‘19 west, copy 4, Plains’

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Three NP F units lead a 12-car train 2, the Mainstreeter, through Plains, Mont., in summer 1964. The depot’s train-order signal projects above the third unit, while a mail pouch is ready to be snagged by No. 2’s RPO. Bruce Butler In the summer of 1964 I had just about the best summer job that […]

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To Saigon via Summit

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A Santa Fe RSD15, SD24, and two SD45s curve toward Summit with an eastbound freight on November 14, 1970.  Jay Potter People used to say that railroads held the country together. They were the proverbial ribbons of steel that kept commerce and people moving and made a lot of things possible. Today — as I […]

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Surviving FL9s

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New Haven FL9 2019, owned by Railroad Museum of New England, during North Carolina Transportation Museum’s Streamliners at Spencer event in June 2014. Robert S. McGonigal View a list of the 22 survivors of the New Haven’s original fleet of 60 FL9 locomotives […]

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One moment sooner!

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Rare CPA-24-5 4500 (partially hidden by a signal box) and an F3B lead NYC’s James Whitcomb Riley north at Illinois Central’s 115th Street station; second car is a C&O Newport News–Chicago sleeper. Gordon E. Lloyd What makes a perfect photo? Perhaps first and foremost, “perfect” is an abstraction, perfection being generally defined in the mind […]

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The big engine that couldn’t

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PRR J1 2-10-4 No. 6480 crests the hill in Irvington, heading east from downtown Indianapolis with a freight during the switchmen’s strike at Hawthorne Yard in the winter of 1951-52. Martin E. Biemer The winter of 1951–52 brought a new thrill for us railroad-crazy boys in the Indianapolis neighborhood of Irvington: Freight trains! Irvington, a […]

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History According to Hediger: Interlocking insights

Man with model interlocking machine

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page Model Railroader magazine’s senior editor Jim Hediger returns to the MRVP studio! In this episode, he first explains how a real plant works, before describing how former MR editors Paul Larson and Gordon Odegard engineered a model for use on an HO scale […]

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