THE WEAVER division of Quality Craft Models has fielded another terrific O gauge diesel road switcher: The Alco RS-11/RSD-12. Introduced in 1956, the Alco DL701 (RS-11) and DL702 (RSD-12) were designed to replace the RS-3 in the firm’s product line. The venerable RS-3 road switcher sold more than 1,300 in all its variations, and the […]
AND NOW FOR something completely different. While I wouldn’t call Ace Trains’ E/1 4-4-4 tank locomotive the Monty Python of the toy train world, for us in the colonies it is very British, very different – and charming. Combine one cup American prewar tinplate, a tablespoon of modern reproduction, two cups of British Hornby trains, […]
IN 1887, a New England railroad added a trailing truck to a common American-type 4-4-0 locomotive to better distribute its weight when crossing bridges. Thus was born the Atlantic-type steamer. The Atlantic’s 4-4-2 wheel arrangement allowed for a larger firebox and improved performance. The 4-4-2s also pulled heavier trains faster than the old 4-4-0s. The […]
I FIRST SAW a photo of a Lionel nuclear reactor years ago in Tuohy and McComas’ book Lionel: A Collector’s Guide and History, Vol. V: The Archives. The reactor prototype looked slick, but there were no clues to what it did or how it was supposed to do it. Fast forward to December 2000. Opening […]
SET YOUR WHIMSEY meter on full! The Park Avenue trolley is a nifty tin-lithographed motorized unit that will look right at home running on just about any prewar-style layout or around the Christmas tree. The trolley is simple enough. It has a nicely designed and produced lithographed shell with a trolley pole. The lithography is […]
THE NORTH WESTERN’S E-4 class Hudson represents the high water mark of locomotive streamlining. In fact, when Superman’s creator coined the phrase, “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive,” I suspect he had an engine like the North Western’s E-4 class Hudson in mind! The 4-6-4 locomotive was powerful and unique in […]
OPERATORS OF STANDARD gauge trains, your switch has arrived. Announced in the 1999 MTH catalog, the first mass-produced Standard gauge switch readily available since the 1930s showed up in hobby shops earlier this year. For years, fans of Standard gauge trains had two choices: resuscitate old products made by Ives, American Flyer, or Lionel, or […]
SHORTLY BEFORE its sale to Great Planes Distributing, United Model Distributors added a terrific trolley car to its Industrial Rail line. Based on a general body style familiar in pre- and immediate postwar America, this snappy little O gauge rapid transit car has a lot going for it: can-style motor, electronic reverse unit, reverse bumpers, […]
WILLIAMS ELECTRIC TRAINS continues to field unique, detailed locomotives that are, in the words of the retail trade, “priced to move.” The latest two engines from the Columbia, Md., firm are an Alco FA and an EMD BL2. Both locomotives come from the electrifying days when the direction diesel motive power would take was still […]
YOU’VE HEARD THIS story before. Big, six-axle diesels meet passenger trains and it’s love at first sight. Big, six-axle diesels take the trade by storm and become icons of modern railroading. Times change and railroads dump the once-revered diesels. So runs the tale of Electro Motive Division’s E8 diesels. Between 1949 and 1953, EMD sold […]
COAL IS TO LIONEL what ground beef is to McDonald’s. Where the fast food giant transforms its staple product into patties, melts cheese over it, and stacks it higher and higher on sesame seed buns, Lionel lifts, dumps, slides, and drops the bits of shredded plastic it has called coal since the late 1930s. During […]
IN AN ERA OF digital sound systems and programmable command control locomotives, the MRC Sound Station 312 is a welcome throwback to a simpler time. The Sound Station offers 18 user-controlled sound effects at the push of a button to enhance the pleasure of any layout in any scale controlled by an operator of any […]
