Fifty Years of Amtrak Trains book review

Fifty Years of Amtrak Trains book cover

Fifty Years of Amtrak Trains is a beautifully crafted 256-page, all-color hardbound volume. It is a time capsule of relevant information on the first 50 years of Amtrak’s existence, including a comprehensive survey of Amtrak routes between 1971 and 2021. The volume accounts for all Amtrak routes and trains (the book is divided into state […]

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Alco RS27 failure — a diesel that didn’t

Diesel locomotives lined up in sun

Alco RS27 failure: It’s tough when professional engineers create a decent locomotive that builds on successes, and pitfalls, of the past and still nobody really wants it. That was the Alco RS27, also referred to as the DL640. Its 16-cylinder, 251B prime mover pushed out 2,400 hp. Coincidentally, only 27 were built between December 1959 […]

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Tom Barker’s S gauge layout in action

Tom Barkers S gauge layout

Tom Barker’s S gauge layout is inspired by a vintage American Flyer dealer display. It features a lot of action and fun! It appears in the July-August issue of Classic Toy Trains. Subscribers can see how he built the circular four-tier structure that’s the centerpiece of the layout here. […]

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Tom Barker’s S gauge layout in action

Tom Barkers S gauge layout

Tom Barker’s S gauge layout is inspired by a vintage American Flyer dealer display. It features a lot of action and fun! It appears in the July-August issue of Classic Toy Trains. Subscribers can see how he built the circular four-tier structure that’s the centerpiece of the layout here. […]

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Electro-Motive history: From upstart to undisputed champ

Yellow and green diesel locomotive among industrial building

  Electro-Motive history: Steam was king, its supremacy uncontested, in 1922 when Harold L. Hamilton and associates rented office space at 17th and Euclid in Cleveland, Ohio, for their fledgling Electro-Motive Engineering Co. Established to design, market, and maintain gas-electric railcars for light-density passenger service, the modest enterprise could hardly be considered a threat to […]

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