Many of us started our love affair with model trains after getting Lionel or American Flyer items, perhaps to circle a Christmas tree. We might have gotten a toy plastic or metal station with people printed on the sides and some fake evergreen trees. It was all the excitement and the reality we needed. I […]
GARIBALDI, Ore. — The world’s only surviving standard gauge Class A Climax locomotive, Cabin Creek Lumber Co. No. 1, has been donated to the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad, the railroad announced today (Oct. 24, 2024). The family of the late Victor C. Monahan donated the locomotive, which Oregon Coast Scenic intends to restore to operating […]
Watch as artist Jay Smith, former illustrator (ret.) for Kalmbach Media, concludes backdrop painting efforts on David Popp’s Olympia & Sand Creek On30 display layout. In the course of this video, Jay and David walk you through the entire process, so you can see the amazing visual transition from simple sky colors to majestic mountains. […]
PLEASANT LAKE, Ind. — Finishing off the 2024 operating season for Nickel Plate Road No. 765 was the Indiana Rail Experience’s second annual Fall Color Steam Special on Oct. 19 and 20. The all-day round-trip jaunts drew beautiful weather as the 80-year-old 2-8-4 of the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society marched up and down the […]
Atlanta & West Point locomotives were carefully curated alongside those of its sister roads. Although much of the West Point roads’ 20th-century steam locomotive fleet looked like the “Georgian Locomotive” memorialized by H. Stafford Bryant Jr. in his book of the same name — a handsome, elegant group — perhaps the most interesting […]
Lettered East Branch & Lincoln, but belonging to Franconia Paper Co., 2-4-2T No. 5 works at Lincoln, N.H., with sister 0-4-0T No. 3. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Colorado & Southern 2-8-0 No. 73 follows 3-foot-gauge tracks toward the summit of Kenosha Pass, high above the canyon near Webster, Colo., on July 14, 1938. Soon these tracks of the South Park Line will be abandoned. R.H. Kindig photo […]
“Less is more,” as the saying goes from the article, How to lubricate your O and S gauge trains. The same applies to regularly lubricating postwar equipment that has stood the test of time. For steam locomotives, that means regular oiling and greasing. Some disassembly required In Classic Toy Trains’ January 2019 issue, Joseph L. […]
PORTLAND, Ore. — Mt. Emily Lumber No. 1, a three-truck Shay locomotive built in 1923, has been moved into the engine house at its new home, the Oregon Rail Heritage Center. The move came Tuesday, Oct. 15, according to a Facebook post from the Friends of the SP&S 700. The center plans to use the […]
Q: Why are the flanges on model steam engine drive wheels so much larger than on the prototypes? Is it because the models don’t weigh very much? Or is it because they have to navigate tight curves? And do larger scales (like G scale and live-steam models) have flanges that are closer to the prototypes? […]
I had an LGB Stainz (2010 version) and decided to convert it to an 0-4-0 Forney. I made a new boiler, steam dome, sand dome, smoke stack, all made from PVC fittings and pipe. After deciding the length of the boiler, I cut the proper length from a piece of 1″ PVC pipe as it […]
My HO scale Agawa Yard layout is set in a fictional suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia, in the spring of 1969. It’s part of a single-track main line that zig-zags through the suburbs and provides rail access to the area’s dwindling towns and industries. My layout is based on 1960s photos of the Canadian Pacific, […]
