Little did I think when I visited Milbank, S.D., for the first time in 2019 I would find a yard office you can model. But there, on the corner of North Main Street and East Railway Avenue, was a BNSF Ry. structure that looked ideal for a model railroad. It had a small footprint; could […]
Price: $24.95 (undecorated, $17.95) Manufacturer Atlas Model Railroad Co. 378 Florence Ave. Hillside, NJ 07205 shop.atlasrr.com Road names: New paint schemes — Transportation Corp. of America; Burlington Northern (with FRA-224 stripes); CATX; David J. Joseph Transportation; Midwest Railcar; Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern; and Rail Logistics. New road numbers — Canadian National and Peavey. Three numbers […]
The Union Pacific main through Nebraska is one of the best train-watching spots in America, with a plethora of trains operating over double track and sometimes triple track mainline. U.S. Route 30 closely parallels the railroad, making this stretch of the Union Pacific a great place to see trains. Let’s follow the route from Cheyenne, […]
Nebraska’s U.S. Route 30 LOCATION: Trains Columnist Don Phillips prescribed driving Nebraska’s U.S. Route 30 along the Union Pacific main line as an antidote for the 1970s railroad blues (“Solace on Highway 30,” October 1978). For all that has changed in 45 years, the railroad is still Union Pacific and it always puts on a […]
The Atlas O Spring 2024 Premier catalog was recently published on the manufacturer’s website. Highlights include three locomotives, assorted 60-foot heavyweight passenger cars, four freight cars, a snow plow, pedestrian walkways, and an upgraded 24”-diameter turntable. All of the models are scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of 2024. Steam and diesel locomotives The […]
For 146 years, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Train criss-crossed the nation as America’s longest passenger train. With a mile-long train of passenger cars and container flats and housing about 300 performers and crew, the circus train was a regular sight on American railroads. The Ringling Bros. shut down operations in 2017 […]
Modelers David Popp, Brian Schmidt, and Bryson Sleppy continue the scenery process on their T-TRAK modules in an attempt to make them look more like the prairies of Colorado. T-TRAK is a modular N scale railroading system that uses foot-wide boxes plugged together to build tabletop layouts. In this sixth installment, the three modelers explain […]
Kirk Reddie, Editor and Publisher of N Scale Railroading magazine, passed away on April 8, 2024. Kirk grew up and resided in Shoreline, Wash. When he was 4 years old, he received an American Flyer train set. His modeling focus shifted to HO scale when he was in eighth grade. In 1975 Kirk switched to […]
Lionel Catalog Volume 1 for 2024 is filled with plenty of treasures. What’s there? How about fantastic locomotives loaded with tons of special effects and realistic details as well as lots of superb pieces of scale rolling stock and entertaining operating cars of all sorts? And plenty of spectacular and enjoyable train sets for modelers […]
From short lines to Class I railroads, you’ll likely come across a mainline steam excursion with one or more tenders/tank cars coupled right behind the locomotive’s main tender. Water is the primary commodity, all for the steam locomotive when out on the road. The use of an auxiliary water car, sometimes referred to as a […]
Nobody can say the Menards doesn’t push the envelope in their line of O gauge structures. From power plants, to hotels, and office buildings, the company doesn’t just take an old design and slap new signage on the exterior. The Vehicle Showroom (275-9281) counts as a spectacular design and and an innovative way to construct […]
The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad has faced numerous challenges in the last few years, the results of which have attributed to the end of using coal to fire their steam locomotive fleet. Following a major fire near the railroad, the D&S fast-tracked a program to convert their steam engines to burn oil. A […]
