TWO HEADLINES IN a supermarket tabloid: “Elvis returns to Graceland” and “Lionel makes all-new Standard gauge trains.” Which do you believe? A few years ago, the answer would have been neither. But hold on to your blue-suede shoes. While a living Elvis isn’t back at Graceland yet, Lionel indeed has made all-new Standard gauge trains: […]
SOMEWHERE IN THE ANNALS of toy train history, a tiny celebrity steam engine got lost in the crowd. When it was found, it somehow got lost again. In 1999, MTH began producing an O gauge die-cast model based on the Baltimore & Ohio’s C-16 “Docksider” steam switcher. The biggest surprise was that this is a […]
Kevin Strong 1:24-scale water towerKamloops Junction Wood Products850 Ida LaneKamloops, British Columbia V2B 6V1 CanadaPrice: $119.99 Can.Note: Manufacturer is no longer in business Craftsman-level kit; pre-cut cedar stripwood; Sonotube section for the tank substructure; corrugated plastic sub-roof material; sandpaper roofing material; resin castings for the water spout, counterweights, and nut-bolt-washers; steel wire for the tank […]
IN 1996, THE FIRST MTH RailKing articulated locomotive – the no. 30-1107 Union Pacific Challenger 4-6-6-4 – rolled onto tinplate track and created quite a stir. Regardless of its reduced dimensions, no manufacturer had ever offered an articulated, die-cast metal steamer for the small layout, tight-radius crowd. Its success heralded 1997’s Allegheny 2-6-6-6, 1998’s Big […]
K-LINE’S UNITED STATES Railway Administration light 2-8-2 Mikado commemorates the 625 steam engines of this type built for U.S. railroads during and shortly after the First World War. The United States entered the war on April 6, 1917, and that December President Wilson placed U.S. railroads under the control of the railroad administration (USRA). In […]
THESE ARE GOOD DAYS for Reading Railroad fans. First was the arrival of Weaver’s brass G1sa and G2sa Pacific steamers (CTT, March 2002) and now SGL Lines Electric Trains , a newcomer to the train business, has imported a fine example of the G3-class Pacific and matching Reading passenger cars.In 1948, the Reading railroad committed […]
K-LINE’S O GAUGE Allegheny 2-6-6-6 steam locomotive is the second of the firm’s miniaturized Mallets. Like K-Line’s previously released 1:64 scale, O gauge 4-8-8-4 Big Boy, this 1:58 scale Allegheny is targeted at operators with O-31 curves and tight budgets. The prototype Allegheny evolved from a 2-12-6 concept for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. Lima […]
AMID A SEA OF limited-edition, $1,400 locomotives, why should anyone be interested in this modest steamer? Well, first, it is designed to run through curves as tight as O-27 – and there are still plenty of operators using O-27, O-31, and O-54 curved track. Second, the tooling is new. This isn’t a lame attempt to […]
WHEN I FIRST SAW the ads for the LionMaster Hudson, I presumed that it was launched in response to K-Line’s similarly priced, scale-sized Hudson (CTT, July 2003). Not so. While all new like the K-Line Hudson and featuring TrainMaster Command Control, Rail Sounds, Odyssey speed control, and a wireless tether, the Lionel model is the […]
ONE OF THE MOST distinctive experimental locomotives of the 1930s was the Pennsylvania Railroad’s S1-class Duplex-drive 6-4-4-6 locomotive. Originally developed as a replacement for the railroad’s venerable K4s 4-6-2 Pacific locomotives, the big S1, of which only one was built, was designed to be a high-speed passenger engine, capable of hauling a 1,200-ton train at […]
Vance Bass Servo bracket unit for Accucraft RubyElectronic Model Systems22605 East La Palma Avenue, Ste. 516Yorba Linda CA 92887Price: $129 + shippingWeb site: www.rc-steamers.com Anodized aluminum bracket; two micro-servos; mounting hardware; mounts in Ruby cabPros: Compact unit makes easy work of installing R/C servos in a Ruby live-steam locomotive; elegant, sturdy, and attractive packageCons: None […]
THE ROYAL SCOT is British manufacturer Bassett-Lowke’s latest modern re-creation of one of its own classic prewar O gauge locomotives. The London, Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) created the Royal Scot to boost its express service in the competitive London-to-Glasgow passenger market. The first batch of 50 engines was ordered from the North British Locomotive […]
