O gauge wind turbine

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TOWERING WIND TURBINE On a recent Amtrak journey through the hills of western Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia, I was looking forward to seeing evidence of the coal mining operations in the region. Some call it a family vacation to Washington D.C., but for me it was also a trip to survey the landscape in […]

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3rd Rail O gauge Brass 2-10-10-2

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Land of the giants O gauge brass 2-10-10-2 from 3rd Rail In the January 2010 issue, we reviewed Lionel’s O gauge version of a Santa Fe 2-10-10-2, which in the world of real railroading was pretty much a failure. Today we are reviewing 3rd Rail’s O gauge version of a Virginian Ry. 2-10-10-2 that in […]

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Lionel O gauge Vision Line GE Hybrid diesel

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EcoBoy, Sr. O gauge vision line GE Hybrid ES44AC by Lionel In the February 2011 issue, we reviewed Lionel’s O gauge GenSet locomotive – a fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly switcher that used multiple smaller diesel engines that kicked in as warranted. For switching or light roadwork, this is a clever and innovative approach to saving […]

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A day of action on Terry Johnson’s O gauge layout

A day of action on Terry Johnson's O gauge layout

First we spray weeds and other things with MTH’s UP Weed Sprayer. Next the call goes out to transport the snow removal train up into the mountains where an imaginary snow has fouled the tracks. See the Lionel jet powered snow blower as well as an MTH Jordan Spreader. A fast freight pulled by MTH’s […]

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O gauge Erie GP9 by Lionel

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This is the ultra-basic Lionel Geep of olden times updated with electronics under the hood. No see-through screens, no add-on grab irons, no crew figures, no smoke unit. Everything that can be said about the exterior of the model has probably been said. It is a decent representation of the real thing, but not a […]

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O gauge Santa Fe Vision Line 2-10-10-2 by Lionel

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Okay, I’m scratching my head with this one. Years back, when I first read the story of the Santa Fe 3000-series 2-10-10-2s, I thought something like, “Why’d they do something crazy like that?” When I took this Lionel model out of the box, as Yogi Berra said, “It was deja vu all over again.” The […]

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