BACK DURING THE HEYDAY OF Gilbert’s American Flyer S gauge, the Connecticut train-maker added a diesel switcher to its lineup. Over the years, the switcher, which debuted in 1956, was offered in Chicago & North Western, Seaboard, Minneapolis & St. Louis, and Texas & Pacific road names, often with a dummy unit. Today, Lionel has […]
A SMALL BUT NOTABLE trend in our hobby is the steady re-emergence of British three-rail O gauge toy trains, led by Ace Trains in London. In recent years we’ve reviewed Ace’s 4-4-4T steamers, electric multiple-unit commuter trains, passenger car sets, and, most recently, its new line of O gauge tank wagons. Each is beautifully crafted […]
I’LL BE HONEST. When I saw the box with “GP60” written on the label, I sighed. Geeps may be the most modeled diesel in the O gauge world, and here was another. Then I took the Atlas O model out of the box and said out loud, “Holy smokes, this model is stunning!” Once again, […]
IN THE WORLD OF TODAY’S souped-up, turbocharged O gauge trains, electronics rule. And where electronics rule, a steady flow of electricity is king. In conventional-control operation, most sound systems require a backup battery to avoid those irritating audio drop-outs when cycling a reverse unit or passing through switches with electrical gaps. In the case of […]
JACK PEARCE MAY be the man with the best hand-eye coordination in the hobby today. CTT readers will be familiar with many of the products that he’s visually supercharged over the years. He has been installing lights – flashing and otherwise – as well as other visual effects into die-cast metal trucks, cars, and fire […]
PERHAPS THE MOST lasting symbol of the electrification era of American railroads is the Pennsylvania Railroad’s GG1 locomotive. To steal a phrase from a 1930s boxing movie, the GG1 electric is the “Winnah and still heavyweight champeen” of prototype American electric locomotives. Like the New York Central Hudson steamer, the hobby will most certainly see […]
MTH’S “PAY AS YOU ENTER” Standard gauge trolley is a reproduction of Lionel’s prewar no. 9 trolley – that’s pre-World War I, not II. Lionel first produced its no. 9 trolley way back in 1909, just one year after two fellows named Orville and Wilbur were granted a patent for a flying machine. The no. […]
OKAY, SO YOU’VE invested in a few European-style metal trains by Ace, Bassett-Lowke, or ETS. All your pals, though, are running their O gauge Mammoth Train Co. steam locomotives with Magma-Sounds, or their Electro-Lines diesels with Vibra-Tronics. And you don’t even have a lousy whistle to toot. So what do you do? Well, in Merrie […]
OKAY, KOKOMO isn’t exactly on the right-of-way of the Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad, but I’ve got your attention, right? Well, I hope so, because Weaver has produced a first-rate model of a remarkable locomotive that soldiered on in relative obscurity, deserving of a better fate. The General Electric 2-D+D-2 was one of […]
ROARING INTO VIEW from those thrilling days of yesteryear is the latest re-creation of a postwar icon from Williams Electric Trains: the Alco FA set. Williams continues to reproduce popular trains from Lionel’s past at prices substantially lower than mint-condition originals. The latest example is a reproduction of the Alco FA A-A diesel set that […]
WE INITIALLY REVIEWED Z-Stuff’s crossing gate system in the May 2002 issue of CTT. Since that time, Z-Stuff has upgraded the O gauge crossing set to allow for slower, more prototypical operation of the gates. The no. DZ-1010 set comes with two crossing gates and two infrared dwarf signal detectors. The signal detectors, in conjunction […]
Readers may recall how dazzled I was with Atlas O’s superb GP60, painted in Santa Fe’s blue-and-yellow freight scheme and reviewed in the May 2005 issue. Well, that issue was still warm from the printing presses when we received two more sturdy additions to the CTT locomotive test fleet: the powered Atlas O GP60M and […]
