Even a small steamer can crank out a nice flow of smoke, so buy the right fluid and don’t try to create a home brew smoke fluid. Q: I recently bought a Williams steamer, and it came with several warnings stating to use only Williams smoke fluid and no other. Well, none of my engines […]
Q: I am building a layout and want to do what I’ve seen in postwar dealer displays. Specifically, I’ve seen under the layout board a thin metal strip running the entire length of the layout. To this you would solder the ground contact for every accessory, thus greatly reducing the amount of wiring required. I […]
Many old Marx steam locomotives have gears that extend the full diameter of the wheel, resulting in incompatibility with most track switches. Q: I am starting to build a small O gauge layout with two loops and some switching in between for variety. I have some newer Lionel trains and some old Marx trains from […]
ALCO DIESELS ARE POPULAR with the O gauge crowd. After checking out the models of the RSD-7 and RSD-15, you may have to crown Atlas O the king of three-rail Alco power. The RSD-7 and the RSD-15 are basically the same locomotive, except that the RSD-7 had an Alco 244-series diesel engine and the RSD-15 […]
I’LL BET THAT MOST children of the baby boom spent at least a little time in their school library thumbing through books about the Civil War or the Wild West. As model train enthusiasts, we probably spent extra time gazing at black-and-white images of impossibly frail-looking steam power and rolling stock – those trains always […]
WHILE CREATING AN OPERATING scale model of a vintage locomotive is commendable, not too many of us will be happy just staring at it in a case. The folks at Schneider Model Railroading (SMR Trains) acknowledge the inner engineer of potential customers, and they’ve launched a line of scale-sized brass equipment that looks right at […]
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CTT reader Phil Lea of Athens, Tenn., is looking to re-create the old West on his layout. Postwar Marx plays sets just might be his best source for buildings and decorations that look at home on the range, looking the other way regarding exact scale, of course! Q: I would like to do my layout […]
The names Lionel and Disney have a unique history. Modern toy production techniques have made the most of Walt Disney’s colorful animated characters like Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck. Q: I have a Lionel O gauge no. 18311 Disney electric-profile EP-5 locomotive. I would like to collect all the cars that go with […]
IN REAL RAILROADING, the wheel arrangement that probably came closest to perfection, in terms of either freight or high-speed passenger service, was the 4-8-4 Northern. Indeed, Alco built the first 4-8-4 in 1927, and by the end of the steam era, 36 railroads operated 1,126 of these machines. A surprisingly high number of Northerns – […]
NEARLY EVERY COLLECTOR and operator can appreciate the distinction between “wanting” and “needing.” As much as I wanted a Lionel no. 29168 Amtrak Superliner StationSounds diner when it was first cataloged in 2004, my wife’s car needed new brakes. A few years and countless other needs later, the wanting came to an end when I […]
TO ACCURATELY DESCRIBE the steam-era classic 4-6-6-4 Challenger, you’d have to use words right out of a luxury car ad: powerful, fast, sleek, and big. Conceived as a fast companion to the Union Pacific’s mighty 4-8-8-4 Big Boy, the Challenger was a heavy-hauling speed demon. Its success can be measured in numbers: 252 were built […]
