Outfit cars Cars equipped with facilities for feeding and housing construction and maintenance employees in the field are known as outfit cars or camp cars. Over the years they have taken a number of forms. Because outfit cars are not revenue-producing equipment, railroads have tended to not spend much money on them, and a common […]
Virtually all the railways in the world employ the same system for moving the vehicles that travel over them: Power is applied to some or all of the wheels that support and guide the vehicle along the rails. Adhesion between the wheels and running rails then allows the vehicle to move along the track, often […]
Perhaps no part of railroading is as important as that which gave the industry its name: rail. Together with flanged-wheel vehicles, rails allowed the development of a transport system quite distinct from the conventional roadway. Though rails of steel are standard today, iron and even wood found widespread use in the 19th century. Many early […]
Traffic control systems Running a safe operation is not as simple as you might think. Every train must have authority to occupy the main track before it can begin moving. There are several types of authorities, but usually only one type is in effect on any given piece of track. Maintenance people must also have […]
Because shippers’ distribution patterns are rarely congruent with any one rail carrier, railroads have developed two traditional methods of extending their reach over each others’ lines. The first is the joint rate and route. Two railroads, by agreement, establish one rate from an origin on the first to a destination on the second. One of […]
THE PENNSYLVANIA A5-class 0-4-0 may be among the smallest steam switchers this side of a tenderless tank engine, but K-Line Electric Trains has big hopes that its attractive switcher will draw new members into the company-sponsored K-Line Collector’s Club. The A5-class switchers consisted of 47 locomotives built in three groups in 1916, 1917, and 1924, […]
MR. ELECTRICITY can be a tricky old soul. For decades the electric train hobby was based upon the easy-going, plain but reliable unmodified sine wave. “Sine wave,” you say? Well, like the ocean, electricity moves in waves. The normal fluctuation of AC electricity in a traditional toy-train transformer forms a pattern known scientifically as a […]
THE M-10000 UNION PACIFIC streamliner looks like something out of Astounding Science Fiction rather than the trade journal Railway Age. It was the first of the modern streamlined passenger trains, and its unique design, old enough today to qualify for full Social Security benefits, still stands out. Author Robert Reed, in The Streamline Era (Golden […]
OFTEN SIMPLE IS better, and that’s exactly the case with the Hooter horn from QSI. The Hooter is a compact digital horn and bell designed as a drop-in replacement horn for Lionel postwar diesels, although it can be used in any diesel from any era. There are no diesel engine sounds, just a horn and […]
THE EMD F3 DIESEL is the most recognized diesel engine, ever. Its image is a fixture from book jackets to advertisements for trainload carpet sales! And the locomotive also makes for a terrific S scale model from S-Helper Service. Between 1945 and 1949, more than 1,700 A and B units were sold to North American […]
THANKS TO THE BOARD GAME Monopoly, tens of millions have taken a ride on the Reading, although far fewer ever saw its 1,500 miles of rails. Had the ride on the Reading been real, by chance the locomotive out front might have been a high-wheeling 4-6-2 Pacific. According to A Century of Reading Company Motive […]
WHO WOULD HAVE thought there would be a market for brand new Dorfan Wide gauge locomotives in the 21st century? Not me. But the guys at JFP’s Fun Stuff saw a niche, and are offering a reproduction of the Dorfan no. 3930 “Crocodile” electric locomotive. For those coming into the theater after the picture began, […]
