LOCOMOTIVES COSTING $1,000 or more seem to capture all the attention today, so we went down to our local hobby shop to find some locomotives that didn’t have “Rockefeller” as a last name. We found three moderately priced diesels that model three notable periods of U.S. railroad history and reflect three periods of O gauge […]
THE LATEST SWITCHER to be added to the MTH Premier line lineup is the Alco S-2, which was ubiquitous on American railroads and industrial operations 20 to 60 years ago. More than 1,400 of the 1,000-horsepower locomotives were built for U.S. railroads between 1940 and 1950. According to one diesel preservation website, there are at […]
Model Power’s N scale 4-4-0 steam locomotive A nicely proportioned N scale model of a 4-4-0 American type has been released by Model Power. Small steam engines are few and far between in N, and Model Power has high hopes for this one – the American is available in 16 road names plus a painted […]
Athearn Genesis HO scale F unit diesel Sound and a dual-mode DCC (Digital Command Control) decoders are the latest additions to Athearn’s models of Electro-Motive Division F units. When this new electronics package is combined with the smooth-running Genesis mechanism, you get a locomotive that’ll pull a prototype-size train and sound like a hard-working EMD […]
Branchline Pullman Standard HO sleeper passenger car Now you can equip your HO limiteds with heavyweight Pullman sleeping cars that are as accurate and well-detailed as the best imported brass models. Branchline Trains has introduced finely molded plastic kits for cars that were the mainstays of long-distance travel. The kits have many parts and take […]
Atlas HO H-24-66 Train Master This Train Master heavy-duty diesel locomotive is the first Atlas HO scale model to include a sound system, which adds even more realism to the smooth-running mechanism and superb detail we’ve come to expect from Atlas. These models include railroad-specific details and come ready-to-run in DC and DCC (Digital Command […]
Model Power N scale USRA 4-6-2 light Pacific steam locomotive Model Power has released a United States Railroad Administration (USRA) 4-6-2 light Pacific passenger steam locomotive. The N scale, ready-to-run engine includes a die-cast metal boiler and frame and features some nice additional factory-applied metal and plastic detail parts. According to Linn Westcott’s Model Railroader […]
Kato N scale Budd Rail Diesel Cars (RDCs) After admiring the crisp detail on Kato’s new N scale Rail Diesel Cars (RDCs), my next immediate thought was, “So where in heck’s the motor?” That’s because I could look right through the side windows of these well-engineered, DCC-ready models. Taking a design cue from the prototype, […]
In the days before airlines and interstates began siphoning off rail freight and passenger business – and big railroads merged to form today’s even bigger mega-systems – virtually every large city and town was served by multiple railroads. Shippers had their choice of carriers to move goods between Points A and B. Passengers, too, had […]
At the end of the 1930s, the United States stood as the world leader in railroad electrification. With 2400 route-miles and more than 6300 track-miles under electric power – far more than any other country – U.S. electrification represented more than 20 percent of the world total. Electricity was harnessed for a variety of railroad […]
Red Caboose HO GS drop-bottom composite- and steel-side gondolas For its latest HO scale freight car release Red Caboose has chosen the general service (GS) gondola, a car which might not be familiar to Eastern modelers but one that’s needed in large numbers by those interested in Western railroads. Red Caboose has produced two versions […]
Athearn HO SD40-2 diesel Athearn recently introduced a “new” SD40-2 to replace the firm’s earlier model, which has been available since 1983. Most notably, the new locomotive offers near-scale size plastic handrails, molded in appropriate colors. Also, there are three variations of dynamic brake housings as well as exhaust stack and radiator intake screens that […]
