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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 […]
We are working on a new special issue! Classic Toy Trains’ next special interest publication features 14 layouts you can visit across the United States, from the The Choo Choo Barn, the Chicagoland Lionel Railroad Club, the Virginia Museum of Transportation, the Illinois Railway Museum, and much more. Plus, find a handy reference map and […]
Visitors to the King residence in Albany, N.Y., get a kick out of watching the postwar No. 343 Nickel Plate Road 0-8-0 switcher drop off tankers at refinery Gary designed for his 10 x 24-foot railroad. Classic Toy Trains’ Photo of the Day features a toy train image from our archives. For full access to […]
Locomotives & rolling stock The Train Loft, 4007-B Country Club Rd., Winston-Salem, NC 27104, is selling a custom-run MTH Boxcar as part of the RailKing line. The car features holiday Cheerwine graphics and O-27 operation (30-71259). Expected delivery in October 2025. Price: $69.96. Website: trainloft.com Atlas Model Railroad Co., Inc., 378 Florence Ave., Hillside, NJ […]
Ed Berry is just one of the many current layout builders who use a section or two of the O gauge layout they have recently finished as a way to display some of the die-cast metal vehicles they collect. On his three-rail display in Kinston, N.C., he specializes in miniature Corvettes, and so has arranged […]
The guys holed up in the shack by the main line on David Brown’s O gauge layout caught a break today when the temperature climbed above the freezing mark. On a whim, they decided to set up their checkerboard outdoors for a few games before their fingers get numb or the noise of that passing […]
Jim Gates, founder of the Lionel Collectors Club of America (LCCA), celebrated his 90th birthday on June 25. Jim began working on the real railroad as a senior in high school in 1953. He worked after school on the Milwaukee Road coal train that ran from Perry to Madrid, Iowa. He finished school at 3:15 […]
Roger Carp’s book, Lights, Camera, Lionel Trains! A Photo History of an American Icon, has won several awards. The title won Gold for Best Coffee Table Book from the National Indie Excellence Book Awards; Silver for Best History from the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA); Silver for Best Coffee Table Book from IBPA, Silver for […]
In the 1920s, as Argentina’s economy boomed and its railway system expanded, toy trains began to capture the imaginations of children and adults. Because British investors and engineers played a key role in Argentina’s railroad development, it made sense that the first toy trains came from European manufacturers like Hornby. It was a simple matter […]
Milinda Diane Griggs, Flowery Branch, Georgia, passed away on Wednesday, May 21st, 2025. She was 68. Milinda was preceded in death by her parents, Wiliam and Alice Thomas of Findlay, Ohio. Milinda is survived by her husband Scott; son Mitchell; siblings Melanie Radenbaugh, Scott and Michelle Thomas, Michael and Tanya Thomas, and many nieces and […]
Thomas the Tank Engine is the subject of a new documentary. An Unlikely Fandom: The Impact of Thomas the Tank Engine will premiere at this summer’s The Greatest Gathering event in Derby, England. Thomas began his adventures in a book published in 1945, the first in Reverend W. Awdry’s The Railway Series. These stories were […]
I am a print subscriber to Classic Toy Trains. Have you reported on the discontinuation of the American Flyer model train line by Lionel? I know your magazine isn’t an “investigative reporting” publication but it’s a curious thing that Lionel would discontinue a line of trains that often showed models as “sold out” on their […]
