News & Products for the week of March 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 March 18th […]
From short lines to the Class I railroads, chances are you’ll come across a mainline steam excursion with one or more non-passenger railcars near the front of the train (sometimes coupled directly behind the locomotive). They’re carrying, as the name implies, tools and more to support the steam locomotive when out on the road and […]
PUEBLO, Colo. — For a guy who goes around in circles at work every day, MxV Rail locomotive engineer Mike Walfoort sure gets a lot done. At the beginning of each 10-hour shift he climbs aboard an SD70M that’s on the point of a 114-car train of surplus coal gondolas. He slowly notches the throttle […]
Rapido Trains has announced a tour across the continental United States. The tour, which began on March 17th at the California Southern Model Railroad Club in Los Angeles, will make stops at model railroad clubs, rail museums, and hobby shops from California to Michigan en route to Rapido Trains headquarters in Toronto. Per a statement […]
As a child, I had done the typical progression from Marx wind-up trains to Lionel O-27 to HO. As a teenager, I put them away. Then in 1993, I saw a French JEP Toy Train set similar to Lionel and Marx. When I saw the JEP running, it reminded me how much fun the Lionel […]
Ask Trains.com March 2024 compilation | Cody tackles questions regarding modeling and prototype railroading, including an explanation about forward-facing locomotive practices; modeling detailed backdrop scenes; precautions for working on freight cars previously sprayed with Dullocote finishing; and so much more. Are you looking to learn more about your model railroad, or do you have questions […]
WASHINGTON — CSX and CPKC’s proposed acquisition of Genesee & Wyoming short line Meridian & Bigbee will have no significant environmental impacts, federal regulators said in a draft environmental assessment released today. The Class I railroads aim to link their systems — and create a new through route connecting the Southeast with Texas and Mexico […]
The railroad at a glance Railway name: Dunckley Northern Railway (DNR) Size of railroad: Covering an odd shaped garden approximately 70′ x 70′ Scale: 1:24 Gauge: 45mm for 3’6″ gauge and 64mm for standard gauge Era: Late 1930s Theme: The DNR is a colonial railway in an undisclosed country. The Consolidated Concentrates Conglomerate (CCC) branch […]
Five forgotten locomotives no one wanted: Producing a locomotive is a massive endeavor. From design to testing to production, each model is the summation of thousands of hours of labor from dedicated engineers, builders, and everyone in between. However, in spite of the scale of this undertaking, sometimes it just doesn’t work out. Maybe the […]
Amtrak’s Hilltopper What had a locomotive on each end, two coaches in the middle, a crew of six, few passengers, and ran backwards for 30 of its 1,674-mile route between Boston, Mass., and Catlettesburg, Ky.? Amtrak’s Hilltopper — my first regular assignment as a passenger trainman, employed by the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, which operated […]
CINCINNATI — The city of Cincinnati’s sale of the Cincinnati Southern Railway to Norfolk Southern has been completed. Paul Muething, president of the Cincinnati Southern board of trustees, said in a statement available on the railway website that the board received the $1.6 billion payment from NS, plus $20 million in deferred transaction fees, on […]
West Side Freight Line New York Central’s West Side Freight Line, more formally named the 30th Street Branch, was the only direct freight railroad into Manhattan. It was just 10 miles long but maintained to mainline standards, and was even electrified for three decades. Vital for freight, mail, and express into the 1960s, it afterward […]
