T-Trak Fun Run across the Colorado Plains

Trains.com staff set out to prove they could build out a layout one square foot at a time! Now that most of their T-Trak modules are completed, it’s due time to have some fun running trains around Model Railroader magazine’s latest project layout, the N scale (1:160) “Colorado Plains”, as featured in the January 2025 […]

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Season arrives for commuter, transit holiday trains

EMU trainset with holiday lights at sunset

Increasingly, the holiday season is also a team for brightly decorated trains on major commuter and transit systems. The New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco areas will all see such trains this year, including a new train on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Metro North Railroad, and Metra trains with more elaborate decorations. Here’s […]

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CSX coal train derails in South Carolina

Men working near derailed hopper cars and damaged track

GREELEYVILLE, S.C. — Thirty-six cars of an empty CSX coal train derailed early this morning near Greeleyville in Williamsburg County, S.C., WPDE-TV reports. No injuries resulted, the railroad told the station. The derailment occurred about 3:10 a.m. The Williamsburg County Sheriff’s Department said the derailment occurred when the train encountered a section of track that […]

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Five things I loved about Trainfest 2024

Two men, one young with a beard and one older with a mustache, both wearing tan aprons work together applying light green model grass on a small railroad diorama set on a black tabletop.

Let’s face it, I love Trainfest. I’ve lived in the area for more than 20 years now, and I’ve been at every Trainfest they’ve held during that time. So, when it was announced earlier this year that Trainfest was back in 2024, it really didn’t matter to me who put it on or where it […]

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Weekly U.S. rail traffic shows major bump

Weekly table showing U.S. carload rail traffic by commodity type, plus overall intermodal volume

WASHINGTON — Likely because of the difference in where the Thanksgiving holiday falls this year, weekly U.S. rail traffic shows a major volume increase for the week ending Nov. 23, 2024. Total weekly traffic was 520,798 carloads and intermodal units, a 25.6% increase over the same week last year — when Thanksgiving was on Nov. […]

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VIA move against CN with Canadian regulator stalls

Passenger and freight train meet at junction

MONTREAL — In a move similar to Amtrak’s efforts to address issues with host railroads with the Surface Transportation Board, VIA Rail Canada has asked the Canadian Transportation Agency to impose a new track access agreement with Canadian National Railway. But VIA’s filing, made in June 2023, has gone nowhere, the Canadian Press reports, in […]

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Manufacturers producing O gauge trains today

Boxes and products stacked on top of one another.

Manufacturers come and go in model railroading, and the O gauge market is no exception – 2 or 3 rail, scale or semi scale. From vast offerings to specific products, let’s find out who is producing today for the customer. If you know of a manufacturer not on this list, please contact us at editor@classictoytrains.com. […]

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First arch now in place on New Jersey’s Portal North Bridge

View of bridge under construction with tugboat in foreground

KEARNY, N.J. — The first of three massive arches that are part of the new Portal North Bridge has arrived by barge and been lifted into place at the construction site on the Hackensack River, a significant advance in the project to replace the current structure, a long-time operational headache on the Northeast Corridor. Three […]

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