Paul Helgeson’s O gauge layout photos

Paul Helgeson has less than 100 square feet dedicated to his layout, but the variety of scenes is astonishing. Here we offer some additional photographs showing more of his spectacular modeling. Click on each photo to see a larger image. […]

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Lionel Jet-Powered O gauge Snow Blower

AS IMPERVIOUS AS RAILROADING CAN SEEM TO MOST CHANGES IN THE WEATHER, snow can really throw a wrench in the works. Over time railroads have adapted technology to do battle with the white stuff. This has included traditional plows that ram their way through heavy drifts and rotary plows that use moving blades to toss […]

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Lionel O gauge British Christmas Steamer

NO, YOUR EYES DON’T DECEIVE YOU. The issue in your hands does carry a February date, and the subject of our attention is a Christmas locomotive. But how can that be? Well, I’m actually writing this before Halloween, so the holiday train spirit hasn’t yet arrived at the CTT station. I visited Sommerfeld’s Trains in […]

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MRC Throttlepack Power Supply

IN KEEPING WITH OUR LEAD REVIEW, THE SANTA’S FLYER locomotive, we wanted to include a suggestion for a follow-on transformer, a step beyond the rig that comes with a starter set. The latest transformer from the Model Rectifier Corp. fills the bill between a basic starter set rig and a high-priced, high-horsepower model. Model Rectifier […]

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O gauge Dash 8-40BW by Lionel

GENERAL ELECTRIC’S FOUR-AXLE VERSION OF ITS POPULAR DASH 8 LOCOMOTIVE SERIES was selected by the Santa Fe for high-speed freight operation. The locomotives proved reliable enough for the Santa Fe to acquire more than 80, and 20 years after they were produced Santa Fe successor BNSF still rosters most of them. Standing by for our […]

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O gauge R-11/R-34 subway set by MTH

LIKE THE PEACEFUL ELOI BEING DRAWN TO THE UNDERGROUND TEMPLE OF THE MORLOCKS in the H.G. Wells’ classic novel, The Time Machine, so do hundreds of thousands of people descend into the dim, man-made caverns of New York City. They are fired through the dark, rolling along in chariots of steel through narrow passages only […]

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Wayne Weiner O gauge layout photos

Sometimes we have more photos than we can possibly fit in the allotted pages for a layout article. After choosing the ones we considered to best illustrate the story of Wayne’s layout, we thought we’d share some of the “outtakes” with our subscribers for even more sights on this fabulous railroad. Click on each photo […]

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Review: MTH O gauge Premier line Tropicana set

WITH THE EXCEPTION OF POWER COMPANY COAL TRAINS, there are only two firms that pop to my mind as having business-specific unit trains – fast freighters operated for United Parcel Service and Tropicana. And while a UPS train contains trailers with thousands of individual packages, the Tropicana Juice Train carries just one commodity: orange juice. […]

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Review: O gauge RailKing line MP15AC by MTH

SWITCHERS HAVE AN ESSENTIAL PLACE IN PROTOTYPE RAILROADING and a venerable spot in model railroading. Switchers are used to move cars, build freight trains, and even make short freight hops and deliveries. The Electro-Motive Division’s MP15 series of 1,500-horsepower switchers (built 1974-87) is a mainstay of modern yard power. More than 400 units were built […]

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