Beginners Archives - Page 43 of 46

The railroads behind today’s U.S. rail trails

Steve Glischinski Match the initials below to the Map of the Month in the May 2011 issue of Trains Magazine. The three-page foldout map will show you which recreational trails 10 miles or longer in the United States were fashioned from abandoned railroad lines. We mapped 415 trails in all (strung together, they would stretch […]

Cab-forward cab interiors

Q In a Southern Pacific cab-forward steam locomotive, is the engineer on the right side of the cab? If so, does he have to reach back to man the throttle, reverse gear, air brakes, etc.?— Ralph Podas, Columbus, Ohio A Builders of these locomotives redesigned the cabs entirely so that crews would face the correct […]

Basic Training: How to install feeder wires

Hand adding feeder wire to piece of track

Having trouble viewing this video? Please visit our Video FAQ page Good electrical connections are key to a smooth running model railroad, and one way to help achieve this is with feeder wires. In this basic training video you’ll learn how to attach feeder wires to the rails of model railroad track. […]

How to install feeder wires

Air hoses on locomotives

Q This is a follow-up question to one in the July 2010 issue about the three air hoses on locomotives (page 58). I saw engines in the ’70s and earlier with four hoses and some with only two. Why the difference?— Dan Mirabelli, Neenah, Wis. A The two-line m.u. setup was generally for 14EL-equipped units. […]

Measuring track curvature

Q How do railroad design engineers measure track curvature in the United States? I believe it has something to do with measuring the degrees between two radii of a circle having the track as the arc length, but I don’t fully understand how it is measured, or from where exactly on the tracks the radii […]