Railroads are attracted to extremely long trains like a moth to a flame. And sometimes they get burned from this unhealthy obsession. A case in point: In October CSX Transportation ran two overlength merchandise trains at each other on its single-track mainline between Savannah and Augusta, Ga. The plan was to do a double saw-by […]
We’ll take a look at five details you can add to transition-era cabooses. Some details are railroad-specific, while others apply to many railroads. When in doubt, refer to prototype photos. The steam-to-diesel transition era, roughly 1940 to 1960, is the most popular modeling era. There are several reasons for this. Many people who model this […]
Mind-blowing Polar Express facts In 1985, illustrator and writer Chris Van Allsburg penned what has become a classic Christmas story — The Polar Express. Then 19 years later, 2004, film director Robert Zemeckis led a team to create the feature-length, animated version of the story centered around a most magical train and testing our “persuasion […]
Sure thing, Angela. Since the Baltimore & Ohio began hauling flour from Ellicott’s Mills to Baltimore in 1830 — grain, flour, and seeds have been an important part of railroading. Grain moved in boxcars for decades, but in the early 1960s, Southern Railway’s new, 100-ton — Big John — covered hopper revolutionized grain […]
WASHINGTON — Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern made closing arguments for their proposed merger on Thursday, telling regulators that their combination was in the public interest and that critics either didn’t do their homework or were seeking conditions that would stifle competition. They also said that the CP-KCS merger would not lead to operational […]
Model railroaders have long relied on historic maps for information about track arrangements, trackside industries, and building footprints. With the continual growth of the internet, finding these railroad maps online is becoming easier all the time. Here are some helpful sources for finding both current and historic railroad maps online. Sanborn Fire Insurance maps Sanborn […]
I wanted to scratchbuild a rural large scale depot to replace one that was past its prime on my garden railroad. While I was working as an art director for a commercial printing company, one of my sales reps came across a 1916 combination freight/passenger-depot blueprint. He asked his client, a buyer for the Union […]
Q: I’ve always liked unusual rail cars — the more unusual, the better. I wonder how many readers might be stumped by the identity of the rail car in this photo? Hint: It’s pretty heavy; otherwise, it might just float away. – Greg Hodges, Powhatan, Va. A: That car’s not so mysterious; its unique appearance […]
Meet Rich Perrelli How did you get started in the hobby? I guess it was in my blood. My grandfather was a steam locomotive mechanic, and my dad encouraged my love of trains when I was a little tyke. On warm summer evenings he would drive us to a place where the highway palled the […]
In a paragraph, how did you get started in the hobby? Meet Ray Dunakin: As a child, I had always been interested in trains and model railroads. When I was in junior high my dad gave me and my brothers a 4′ x 8′ plywood layout he had acquired from a friend. It came with […]
Back in the steam era, many railroads had a particular locomotive that symbolized that railway in the minds of the public. The New York Central had the 4-6-4 Hudson, the Milwaukee Road had its streamlined Hiawatha 4-4-2 Atlantics, and the Pennsylvania – which branded itself The Standard Railroad of the World – had the K4 […]
Product News Model railroad operators and builders can get the latest information about locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, tools, track, and more by reading Model Railroader’s frequent product news updates. Here are the products Model Railroader editors have news on for the week of March 24, 2022. HO scale freight cars Assorted freight car […]
