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WILLIAMS ELECTRIC TRAINS continues to field unique, detailed locomotives that are, in the words of the retail trade, “priced to move.” The latest two engines from the Columbia, Md., firm are an Alco FA and an EMD BL2. Both locomotives come from the electrifying days when the direction diesel motive power would take was still […]
WHILE STIFF COMPETITION among the bigger boys of the toy train world pushes O gauge locomotives to new levels of sophistication, Williams has found its niche producing well-made toy trains – minus some of the frills – at a price that is well within reach of most operators. Among the newest items on Williams’ list […]
MY OFFICE WAS hotter than a jail cell in on the wrong side of the border. I sat in the dark with my .45 on my desk, enjoying a lively conversation with Misters Jack Daniels and Jim Beam. Then I heard it. That rumble, those voices. It was haunting. Almost like the faded memory of […]
THE RAILKING SD90MAC is another one of those modern behemoths that tight-curve operators would never be able to run if MTH hadn’t hit it with the old Shrink Ray Gun. The RailKing SD90MAC measures 143/4 inches coupler to coupler, or 59 feet long in O scale. That’s a full five inches short compared to an […]
HAVE YOU EVER seen the Boston Marathon on television, with thousands of runners madly dashing for the front once the gun goes off? Well, that’s how S gauge operators will be acting when they get a look at the new Fairbanks-Morse Train Master from American Models. Surprisingly, it took almost half a century for S […]
Sample page from Field Guide to Modern Diesel Locomotives. Sample page from Field Guide to Modern Diesel Locomotives. Greg McDonnell’s Field Guide to Modern Diesel Locomotives, from the publishers of TRAINS Magazine, picks up where Louis Marre’s Diesel Locomotives: The First 50 Years (Kalmbach 1995) leaves off. McDonnell includes histories and spotting features of Electro-Motive […]
Say you’re an engineer running a multi-unit diesel consist on a freight train. During the trip, it becomes necessary to remove the lead unit because of a grade-crossing entanglement, some mechanical problem, or to give to another (underpowered) train. No problem – the second unit can lead as well as the first, so you resume […]
Leslie and Nathan may sound like a dull couple from the ‘burbs, but they’re actually the first chairs in railroading’s horn section. The diesel locomotive horn section, that is. Many of today’s train-watchers recognize a railroad by the sound of its diesels’ horns. It’s only natural since sound is a strong memory-jogging sense, second only […]
Locomotive classification lights Locomotive classification lights — colored flags by day, lights by night — were once used throughout North American railroading. U.S. railroads used a single light and outer lens, with colored lenses in between that could be changed as needed. Canadian roads used three separate lights; on diesels these were often located near […]
OFTEN SIMPLE IS better, and that’s exactly the case with the Hooter horn from QSI. The Hooter is a compact digital horn and bell designed as a drop-in replacement horn for Lionel postwar diesels, although it can be used in any diesel from any era. There are no diesel engine sounds, just a horn and […]
IN MY MIND, the pinnacle of diesel locomotion is the General Motors SD40-2. Back when I would trudge through snowbanks in Wyoming and North Dakota to snap pictures of trains, it was the SD40-2 that got my heart pounding, rather than endless streams of GP-whatevers. The SD40-2 is big and burly. The long fore and […]
THANKS TO MTH, hobbyists around the country are coming up with clever ways to integrate subways and elevated transit lines into their layouts. The latest entry in the subway sweepstakes is a set of O gauge R-36 cars. The first of 424 of the eye-catching blue-and-white R-36 cars began arriving in New York City in […]
