New products for October 13, 2011

Model Railroad Warehouse HO scale Brill 55 doodlebug railcar

HO scale locomotives Northstar Electro-Motive Division F59PHI diesel locomotive. Two road numbers. Factory-installed grab irons, Digital Command Control wiring harness, and McHenry scale magnetic knuckle couplers. $109.98. Ready-to-Roll. Athearn Trains, 310-763-7140, athearn.com HO scale freight carsTTX Co. 56-foot well car. Capable of carrying 20- to 48-foot containers on the bottom and up to 53-foot containers […]

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Norfolk Southern freight under wire

A Norfolk Southern local negotiates Amtrak’s Keystone Corridor main line at Leaman Place, Pa., on Aug. 31, 2011. Though the lion’s share of trains on this route are Amtrak trains operating between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pa., NS serves freight customers adjacent to the line as successor to Pennsylvania Railroad, the line’s longtime owner. Photo by […]

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Video: Digitrax DCC sound equipped Kato N scale E8

Model Railroader managing editor David Popp used an Aztec Manufacturing Co. milled frame and a Digitrax SDN144K0A Digital Command Control (DCC) decoder to add sound to a Kato USA N scale E8 diesel lcocomotive. Watch the DCC-sound equipped model run on David’s N scale Naugatuck Valley model train layout. […]

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Video: Digitrax DCC sound equipped Kato N scale E8

Model Railroader managing editor David Popp used an Aztec Manufacturing Co. milled frame and a Digitrax SDN144K0A Digital Command Control (DCC) decoder to add sound to a Kato USA N scale E8 diesel lcocomotive. Watch the DCC-sound equipped model run on David’s N scale Naugatuck Valley model train layout. […]

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Postwar commuter surprises

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“Deluxe” cars like these on New Haven train 365 at Darien, Conn., in July 1947 were not what author Paradis experienced on his commuter-train rides. NH The distant rumble warned that the mighty New York Central steam locomotive with its 12 steel coaches would soon round the curve on the Harlem Division and bear down […]

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Railroad from “Breakheart Pass”

Q On which railroad was the 1975 movie “Breakheart Pass” filmed? — Klaus Schmidt, Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. A “Breakheart Pass” was filmed on the Camas Prairie Railroad, a short line in Northern Idaho. Originally a cooperative building effort by predecessors of the Union Pacific and the BNSF in the early 20th century, as of 2004, […]

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Running long hood forward

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Southern Railway SD45 No. 3121 leads long hood forward on a unit coal train at Oreton, Va., in 1984. Such design enhanced bidirectional capability. Ron Flanary Q When did railroads such as the Norfolk & Western stop running their road engines “long hood first?” How effective was this practice for crew safety? Did it have […]

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Steam engine sight glass

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Steam engine gage glasses have prisms to improve water visibility. J. David Conrad Q What type of glass (or other material) was used for the sight glass on a steam locomotive boiler? Was it a special material, or just very thick?— William Johnson, Eagle, Mich.A Most (but not all) gage glasses on steam locomotive are […]

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Why ‘mudhens?’

Q Why are some Rio Grande steam locomotives referred to as “Mudhens?”— Larry Beck, Susanville, Calif. A The term “Mudhen” refers to 15 Denver & Rio Grande Western class K-27 2-8-2s, Nos. 450-464, built by Baldwin in 1903. Two K-27 Mudhens are left: No. 463, under restoration at the C&TS and No. 464, in operation […]

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Charge!

Virginia & Truckee 2-8-0 No. 29 charges past the depot in Gold Hill, Nev., in March 2010 on a portion of the rebuilt silver hauling railroad, high in the desert near Reno. Photo by Jim Wrinn […]

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