Having trouble viewing this video? Please visit our Video FAQ page To operate the turnouts on your layout by remote control requires some sort of switch machine or motor. In part 2 of this video series, we install a DC power bus, connect the motors and toggle switches, and align the mechanism to work […]
Having trouble viewing this video? Please visit our Video FAQ page Wiring for your model railroad depends upon the type of control system you wish to use. When working with Digital Command Control, you’ll need a power bus and feeders. In this video we show you how we installed those items on our Thin […]
Horseshoe Curve, 1940: Freight on track 1, passenger on track 2, smoke from a train climbing on track 3 or 4. H. W. Pontin You could not avoid liking my uncle, Matthew McGrail. Matt was a medical doctor in Bradford, Pa., by profession, but he was a full-time rail enthusiast. He befriended many crews of […]
Two Fairbanks-Morse diesels cross a bridge at Slab Fork, W.Va., in the 1950s in a photo by FM’s company photographer. Collection of Lewis A. Harlow […]
Norfolk Southern Crewe-to-Hopewell turn V-11 arrives at Petersburg Yard in Virginia before making a set off on May 11, 2012. Photo by Michael S. Murray […]
In high hopes of increased coal traffic, West Virginia’s Middle Fork Railroad in the early 1960s laid heavier rail on its main line. Some of that rail waits in gons while a loaded coal train moves past at Ellamore, W.Va. Alas, the traffic never materialized. Photo by J. Michael Dunn III […]
Compared here are the main lines of railroads that, for most of the 20th century, fed the nation with its most important natural resource: bituminous coal mined in Appalachia — the critical ingredient in power plants, steel mills, home furnaces, and factories. In 1927, the year of our comparison, the Chesapeake & Ohio and Norfolk […]
Townspeople of South Charleston, W.Va., inspect C&O 500, first of the road’s trio of colossal steam-electric-turbine locomotives intended for its new Chessie train, on Dec. 4, 1947. Ogden Willis, William J. Sparkmon coll. When Robert R. Young took over control of the Chesapeake & Ohio, he started looking for ways to improve the railroad. After […]
B&O men pose with Baldwin switcher 428, the first diesel on the mixed train to Ripley, W.Va., in late 1953. Six years later, a sister Baldwin took a hard hit on the same job. F. Altizer It was dark and cold on the night of January 4, 1960, when Baltimore & Ohio train 961 arrived […]
FULL SCREEN Photo by Kevin Scanlon CSX power for the Piney Creek Turn is parked in Quinnimont Yard in Quinnimont, W.V., on Jan. 20, 1991. To the left of the engines across the tracks is the foundation for the iron furnace. FULL SCREEN Photo by Kevin Scanlon A CSX westbound empty hopper train passes the […]
Southern Railway 2-8-2 No. 4501 pulls a National Railway Historical Society convention train on Sept. 5, 1966 from Keysville, Va., to Richmond, Va. This was among the first excursions that led to the development of Southern Railway’s famous series of annual excursions that ran between 1966 and 1994. Today, the 1911 Baldwin is under restoration […]
N&W’s eastbound Pocahontas descends Christiansburg Hill toward Roanoke on April 21, 1971 – ten days before Amtrak. J. David Ingles The air was chilly and damp as I stood beneath the eaves of the weather-beaten depot in Lynchburg, Va. I was waiting for the train that would take me back to Cincinnati one last time. […]
