News & Products for the week of November 18th 2024

A black and green model locomotive

News & Products for the week of November 18th 2024   Model railroad operators and builders can get the latest information about locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, tools, track, and more by reading Model Railroader’s frequent product updates. The following are the products Model Railroader editors have news on for the week of November 18th […]

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Illinois Terminal locomotives remembered

Diesel Illinois Terminal locomotives pull maroon passenger cars

  Illinois Terminal locomotives included steam, electric, and diesel over its existence.   The Illinois Terminal was an electric interurban line serving western Illinois down to the St. Louis area. In the mid-1950s the railroad abandoned its electric operations, moving to all-diesel operation — the last steam ran in 1950, and dieselization had begun with […]

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Notable model train products from the early 1960s

Black, white, and blue vintage advertisement page with a large toy train diesel locomotive photo at the top, a white and black box of inset text and sales points, and a blue band at the bottom with black and white text and two gray illustrations of speeding trains heading in opposite directions.

One of my favorite things to do while eating lunch is to pull out an old volume of Model Railroader magazine and page through it. Lately, I’ve been working my way through the decade of the 1960s, often posting things I’ve rediscovered to MR’s Facebook page under the heading of “Lunchtime Reading.” Editor Linn Westcott […]

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NC&StL F units

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Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis considered its 52 F3 and F7 units (32 cabs, 20 boosters) to be dual service locomotives, although only the B units had steam generators. Linn H. Westcott photo […]

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News & Products for the week of November 11th 2024

A black model caboose

News & Products for the week of November 11th 2024   Model railroad operators and builders can get the latest information about locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, tools, track, and more by reading Model Railroader’s frequent product updates. The following are the products Model Railroader editors have news on for the week of November 11th […]

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Sir Rod Stewart’s Grand Street & Three Rivers RR in HO scale

A track plan for Sir Rod Stewart's Grand Street & Three Rivers layout

Facts and features Name: Grand Street & Three Rivers RRScale: HO (1:87.1)Size: Layout: 27′-6″ x 62′-0″, Room: 31′-6″ x 66′-0″Prototype: New York Central and Pennsylvania RRLocale: Chicago/New York CityEra: mid-1940sStyle: walk-inMainline run: 900 feetMinimum radius: 30″Minimum turnout: No. 8Maximum grade: 3.5%Benchwork: box gridHeight: 39″ (main line), 51″ (El), 52″ (viaduct loop), and 56″ (upper cement […]

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Locomotives we love: Lionel No. 675 steam engine and tender

black model steam locomotive

Dick Christianson, the founding editor of Classic Toy Trains and the consummate cheerleader for Lionel trains of the postwar era, was recently asked about his top locomotive. He’s owned several great steam and diesel models from the 1940s and ’50s. As editor, he observed virtually every locomotive Lionel cataloged in those decades and long after. […]

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Budd Slumbercoaches

A black and white photograph depicting two men standing on a passenger platform in front of a budd slumbercoach passenger car

Budd Slumbercoaches were born of a desire to serve budget-conscious leisure travelers in the mid-20th century.     As economic conditions improved during the 1920s and more people could afford to travel, there was demand for a less costly but more comfortable means of travel, particularly for the long-haul routes between Midwest and West Coast […]

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Hudson on the Hiawatha

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One of the Milwaukee Road’s dashing F7 4-6-4s accelerates the Hiawatha out of Chicago at the start of the streamliner’s run to Minneapolis on a winter day in 1939. Alfred W. Johnson photo […]

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Freights meet on the Nickel Plate

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In September 1954 at New Douglas, Ill., on the Nickel Plate Road’s old Clover Leaf line to St. Louis, 2-8-4 703 on westbound freight 49 holds the siding as the caboose of eastbound 98 speeds past on the main. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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