Rivarossi HO scale UP Big Boy 4-8-8-4

Rivarossi HO scale UP Big Boy silver and black.

Rivarossi HO scale UP Big Boy The Big Boy’s tender features an operating backup light. The detailed pilot deck includes a swingout scale-size coupler One of the largest and most powerful steam locomotives ever built is now available in HO scale equipped with a top-of-the-line Digital Command Control sound decoder. Just like the prototype, Rivarossi’s […]

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Quick Look: Micro-Trains True-Scale couplers

MicroTrainsNscaletransitioncar

Transition cars with a Magne-Matic coupler on one end and a True-Scale coupler on the other end are available in several body styles. Left: True-Scale coupler; right: Magne-Matic coupler Price: Four-pack, $3.45; 20-pack, $15.95 Comments: Micro-Trains recently debuted its True-Scale line of N scale coupler kits in short- and long-shank versions. Each kit contains knuckles, […]

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Athearn HO scale EMD GP39-2

Athearn HO scale EMD GP39-2

Athearn HO scale EMD GP39-2 Engineer’s side of the Athearn Trains HO scale EMD GP39-2 helps identify its prototype as a phase 1 version. The Athearn Genesis series models features many separate parts, including wire grab irons and eyebolts as well as see-through etched-metal rooftop fan grilles. The motor and gearboxes are mounted on a […]

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Atlas O Maxi-IV well car

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Atlas O Maxi-IV well car O scale modern-era modelers have some heavy metal coming at them in the form of Atlas O’s three-well Gunderson Maxi-IV articulated container cars. These big cars are designed to haul 53-foot containers. Atlas O is offering compatible containers separately. The prototype. Gunderson developed the Twin-Stack container car in the 1980s. […]

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Quick Look: Micro-Trains N scale Airslide hopper

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Micro-Trains N scale Airslide hopper Price: $27.95 to $29.75 Manufacturer Micro-Trains Line Co. 351 Rogue River Pkwy. Talent, OR 97540-1200 www.micro-trains.com Era: 1970 to present Road names: Norfolk Southern (post-1982 company), BNSF Ry. (buffer service), CSX, and General American. Two road numbers per scheme. Comments: A General American Transportation Corp. 4,180-cubic-foot- capacity Airslide covered hopper […]

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Burlington ‘Zephyr’ record

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The Burlington ‘Zephyr’ as seen in Aurora, Ill., on May 26, 1934. Its nonstop run may have included slow spots. CB&Q Q In 1934, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy ran the Zephyr from Denver to Chicago nonstop. How did they do this without changing crews? Did they have crews on-board for each subdivision and change […]

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HO scale B&M Middlesex Junction layout under construction

Model train locomotive near the edge of a large unfinished model rail yard complete with turntable.

Work progresses on Steve Tello’s Boston & Maine Lowell NH Line. Middlesex Junction was a service yard for B&M passenger cars and locomotive up through the early 1960s. Steve is modeling a compressed version of Middlesex, including 4 arrival/departure tracks, a buggy track, coal conveyor (B&M tore down the Coal Tower in the early ’50s), […]

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HO scale B&M Middlesex Junction layout under construction

Model train locomotive near the edge of a large unfinished model rail yard complete with turntable.

Work progresses on Steve Tello’s Boston & Maine Lowell NH Line. Middlesex Junction was a service yard for B&M passenger cars and locomotive up through the early 1960s. Steve is modeling a compressed version of Middlesex, including 4 arrival/departure tracks, a buggy track, coal conveyor (B&M tore down the Coal Tower in the early ’50s), […]

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Whose cab ride is this?

erieRS2hoboken

Erie RS2 904 clatters into the Lackawanna’s Hoboken Terminal with a Main Line local in 1956. Richard H. Young Youth is wasted on young people, so the saying goes. Kids don’t have the … well … maturity to know what’s special in their world. Watch the crowds at Disneyland. It’s the adults who are agog […]

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