Lionel 2353 Santa Fe diesels and two streamlined passenger cars purchased through a Dutch website caused Daniel Biessels gave up HO scale modeling for O gauge and focus on postwar and modern-era models. Then he built a layout set in the Rocky Mountains that he calls the Glenwood Springs & Colorado RR. The arid scenery […]
Q How does BNSF’s Network Operations Center in Fort Worth, Texas, control BNSF trains when they share tracks with another railroad, such as the route over the Tehachapi Pass? Union Pacific owns the trackage and allows BNSF trackage rights. On average, BNSF sends three trains over the pass to UP’s one. Does the BNSF Operations […]
Q What is the difference between a cabless booster, a slug, and a calf?— Ken Williams, Tehachapi, Calif. A A cabless unit and a calf are quite similar. Cabless diesel units are usually considered to be road units from any builder and usually have their own designation. For example, an EMD F7 with a cab […]
Orange Belt Railway President and GM Peter Demens (far right) stand near No. 7, a National Locomotive Works engine, in Pinellas County, Fla. Donald R. Hensley Jr. collection Q I recently heard about a railroad called the Orange Belt that ran through some of central Florida in the late 19th century. Who owned it? Where […]
Anders Products Wire Glue I’d like to briefly review a great product called Wire Glue by Anders Products of Melrose, Mass. To those of you that have a hard time soldering anything, this product is definitely for you. It’s essentially a black, water based epoxy that conducts low voltage electricity when dry. I’ve used it […]
Rail joiner installation tool I was looking for a tool to install rail joiners on my N scale layout. I was struggling, like many others I’m sure, so I stopped in a local Hobby store, Angelo Hobbies, in Haltom City and asked about such a tool. I was informed that they in fact made such […]
Engineer J.F. Keating carries workers aboard a flatcar on the 3¼-mile Mount Washington Cog Railway in New Hampshire on June 11, 1946. Today, the Cog runs mostly biodiesel engines. L.B. Herrin When I first visited the Mount Washington Cog Railway in 1980, exactly 30 years before my recent visit, it was an inadvertent museum, complete […]
Steve Glischinski Match the initials below to the Map of the Month in the May 2011 issue of Trains Magazine. The three-page foldout map will show you which recreational trails 10 miles or longer in the United States were fashioned from abandoned railroad lines. We mapped 415 trails in all (strung together, they would stretch […]
Name No. Type Builder Year built Peppersass 1 Campbell, Whittier & Co. – 1866 Mt. Washington 1 0-2-2-0 Manchester Loco. Works 1883 Ammonoosuc 2 0-2-2-0 Manchester Loco. Works 1875 Agiocochook 3 0-2-2-0 Manchester Loco. Works 1883 Chocorua 4 0-2-2-0 Manchester Loco. Works 1883 Kancamagus 6 0-2-2-0 Manchester Loco. Works 1874 Moosilauke 8 0-2-2-0 Mt. Washington […]
Timken launched an advertising campaign showing rolling stock of the day decorated in Timken colors. Rectifier! This is a Conventional Classics-series reproduction of the Lionel no. 2505W Super O Virginian Rectifier freight outfit from 1958. Without the Super O track, of course. Frankly, this isn’t a set that would have wowed me as a kid. […]
Shark from Eddystone In a once-in-a-lifetime steam-to-diesel transition period, the Pennsylvania RR had enough money and enough traffic to buy groups of locomotives from all the manufacturers to test their mettle. Though the locomotives of Baldwin came up short, the Eddystone, Pa., firm made some distinctive models. I’m a sucker for just about any Baldwin […]
Digitrax Zephyr Xtra Digital Command Control can seem intimidating, making some novices reluctant to make the switch from direct-current power packs. An upgraded version of the Zepyhr set introduced several years ago, the Digitrax Zephyr Xtra 3.0-amp starter set packs everything needed to add DCC to a medium-size layout into a single box. Though it’s […]
