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Christmas means so much to Jerry and Cathy Landsman, dedicated O gaugers and builders of this terrific three-rail layout at their home in Boonsboro, Md. Electric trains are a big part of their holiday celebration, and so they’ve combined their talents to assemble this 4 x 24-foot display. Department 56 figures almost begin breathing when […]
The array of locomotives pulling trains for the Erie RR and its eventual partner — the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western — make the two fallen flags popular to model in just about every scale. Mike McGovern prefers to focus on the merger of the Erie and the Lackawanna when operating trains from the 1960s on […]
Marx trains of every vintage, along with a few junkers repainted in green or red and then highlighted with Polar Express graphics, always take center stage during the holiday season on the 5 x 16-foot O and S gauge layout belonging to Ed Clousher. A resident of Chesnee, S.C., he never tries to conceal his […]
Tommy Rhoden considers himself another huge fan of the Angela Trotta Thomas illustrated locomotives and rolling stock cataloged by Lionel. As a lifelong three-rail operator and collector, he has a blast laying FasTrack under his Christmas tree in Evans, Ga., and running everything from his boyhood Marx set from 1959 to some of the latest […]
Atlas recently sent us one of their new “Dash 9” diesel-electric locomotives from the Premier line: the C44-9W. Cody Grivno, in a 2019 Model Railroader review, wrote a nice summary of the prototype Dash 9 series in a review of a ScaleTrains HO scale model. GE built more than 3,500 of these diesels between 1993 […]
Atlas has released the C44-9W locomotive as part of the Premier line. Chris Montagna sent us videos of this engine in action on his layout. Read a review from Editor Rene Schweitzer. […]
If you ever find yourself in the Milwaukee area, you may want to take a quick drive north to Butler, Wis., and visit Sommerfeld’s Trains & Hobbies. Don’t let its small size fool you — this brick-and-mortar store is a one-stop shop for a vast range of O gauge products. Owner Jack Sommerfeld, Chief Repair […]
Rene Schweitzer: I’m excited to be sitting in Howard Hitchcock’s office at Lionel Trains’ headquarters. Thank you for meeting me today. Howard Hitchcock: Welcome! I’m glad you were able to make it. RS: You’re nearly halfway through your 125th anniversary celebration. How is it going? What have you heard from your customers? HH: It’s going […]
This scene on Robert Buenzly’s 4½ x 12-foot O gauge layout display reflects his creativity and motivation. He arranged some of the porcelain structures he had purchased around two loops of Lionel FasTrack and then fired up this MTH New York Central 4-6-4 Hudson and Lionel 0-8-0 switcher for his pleasure. Classic Toy Trains’ Photo […]
The bustling scene on Michael Nowicki’s model railroad resembles any number of O gauge layouts from the 1950s, when families had a ball gathering their trains and operating cars to display around their Christmas tree. Lionel stalwarts, including the No. 671 Turbine engine and whistle tender leading the way on Mike’s layout in Newark, N.J., […]
I found this manuscript from the late John Grams in our manuscript files. There was no date on the envelope but it’s likely from the early 1990s. The article discusses 12 Lionel products that, while great inventions, were fraught with problems or didn’t work exactly as advertised. He included the following disclaimer: Lionel trains were […]
It’s a snowy December 24th in Swansea, Ill., under the beautifully decorated tree at the home of Mark and Shirley Childress. Officials at the Southern Ry. decided to shift the 4-6-4 Hudson steam engine and tender usually assigned to passenger service over to freight duty. With residents of the tiny village Shirley set up with […]
