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 […]
Model Tech’s O scale Baltimore & Ohio station This new station from Model-Tech is a wood craftsman kit that builds into an excellent model. With the addition of a train order signal and a few distinctive details, it would make a fine focal point in any small town. The kit is based on the station […]
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, […]
Atlas O GE Dash 8-40B diesel This new Atlas O scale Dash 8-40B is the company’s first high-horsepower modern diesel, and like its prototype this is an impressive and powerful unit. General Electric introduced the standard-cab Dash 8-40B in May 1988. According to The Contemporary Diesel Spotter’s Guide – 2000 edition (Withers Publishing), GE built […]
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 […]
Webster Classic Models HO scale Baltimore & Ohio interlocking tower Webster Classic Models HO scale Baltimore & Ohio interlocking tower This craftsman kit from Webster Classic Models builds into a classic structure indeed, an elegant Baltimore & Ohio signal tower. The prime ingredient is laser-cut wood parts, which fit together precisely and are also fun […]
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 […]
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 […]
In June 1949, my friend Bob Wagner and I decided to head from our Los Angels-area homes for the Owens Valley in eastern central California to see, and hopefully ride, Southern Pacific’s former Carson & Colorado narrow gauge, which still operated with steam power 70 miles between Keeler and Laws. We got a late start […]
The gift By Curtis L.Katz I have always been fascinated with trains. My kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Bannister, a grandmotherly woman wiry and wise, once told my mother that most little children go through a phase when they are interested in trains or ships or trucks, “but with Curtis, trains are a hobby.” Had my 5-yeard-old […]
When I read Rev. Richard Anderson’s account in the Summer 2000 Classic Trains [pages 93-95] of his travels on the Rock Island, I was filled with nostalgia. His description of boarding the woebegone Cherokee at 2:45 a.m. at Little Rock got me thinking back to my own experiences with the Rock Island in the Arkansas […]
I hired out in 1944 with the Santa Fe as an agent/operator apprentice and in August was assigned to the agent/operator pool. In about a year I was 26th up from the bottom of the list, so I was able to successfully bid on some openings. One night in about 1946, I was working relief […]
