Athearn Genesis HO scale modern 60-foot hi-cube boxcars

Athearn Genesis HO 60-foot hi-cube boxcars

Athearn Genesis HO 60-foot hi-cube boxcars Athearn has released a series of ready-to-run HO models of 60-foot hi-cube boxcars, which are part of the firm’s Genesis Line of limited-run models. Our samples represent prototype double- door cars with a variety of different sides, roofs, and ends built by Berwick, Gunderson, and FMC from the late […]

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Accurail HO scale 40-foot stockcar kit

Accurail HO scale 40-foot stockcar kit

Accurail HO scale 40-foot stockcar kit The latest HO scale car from Accurail is this good-looking model of a Great Northern Ry. 40-foot stockcar. The plastic kit combines ease of assembly with good detailing and builds into an accurate replica of the prototype. The Great Northern built 198 stockcars numbered 56050 to 56248 in 1957 […]

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Micro-Trains N scale general service tank car

Micro-Trains N scale general service tank car

Micro-Trains N scale general service tank car Micro-Trains has released a well-detailed ready-to-run model of an American Car & Foundry 56-foot, 30,000-gallon general-service tank car that nicely captures the proportions of its prototype. The model represents one of a lot of 1,370 tank cars that ACF built in mid-1974 at its Milton, Pa., shops and […]

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Stranded streamliner

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A helicopter view of the westbound City of San Francisco buried in snow on Donner Pass. Doug Wornom collection Sixty years ago, on January 13, 1952, the streamlined transcontinental passenger train City of San Francisco encountered a raging blizzard with 90-mph wind gusts and snow drifts 8 to 12 feet deep that marooned the train […]

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N scale C&NW 400 coach from Des Plaines Hobbies

Des Plaines Hobbies N scale C&NW 400 coach

Des Plaines Hobbies N scale C&NW 400 coach Adding to its extensive line of N scale passenger car kits, Des Plaines Hobbies has released accurately scaled Chicago & North Western streamlined 400 passenger cars. Two styles of coaches, a baggage-tap-lounge, diner, and a baggage car are offered in these kits. I built the coach for […]

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Atlas HO scale ACF 100-ton Center Flow covered hopper

Atlas HO ACF 100-ton Center Flow covered hopper

Atlas HO ACF 100-ton Center Flow covered hopper Atlas offers ready-to-run models of ACF Industries 100-ton 4,650-cubic-foot Center Flow covered hoppers in two versions. Both are excellent models with etched metal running boards and detail variations to represent prototype cars built before or after 1971. These popular cars were introduced in 1964 to haul grain, […]

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The history of Baltimore & Ohio’s Shepherd Branch

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Returning to Benning Yard, CSX local B701 makes its way slowly north on the historic Shepherd Industrial Track, near Anacostia Park in Washington, D.C. Mike Schaller The Baltimore & Ohio was the first railroad to serve Washington, D.C., completing a branch from its main line at Relay, Md., in August 1835. To reach markets south […]

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Ready to serve the nation

Here’s a variation on a familiar World War II theme, the diverse geographical backgrounds of men serving together in the armed forces. It comes to us in the form of some faded sheet music dedicated to the Military Railway Service. The rousing anthem “Railroaders Always” is of interest in its own right, but the cover […]

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Lake Michigan carferries

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Ann Arbor RS1 No. 20 unloads freight cars off the Lake Michigan carferry Arthur K. Atkinson at Frankfort, Mich., in April 1982, the railroad’s last year of carferry operation. Forrest L. Becht For over 100 years, trains and ships were partners in serving the eastern and western shores of Lake Michigan. This unique form of […]

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