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Football is getting underway, pumpkin spice everything is showing up on store shelves, and the thermometer has given a few hints that autumn is just around the corner. Of course, that means we’re heading into peak model railroading season. In the September 2025 episode of Cody’s Office, we feature three new products, a modeling tip, […]
The problem faced by Steven Tripp about 10 years ago was a familiar one among model railroaders: How could he bring to life memories of coal mining in Pennsylvania and the railroads serving that industry during the steam-to-diesel transition era? Compounding the challenges was the fact that his home in Shenandoah, Texas, lacked a basement. […]
You never know what will inspire someone to plan a layout with its own special personality. Dinarte Ferro saw pictures of a Lionel No. D-264 Super O display from 1959 and decided it would be perfect as a home for his collection of O gauge trains and accessories from Louis Marx & Co. Just one […]
Freight on the Iron Range The Canadian-owned Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific line (now part of Canadian National) links the Midwestern United States with the CN’s east-west line in Ontario and provides CN with a direct route to the Port of Duluth on Lake Superior. According to The Historical Guide to North American Railroads, Third Edition […]
Some O gaugers spend years designing and building their layouts, and others go at it with the speed of a runaway train. Count Steven Pasternak among the “I won’t sleep till the work is done” crowd. He told us he finished this two-level 5 x 9-foot three-rail display in less than 100 days! Lionel and […]
More and more of the O and S gauge railroads presented to Classic Toy Trains strive for realism. There’s nothing wrong with that approach, but then you have modelers who, like Jim and Debby Flynn, honor the traditions of our hobby by creating a three-rail layout with a decidedly toy-like look. They operate a prewar […]
Tom Quinlan owned a lot of Standard gauge trains, but never got around to building a layout to showcase them. A few years before Tom died in 2014, his daughter, Kathy Duane, took matters into her own talented hands by constructing for her father the layout he always dreamed of having. In addition to freight […]
We’re changing things up for our latest product review video. Trains.com Director David Popp took the Rapido HO TurboTrain 2.0 on the road to run on Gerry Leone’s Bona Vista RR. Learn more about the full-size United Aircraft TurboTrain and our review sample, decorated in early Amtrak colors. Then watch the five-car train pass through […]
O gauge enthusiast Bruce Baron typically shares with us here at Classic Toy Trains photos of steam engines on his layout. So it came as a surprise – and a very pleasant one – to receive this slick picture of a diesel pulling covered hoppers into the big city on his layout in Munson Township, […]
The worst time of the pandemic left Robert Soderstrom trapped in the basement of his home in Grand Blanc, Mich. He figured there was nothing else to do except expand his O gauge railroad and take lots of pictures of trains. Frankly, we at Classic Toy Trains are pleased. Robert sent us this shot of […]
Time capsule When construction of Pennsylvania’s iron ore and coal-hauling East Broad Top began in 1872, more than 150 years ago, its builders decided it would be a narrow gauge line, with rails set 3-feet apart instead of the North American standard gauge of 4-feet, 8.5-inches. Narrow gauge offered significant advantages, as the smaller locomotives […]
Light snow started falling in the middle of the afternoon and finally let up after everyone dwelling on Will Rothfuss’ compact O gauge layout went to sleep. Now with the sun about to rise over Stroudsburg, Pa., a newsboy prepares to sell copies of the morning express to travelers. The solitary man impatiently waiting for […]
