Rio Grande F3 diesels grind upgrade at Mitchell, Colo., a mile east of the summit of Tennessee Pass, in October 1947. Two steam helpers provide assistance on the 3-percent grade. L. O. Merrill photo […]
Type of Train: Diesel Locomotives
Cloudy day on “the J”
SD38-2s 666 and 669 lead an Elgin, Joliet & Eastern freight across the Union Pacific/CSX Transportation (former Chicago & Eastern Illinois) diamonds at Chicago Heights, Ill. R. B. Olson photo […]
Progress Rail EMD Tier 4 units heading to first customer NEWSWIRE
FORT WORTH, Texas — Progress Rail is shipping the first two production SD70ACe-T4s to Union Pacific this week. They will be the first EMD Tier 4 units ordered by a customer to be placed in revenue service. The locomotives, UP Nos. 3012 and 3014 were shipped from Bombardier’s Sahagun, Mexico, plant, arriving in Laredo on […]
Kato HO scale GE C44-9W
Kato HO scale GE C44-9W For more than 20 years, the General Electric C44-9W, the most popular locomotive of GE’s Dash 9 series, has maintained a dominating presence on North American main lines. The prototypes were only a couple years old when Kato released its first HO scale Dash 9, reviewed in the September 1996 […]
Rapido N scale EMD FL9
Rapido’s N scale EMD FL9 A split die-cast metal frame surrounds the motor and flywheels. Driveshafts transfer power to the trucks, driving four of the five axles, just like the prototype. N scale modelers who want to model commuter operations on the New York, New Haven & Hartford don’t have to pine for the HO […]
E5 with new bi-levels
An E5 heads up one of the first Burlington Route commuter train to sport the new bi-level “gallery” cars delivered by Budd in 1950. The train is eastbound at famous Naperville curve on the triple-track west of Chicago. Bob Borcherding photo […]
Erie PA at Hoboken
Erie Railroad Alco passenger diesel No. 860 stands with a train at Hoboken, N.J., in April 1959. Erie’s 14 PAs all went to the Erie-Lackawanna upon the Erie’s merger with the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western in 1960. Erie began using Lackawanna’s Hoboken terminal a few years before the two roads merged. Louis A. Marre collection […]
Santa Fe FTs in the desert
Crewmen wave and the white extra flags are taut as four FTs speed a freight west across the desert between Needles and Barstow, Calif., in the early 1940s. Wendell H. Kinney photo […]
1990s B units
Santa Fe management ordered 23 GP60B units in 1991 for road service. Today, these four-axle veterans still ply BNSF Railway rails, but mostly on local jobs. Bob Miller Q I was watching railroad videos of the 1990s and saw locomotives without cabs in various consists. I rarely see these units on the main lines of […]
New model trains for the week of December 1, 2016
Athearn HO scale Electro-Motive Division SD39 diesel locomotive HO scale locomotives Electro-Motive Division SD39 diesel locomotive. Illinois Terminal; Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (four road numbers); Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern (two numbers); Norfolk & Western; and Southern Pacific (four numbers). Three road numbers per scheme unless noted; also available undecorated. Railroad-specific details, factory-installed and painted […]
SPECIAL EXPANDED REVIEW: ScaleTrains.com HO scale Union Pacific GTEL
ScaleTrains.com HO scale Union Pacific GTEL The GTEL includes (from left to right): a fuel tender, a B (turbine) unit, and an A (control) unit. The Museum-Quality series B unit features sliding access doors that reveal an accurate model of the General Electric gas turbine within. The detailed fuel tender includes a directional backup light […]
Video: Thomas Klimoski’s Georgia Northeastern Elizabeth Yard Turn Job
This video highlights the action of the Elizabeth Yard Turn job on Thomas Klimoski’s Georgia Northeastern model railroad. Check out Thomas’ article, “Modeling a compact diesel service terminal,” in the January 2017 Model Railroader. In the article, Thomas describes how he modeled the fueling, sanding and servicing structures. […]