counter version of the ScaleTrains.com HO scale General Electric ET44 features prototype-specific detailing and an ESU LokSound Digital Command Control (DCC) decoder. Senior editor Dana Kawala used two of these superdetailed locomotives to haul a freight train along the main line of the Model Railroader staff’s Milwaukee, Racine & Troy layout. […]

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