East Troy Industrial Park, Ep. 8 | Installing fascia

In this episode of the HO scale East Troy Industrial Park (ETIP) project layout series, David and Bryson work to install trim panels at the front of the model railroad. These removable fascia panels are both decorative and protective hardboard components that help give the layout a finished look. The guys show you how to […]

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The Michigan Air Line

White-and-black sign with “MAL CROSSING” text denoting Michigan Air Line junction

  Typical of their brethren everywhere, even a century after the fact many railroaders still called certain southern Michigan branchline segments “the Air Line.” But unlike many such monikers elsewhere for short-cuts or straight-track segments, this one had an ancestor with that actual name. The Michigan Air Line Railroad was planned to link the Canada […]

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Local lesson

20200410

Milwaukee Road’s Viroqua Patrol, with an Alco RSD5 in charge, crosses the Burlington Northern’s ex-Chicago, Burlington & Quincy main line at Grande Crossing in La Crosse, Wis., on Oct. 9, 1971. “Patrol” was the Milwaukee’s name for a local freight and Viroqua was a town on a branch located southeast of La Crosse. J. W. […]

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Illinois men sentenced for derailing UP locomotive

Union Pacific logo without slogan. UP Bailey Yard explosion appear to be accidental.

PEORIA, Ill. — Two Bartonville, Ill., men have avoided jail time through a plea bargain regarding charges they derailed a Union Pacific locomotive late last year. Jimmy Johnson, 20, and Caleb Finley, 18, pleaded guilty last week to charges of damage to railroad property, a Class 4 felony, WCBU radio reports. They were sentenced in […]

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NARS conference set for May 7-9 in Chicago

North American Rail Shippers logo

CHICAGO — Today (April 9) is the last day for the early-bird registration fee for the North American Rail Shippers conference, to be held May 7-9 in Chicago. CSX CEO Joe Hinrichs leads the list of speakers scheduled to take part in the North American Rail Shippers Conference, set for May 7-9 in Chicago. The […]

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Going green in Granite City

20200429

Illinois Terminal GP38-2 No. 2004 leads two sisters and a Conrail GP38-2 at Granite City, Ill., in August 1980. The IT units display the road’s final scheme, applied in the years prior to the 1982 Norfolk & Western takeover. Paul H. Dalman, J. David Ingles collection […]

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