History According to Hediger: The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Ry.

Front of steam locomotive

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page Back in the 1970s Jim Hediger and Model Railroader‘s then new editor, Russ Larson, took a fall trip to ride the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Ry., one of the famous western narrow gauge lines. Jim shares the story, complete with some great photographs […]

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Drew’s Trackside Adventures: Episode 4 – Montana

A freight train crosses a snowy landscape.

Drew Halverson and Tom Danneman take to the road to do some serious railfanning in Montana, and they bring you along for some great scenery and impressive trains. Drew and Tom also provide an assortment of great modeling tips. […]

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A compact backyard line

The P&BW Railroad

Railway at a glance Name: P&BW RR Size of railroad: 30′ x 40′ Scale: 1:29 and 1:20.3 Gauge: Nº 1 (45mm) Era: Late 1800s to present Theme: Colorado railroading then and now Age: 4 years Motive power: USA Trains diesels, LGB and Bachmann steam locomotives Length of mainline: Lower loop, 106′; upper loop, 146′ Maximum […]

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Travel could not be more pleasurable

NCL Clark Fork

Great train, great scenery: NP’s North Coast Limited rolls west along the Clark Fork River in Montana. Classic Trains coll. My 1947 journey on Northern Pacific’s North Coast Limited is a treasured memory. I had come to love good trains through numerous trips between Washington, D.C., and my childhood home in Florida. My first ride […]

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Georgetown Loop No. 12 ends its Colorado run NEWSWIRE

Georgetown12

Pictured with the engine, left to right, are fireman Dean Gordon, mechanic Phil Reader, and engineer Willie Maine. Chip Sherman SILVER PLUME, Colo. — Georgetown Loop Railroad No. 12, a 1928 Baldwin 2-6-2, ran its last day in Colorado on August 1. The engine will be shipped later in the month to Midwest Central Railroad at […]

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How I became ‘Old Smoky’

UP-Idaho-4-6-6-4

In October 1953, about the time author Les Clark was a fireman here, a Union Pacific freight climbs the grade out of the Snake River Valley near Reverse, Idaho. Challenger 3838 is on the point; 2-8-8-0 pusher 3528 was added at Glenns Ferry. David W. Salter October was a favorite month for me in southern […]

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Southern Pacific’s Lucin Cutoff

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An English import, the American railway diverged sharply from English ideals. Environment proved stronger than genetics — settled and industrializing England constrained railway builders to design the most efficient routes possible, whereas their counterparts in unsettled and impecunious America disregarded gradient and circuity on pain of not completing lines at all. As the American era […]

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Snowsheds on BNSF’s Marias Pass

BNSF snowsheds on Maris pass map image

Great Northern Railway’s St. Paul, Minn.-Seattle transcontinental main line, now part of BNSF Railway, was built in the early 1890s as the northernmost such route in the United States, crossing the Continental Divide in the Lewis Range at Marias Pass, 5,213 feet above sea level. The Great Bear Wilderness in Lewis and Clark National Forest […]

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“Silver Chalet” history

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The Silver Chalet, once part of the Western Pacific’s California Zephyr, rests outside Quad/Graphics’ Sussex, Wis., printing plant Nov. 24, 2004. Cody Grivno Q I saw a private car named “Silver Chalet” at Union Station in Washington, D.C. It had an odd-looking observation platform. Can you tell me its history and who owns it now?— […]

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