Trains Presents: Transcon Back Country Byway

Join us for an adventure in the Utah desert! Ride with Trains Editor Jim Wrinn as he drives the original roadbed of the first transcontinental railroad west of Promontory. See where the Central Pacific built 10 miles of track in one day and where the tracks crossed the salt marshes. Explore the sites of railroad […]

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Waukesha train-watching in the rain

A red-painted Canadian National locomotive hauling a train in the rain.

Join us trackside in Waukesha on Sept. 5, 2018, for three northbound Canadian National moves: a rail train, a unit potash train, and an intermodal train. The rain in still falling and many railroads throughout the state are experiencing high-water conditions and washouts. […]

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Canadian Canyons Series: Modeling a Burnt Forest

David Popp next to layout scenery

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page David Popp and Drew Halverson work to add a signature forest fire scene to the Thompson River Canyon on our Canadian Canyons N scale layout. Even without incorporating animated fire or smoke effects, the guys show how use of subtle color and scenery […]

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Vol. 334: “Stations”

Rounded, old-style passenger train station in low-angle sunlight at a track diamond.

  This “Trackside with Trains” photo contest result comes from August 2018. The theme was “Stations.” Trackside with Trackside was a regular, periodic contest among Trains website visitors from the earlier 2000s until October 2018. Anyone in the world who wanted to participate, could, and with rare exception, have their images judged by viewers with […]

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Eastbound and westbound trains

Burlington Northern & Spokane Portland Seattle Railroad

Name: Dave Condon Railroad Name: Burlington Northern & Spokane Portland Seattle Location: Kirkland, WA Scale: O scale Theme: Marshall Landing Washington Description: Heading West to Portland is a heavy BN freight train made up of GP30s and a GP9. My layout has a Portland Cement operation built by Model Structures. The cement rail cars are […]

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Serendipity on a mail car

Northern Pacific triple-combine express car

Join Trains for a ride on a former Northern Pacific triple-combine express car as a retired mail car clerk, a historical interpreter, and a reporter meet to catch a mail bag full of history on a moving train on the Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway in October 2017. Only from Trains! […]

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Cab ride on the Livingston Model Railroad Club layout

Cab view of locomotive on layout

Take a cab ride on the Livingston Model Railroad club layout, located in the old Northern Pacific depot in Livingston, Mont. The layout is generic with the exception of the town of Gardiner, Mont., which the train enters around 11:30. The Northern Pacific ran a train from Livingston, Mont., to Gardiner, Mont., until around 1955 […]

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Video 101: Vignettes and transitions

Santa Fe locomotive

A “vignette” is a small portrait whose edges fade into the background without a definite border, or a brief episode. Vignette is my word for a video scene from a story that is unfinished or only partially told. Al Tillman’s railway was undergoing a major renovation on the day we visited but it had several […]

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