Weathering with artist’s oils

weathering with artist's oils: An image of a brown model boxcar alongside paints and brushes against white background.

Weathering with artist’s oils: Artists’ oils make it easy to apply weathering washes and simulate rust patches, which I did on this HO scale ExactRail boxcar. First, I put some burnt umber on each body panel and on the door. Then I touched the paint with a 1 ⁄2″-wide paintbrush soaked with Turpenoid (an odorless turpentine […]

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Hot Spot: Neenah, Wis.

red and gray locomotive

Neenah Neenah, Wis., is one of those towns you have probably never heard of. There is, however, a good chance that something from Neenah impacts your life every day. Take a good look at the next manhole cover you cross. If it’s cast with the words “Neenah Foundry Co., Neenah, WI,” you now know the […]

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Trinity 3281 hopper from Walthers Mainline

Trinity 3281 hopper: A pink model hopper car is shown against a white background

Trinity 3281 hopper from Walthers Mainline Scale: HO (1:87.1) Price: $31.98 Era: Late 1990s+ (varies depending on paint scheme) Manufacturer: Wm. K. Walthers Inc., 5601 W. Florist Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53218, 414-527-0770, walthers.com Trinity 3281 hopper features: Separately-applied brake gear, running board, discharge gates, inlet hatches, and end ladder cages Correct 36″ RP-25 metal wheelsets Proto-Max […]

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Top 10 stories of 2022: No. 6, Jim Wrinn

Man at work at computer in office full of rail memorabilia

Continuing our countdown of the Trains News Wire Top 10 stories of 2022, as determined by a vote of Trains editors, columnists, and masthead correspondents: When a college advisor at the University of North Carolina asked Jim Wrinn in 1979 to name his dream job, he didn’t hesitate: editor of Trains magazine. There is no […]

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San Diego County’s Sprinter gets $7 million for improvements

Two-tone blue two-car passenger train

SAN DIEGO — The North County Transit District’s Sprinter commuter rail line between Escondido and Oceanside will receive $7 million in federal funding for signal improvements, the first phase of a program to allow frequencies on the 22-mile, 15-station line to double from every 30 minutes to every 15 minutes. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports […]

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CRP&A, Chicago author receive R&LHS research grants

Detail view of side of steam locomotive

The Center for Railroad Photography & Art and Chicago author Sandra Jackson-Opoku have received 2022 research grants, each worth $2,500, from the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society. R&LHS President Robert Holzweiss said “the proposals could not be more different, but both were adjudged to be worthy of our support. The Center applies every year and often […]

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NW5s, RDCs, ‘Chicagoland,’ and other goofs

Stainless steel rail passenger cars in snow

  A few weeks ago, I made an embarrassing blunder in the pages of Classic Trains. In a brief, bylined description of the Budd Rail Diesel Car, or RDC, I had casually and quite spectacularly goofed by describing its diesel engines as “rooftop.” Yes, rooftop.   What was I thinking? I knew its V-6 diesel […]

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Troop train in the Sierras

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A Southern Pacific 4-8-8-2 leads a long string of troop sleepers on snowy Donner Pass in the mid-1940s. Pullman-Standard built 2,400 of the boxcar-like sleepers between October 1943 and May 1946. Classic Trains coll. […]

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One passenger injured as Amtrak Piedmont hits truck

Amtrak logo.

LEXINGTON, N.C. — One passenger was reportedly hospitalized after a Charlotte-bound Amtrak Piedmont train struck a tractor-trailer at a grade crossing on Tuesday morning, the Raleigh News & Observer reports. The accident occurred about 9 a.m. No additional information was available on the injured passenger. No other injuries to passengers or crew were reported, and […]

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