General Motors Diesel Division F59PH diesel locomotive Scale: HO (1:87.1) Price: Direct-current model, $225; with dual-mode ESU LokSound sound decoder, $335 Era: 1988 to present (varies depending on scheme) Manufacturer: Rapido Trains Inc., 500 Alden Road, Unit 21, Markham, Ontario L3R 5H5 Canada, 905-474-3314, rapidotrains.com General Motors Diesel Division F59PH diesel locomotive features: American units […]
General Motors Diesel Division F59PH diesel locomotive from Rapido Trains Eric White, Editor of Model Railroader magazine, reviews the new HO scale General Motors Diesel Division F59PH diesel locomotive from Rapido Trains and takes it on a tour of our Milwaukee, Racine & Troy staff layout. Features on the four-axle model include an injection-molded […]
Menards Cripple Creek General Store is the latest O scale structure for the apparently burgeoning fictional burg. Several of the company’s buildings, including a recently released interlocking tower, are “located” there. This one is a little different detail-wise from the others. It has more of an “old West” feel primarily due to the figures that […]
Nearly five decades have passed since General Motors debuted two new EMD electric freight locomotives. There were two models: the 6,000-hp GM6C, which operated on two six-wheel trucks, and the 10,000-horsepower GM10B, which operated on three four-wheel trucks. The GM6C began testing in 1975, the GM10B in 1976. The only practical choice for evaluation at […]
Frisco steam to diesel transition: The mid-20th century was a time of great change for U.S. railroads. They were in the midst of a great steam to diesel transition that would revolutionize the industry for generations to come. An example of how the diesel changed part of one railroad may be found on the rolling […]
Department of Defense intermodal containers Scale: HO (1:87.1) Price: Combo pack (one each 20-foot conex, tricon, and quadcon), $49.95; 20-foot container three-pack (one each brown, Marine Gray, and patched brown), $24.95 Era: present Manufacturer: Spring Mills Depot, P.O. Box 1616, Spring Mills, MD 21158, springmillsdepot.com Department of Defense intermodal container features: Injection-molded plastic construction Separate, […]
View from a boxcar door Name: Ray Wheeler Railroad Name: Jericho & Mt. Zion Railway Location: Lynnwood, WA Scale: G scale Theme: Tourist railroad with freight operations in the modern era Description: “From A Boxcar Door” – Safety Film – Riding in an open boxcar on a J&MtZ extra freight train. (An unsafe practice!) Music […]
Department of Defense 68-foot heavy-duty flatcars Scale: HO (1:87.1) Price: $64.95 Era: 1981 to present (varies depending on paint scheme) Manufacturer: Spring Mills Depot, P.O. Box 1616, Spring Mills, MD 21158, springmillsdepot.com Department of Defense (DODX) 68-foot heavy-duty flatcar features: Die-cast metal underframe Factory-painted metal wheelsets Wire grab irons Metal wheels Kadee couplers Road-number-specific lettering […]
Enjoy these two vintage N scale track plans, taken from the 1969 Kalmbach Media book N Scale Model Railroad Track Plans. These two layouts were in a chapter called “Permanent Railroads.” Download the PDF containing both track plans. The Dapperling Railroad This line serves Cassville, Browntown, a mine, and a logging operation. During the […]
ROCKHILL FURNACE, Pa. — Out of service for 66 years, East Broad Top narrow-gauge 2-8-2 Mikado steam locomotive No. 16 is getting close to operating again. Built for EBT by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1916, it’s one of six surviving BLW Mikados on the roster of the iconic short-line railroad in central Pennsylvania, which has […]
WASHINGTON — Amtrak is proposing that, in extreme examples of routes with poor on-time performance, it would be allowed to take over dispatching from host railroad Canadian National as part of a new operating agreement with CN. In asking the Surface Transportation Board to set terms of a new agreement with CN, the passenger railroad […]
ALEXANDER, W.Va. — West Virginia’s coal history is a cyclical tale of boom-and-bust periods driven by the world’s appetite for the state’s most abundant fossil fuel. Agility and resiliency have carried coal and its closely linked partner, railroading, through periods of prosperity and dispersity. Today in one of the state’s most rural dwellings is a […]
