ZW-L 620-watt transformer by Lionel

zwl

The most iconic power supply in model railroading is the postwar Lionel ZW. First marketed in 1948 as a 250-watt unit and in 1950 as a 275-watt product, it has been the Holy Grail for many toy train operators. The boxy middle, curved ends, and upright handles were captured in MTH’s no. 40-4000 Z-4000 400-watt […]

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O gauge GP30 by Williams by Bachmann

gp30

The Electro-Motive Division GP30 road diesel was a milestone. The first of the so-called second generation of diesel engines, it was more modern and efficient than even the F units and Geeps which had replaced steam. Although the timeframe it was produced (1961-63) was limited, nearly 1,000 came off the assembly line at La Grange, […]

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O gauge Swiss Crocodile by MTH Electric Trains

croc

MTH Electric Trains’ latest venture into European outline O gauge is the Swiss Crocodile electric locomotive. The articulated, center-cab locomotive looks like it is straight out of a kid’s book showing the wonders of global railroading.  Opened in 1885, the Gotthard tunnel was a significant engineering feat. The 9-mile long line hosted a 2.9 percent […]

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Railroad photography and the lasting influence of painting

FULL SCREEN Édouard Baldus/J. Paul Getty Museum Toulon Station, c. 1861. Édouard Baldus, who trained as a painter and worked as a lithographer, adopted compositional conventions of painting, such as centered motifs and balanced space surrounding the center, to his railroad photographs. FULL SCREEN Édouard Baldus/St. Louis Art Museum Approach to the Mountain Pass at […]

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Spring Mills Depot HO scale B&O wagontop caboose

Spring Mills Depot HO scale BO wagontop caboose

Spring Mills Depot HO scale BO wagontop caboose The vertical-ribbed construction marks this distinctive bay window car as one of the Baltimore & Ohio’s innovative class I-12 steel cabooses built just before World War II. Ready-to-run HO scale models of these cabooses are now offered by Spring Mills Depot with era-specific details, paint, and lettering […]

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Athearn HO scale AC4400CW diesel locomotive

Athearn HO scale AC4400CW

Athearn HO scale AC4400CW diesel locomotive Almost as soon as Norfolk Southern’s colorful stable of heritage scheme Electro-Motive SD70ACe and General Electric ES44AC locomotives hit the rails last year, modelers have been looking to add scale-size versions to their own fleets. Athearn updated its SD70ACe to model the EMD half of the units in HO. […]

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Walthers HO scale Trainline Railtech train set

Walthers HO scale Trainline Railtech train set

Walthers HO scale Trainline Railtech train set Train sets are a popular way to get started in the hobby of model railroading, but modelers often have to discard their original set locomotive when upgrading to Digital Command Control. The Railtech train sets from Walthers eliminate that by including a DCC locomotive and a control system […]

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