Two more ways to wye

Louisville & Nashville freight 864 from Norton, Va., to Corbin, Ky., meets Southern First 88, a coal turn from Andover to Yuma, Va., on the wye at Appalachia on May 23, 1969. Although wyes are commonplace on prototype railroads, they can be challenging to model. Ron Flanary A “wye” describes an area where three turnouts […]

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Duck, duck, belle?

Two Kansas City Southern “Southern Belles” cross the Kankakee River at Momence, Ill., on a southbound Union Pacific container train on July 16, 2011. The route between Chicago and Woodland Junction, Ill., is jointly operated by CSX and UP. Photo by Brian M. Schmidt […]

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Wheels of Time N scale Piggy Packer

Wheels of Time N scale Piggy Packer Price: $59.99 Manufacturer Wheels of Time P.O. Box 846 Mountain View, CA 94042-0846 wheelsotime.com Era: late 1960s to present Road names: CSX/Seaboard shown, see website for available roadnames Comments: If you’re into N scale and the modern era, you’ve recently had a lot of intermodal containers, maxi-stacks, and […]

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Flying high

Empty CSX auto rack train Q217 rolls westbound on the Philadelphia Subdivision across the Susquehanna River as the tug boat “Captain Mac” awaits its next assignment at Perryville, Md., on June 18, 2012. Photo by Michael S. Murray […]

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Hurry up and wait

The railroaders’ mantra has always been “hurry up and wait” and this CSX crew at Glendale, Ohio, in suburban Cincinnati is living up to their creed. This portion of the former Baltimore & Ohio Toledo to Cincinnati route is paired with the Norfolk Southern New Castle District in directional running; most trains passing Glendale are […]

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ExactRail HO scale Gunderson gondola

ExactRail HO scale Gunderson gondola Price: $22.98 ManufacturerExactRail251 West River Park Dr., Ste. 300Provo, Utah 84604 www.exactrail.com Era: 1965 to 1990s Road names (three numbers each):Southern Pacific (repaint), Chicago & North Western, CSX, Missouri Pacific, Penn Central, St. Louis Southwestern, Union Pacific, undecorated kit ($21.95) Comments: This distinctive high-side gondola is a replica of a […]

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Alternatives in railroad preservation

FULL SCREEN Davidson Ward A Deutsche Bahn intercity train whizzes past a steel boardwalk in Natur-Park Südgelände. FULL SCREEN Davidson Ward Tracks disappear into the forest, with a well-groomed hiking trail solidly established between the rails. FULL SCREEN Davidson Ward Here you can clearly see the delineation of path and nature, as bound by two […]

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New products for October 4, 2012

HO scale locomotives Electro-Motive Division F7 diesel locomotive. New paint scheme: Great Northern (Big Sky Blue). Five-pole skew-wound motor with flywheels, prototype-specific details, and McHenry knuckle couplers. A unit only (freight): Direct-current model, $169.98; with SoundTraxx Digital Command Control sound decoder, $269.98. A-B set (freight or passenger): DC model, $309.98; with SoundTraxx DCC sound decoder, […]

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Great Model Railroads 2013 desktop wallpaper

Great Model Railroads 2013 features 10 outstanding railroads in N, HO, and O scales. Use these images from this Model Railroader special issue as backgrounds on your computer screen. Click on the image size appropriate for your monitor and drag the image onto your desktop. Click to order Great Model Railroads 2013! Bob Collett’s HO […]

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How to create memorable railroad photos

In the Center for Railroad Photography & Art’s annual Creative Photography Awards Program, first-time entrant Todd Halamka placed second in the color category in 2012. Todd is relatively new to photography, but he combines a lifelong love of trains with a long career in architecture, drawing on his design experience to create memorable and unique […]

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Sunset over Sidney

Local railfans wave at a passing westbound as the sun sinks over Sidney, Ohio, on June 7, 2011. This former New York Central line served as the Conrail – and now CSX – route to the St. Louis gateway. Photo by Brian M. Schmidt […]

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Just passing through

CSX train Q137 rolls through Sherwood, Ohio, without much local fanfare on July 30, 2011. This westbound intermodal train is operating over the former Baltimore & Ohio main line on its way to Chicago on this fading summer evening. Photo by Brent Kneebush […]

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