CHICAGO — The Amtrak locomotives that sustained mid-route failures on the Empire Builder in December, stranding the eastbound train in rural Minnesota, are undergoing software and hardware modifications intended to prevent the problems from recurring. Responding to a Trains News Wire inquiry asking Amtrak why the Builder didn’t operate west of the Twin Cities for […]
PERRIS, Calif. – The Southern California Railroad Museum, formerly known as the Orange Empire Railway Museum, is sponsoring a night photo shoot April 22. The event will run 6 to 10p.m. Space is limited to 25 photographers, and reservations are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. The photoshoot will use open flash photography and feature […]
Bowser Manufacturing General Motors Diesel SD40-2, SD40-3, and SD40-2f Scale: HO (1:87.1) Price: DC with 21-pin plug, $229.95; DCC LokSound V5 decoder, $329.95 Era: 1972+ (varies depending on paint scheme) Manufacturer: Bowser Manufacturing Co. Inc., 1302 Jordan Ave., Montoursville, PA 17754; 570-368-2379; bowser-trains.com General Motors Diesel SD40 features: Road name specific details Road name specific fuel […]
A new run of the Athearn HO scale Electro-Motive Division (EMD) GP7 is arriving in hobby shops. The Genesis-series diesel locomotive features railroad- and road-number-specific details. Join Model Railroader senior editor Cody Grivno as he hosts this video review of the four-axle road switcher. Paint schemes offered in this run of the GP7 include Pennsylvania […]
A new run of the Athearn HO scale Electro-Motive Division (EMD) GP7 is arriving in hobby shops. The Genesis-series diesel locomotive features railroad- and road-number-specific details. Join Model Railroader senior editor Cody Grivno as he hosts this video review of the four-axle road switcher. Paint schemes offered in this run of the GP7 include Pennsylvania […]
Rio Grande 4001, a diesel-hydraulic built by Germany’s Krauss-Maffei, fills the window of a caboose cupola on Oct. 11, 1963. The exotic unit was testing in helper service between Denver and the Moffat Tunnel. R. P. Parsons photo […]
Five common shortline diesel locomotives in North America: When it comes to short lines and regional railroads, differences abound. Their location, size and overall operation makes each stand out from one another. It’s usually true with motive power too, but railroads can and do populate their rosters with common locomotives that have proved their worth […]
The Morrison-Knudsen MK5000C was but a footnote to 1990s locomotive history. It kind of resembled an EMD six-axle road switcher. Or maybe a GE/Wabtec unit. But the cab didn’t quite seem to fit either one. It looked brutish, well-defined, powerful, and ready to pull as many cars as you could couple to it. […]
The best-selling Alco diesel locomotives came from the switcher, cab unit, and road switcher product lines. The American Locomotive Co. was North America’s second-largest manufacturer of steam locomotives. The company began making the transition to internal combustion early, building diesel locomotives in the 1920s while continuing to build steam locomotives (which it did until 1948). […]
Ann Arbor Railroad freight TF-1, led by Alco FA diesels in the blue-white-gray of AA parent Wabash, crosses one of the Grand Trunk Western diamonds at Durand, Mich., in the late 1940s or early ’50s. Rail Photo Service photo […]
An A-B-A set of Union Pacific F3 diesels leads a westbound freight along the Snake River 4 miles west of Glenns Ferry, Idaho, in the late 1940s or early ’50s. Henry R. Griffiths Jr. photo […]
At the beginning of 2022, no one would have considered Silvis, Ill. a center of the railroad preservation community. The massive former Rock Island shop facility had just been downgraded by owner National Railway Equipment. It was closed in March 2021 as part of a plan to consolidate NRE rail operations to its shops in […]
