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 […]
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K-Line Collector’s Club Pennsylvania RR A5-class 0-4-0
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, […]
MRC Model Rectifier Corp. “Pure Power AC” transformer
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 […]
MTH Premier line Union Pacific M-10000
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 […]
QSI add-on diesel horn and bell
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 […]
S-Helper Service F3 A-B set
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 […]
Weaver brass Reading 4-6-2 Pacific
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 […]
JFP’s Fun Stuff reproduction Dorfan electric
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, […]
K-Line Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 Big Boy
K-LINE’S O gauge Big Boy locomotive is made for John Q. Trainguy or Susy Q. Tinplater: the operator with a tight-radius layout and an equally tight budget, but who longs to operate trains at the Big Boy level. MTH and Lionel in their RailKing and LionMaster lines have used selective compression to build articulated locomotives […]
Lionel 4-6-0 Ten Wheeler
I HAVE A CONFESSION to make: I have a bias regarding steam locomotion. My favorite steam locomotives have the wheel arrangements 2-8-2 and 4-8-4. Everything else is “too big,” and the rest are “Weak Willies.” My bias began to crack with the MTH Premier line 4-4-2 Atlantic steamer (CTT, May 2001) and that crack has […]
Lionel New York Central SD80MAC
I’VE PROBABLY evaluated more than 100 locomotives for Classic Toy Trains, but I can’t recall being as pumped up as when I popped open an orange and blue Lionel box and pulled out a black and gray New York Central SD80MAC. Yes, yes, I know. Despite being a die-hard New York Central fan, I am […]
Lionel Pennsylvania K4 freight set
WITH A LIST PRICE OF $649.95, the no. 31902 Pennsylvania K4 Freight Train set is by no means a child’s basic starter set. It’s an outfit for the grownup who wants to jump back into the hobby, but doesn’t want to go the entry-level $150 “New York Central Flyer” route. Included in this “return to […]
