At the turn of the 20th century, the citizens and serving railroads of Kansas City, Mo., yearned to revamp how passengers arrived and disembarked from the growing gateway city along the Missouri River. The 1878-built Union Depot in the West Bottoms district couldn’t keep up with the thriving rail traffic and local desire to […]
Zone & Region: Midwest
Jury decides GATX won’t have to help pay East Palestine derailment settlement
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — GATX, the rail equipment leasing company that owned one of the railcars in the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment, will not have to pay a portion of Norfolk Southern’s $600 million settlement with residents. After a trial that lasted more than three weeks, a federal jury in Youngstown on Wednesday found GATX Corp. […]
Minnesota museum opens Northern Pacific steam exhibit
ST. PAUL, Minn. — For the first time in decades, it’s possible to see three Northern Pacific steam locomotives gathered in a roundhouse, thanks to the efforts of the Minnesota Transportation Museum (MTM). The museum is exhibiting two NP 4-6-2s and a 4-6-0 at its former Great Northern Railway Jackson Street Roundhouse in St. Paul. […]
East Troy Industrial Park, Ep. 9 | Laying down roadbed
Hosts David Popp and Bryson Sleppy work together to install the roadbed sections used to support trackwork for the HO scale East Troy Industrial Park (ETIP) project layout. While a variety of roadbed material is available for all scales and track gauges, the guys focus on the process for adding strips of HO scale (1:87.1) […]
Trains.com Insider Interview | Walthers CEO Stacey Walthers Naffah Talks Tariffs and Global Trade
Trains.com Insider Interview | Wm. K. Walthers, Inc., CEO and President Stacey Walthers Naffah stops by the Firecrown Media Wisconsin office to visit with Trains.com Director David Popp. The shift in U.S. trade policies and practices remains the topic of greatest interest to hobbyists. You’ll want to hear, directly from Stacey, how tariffs impact the […]
Mount Vernon Railroad launches service at Indiana port
MOUNT VERNON, Ind. — The Mount Vernon Railroad, a partnership between OmniTRAX and the Ports of Indiana-Mount Vernon, marked its grand opening on Tuesday with ceremonies including a ribbon cutting and a visit by local elementary school students to see the two locomotives they named in a context. OmniTRAX will serve as switching operator for the […]
Spaces to Places VII | Kitbash Rebash
Follow host Gerry Leone as he digs into the plans and efforts to rework a structure he initially kitbashed for a previous iteration of his HO scale (1:87.1) Bona Vista model railroad. But first, he ventures back to the old familiar set of his “Off The Rails” series, all with the objective of answering a […]
Short-lived short line
Michigan Northern GP7 No. 1606 rolls a two-car train south along Keystone Road south of Traverse City, Mich., in 1982. The railroad operated various trackage in the Wolverine State from 1976 to 1986. Neil Plagens photo […]
Side-door versatility
Side-door cabooses were sometimes used for delivering less-than-carload shipments to branchline stations. This is at Chicopee, Mo., on the Frisco. Wayne Leeman photo […]
Roosevelt Road revisited
Baltimore & Ohio train 6, the eastbound Capitol Limited, picks up orders as it departs Chicago’s Grand Central Station bound for Washington, D.C., in July 1968. Philip A. Weibler photo […]
Norm Charbonneau’s Northbrook Layout in O scale
Norm Charbonneau’s Northbrook Layout in O scale | Come along with Model Railroader Editor Eric White as he and Trains.com Video captures Norm Charbonneau’s 29 x 36-foot O scale (3-rail) basement layout, depicting steam-diesel transition era, Pennsy-inspired railroading action. Catch a sneak peek months before crowds arrive to visit the display during the 2025 NMRA National […]
Vincennes, Ind., to install system to inform drivers of blocked crossings
VINCENNES, Ind. — The city of Vincennes has reached agreement with a Muncie, Ind., company to install a system informing drivers when railroad grade crossings are blocked. PBS station WVUT reports the city’s Board of Works approved a Memorandum of Understanding with Interfact to install cameras at six grade crossings in the city. Those cameras […]
