Video: HO scale Great Midwestern RR

cover of Great Model Railroads 2018 and a train crossing a bridge

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page Pete Walton’s HO scale Great Midwestern RR features scenes inspired by northwestern Illinois in the 1950s. See classic steam and diesel locomotives hauling freight and passenger trains through the spectacular scenery of this 36′-6″ x 63′-0″ model railroad. […]

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South Dakota rail line

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In May 1995, a westbound Dakota Southern freight with a (former Long Island) Alco C420 and an SD7 rolls slowly into the setting sun, west of Chamberlain, S.D. Tom Danneman Q The line in Chamberlain, S.D., was abandoned, I thought, but coal cars with BNSF markings are sitting in various parts of the line. Is […]

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METRA seeks to “break silence” on suicide by train NEWSWIRE

Metra_Logo

CHICAGO — Officials at Chicago’s Metra say it’s time to tackle a topic that many in the rail industry have long considered taboo: death by train. The commuter rail agency, in partnership with Amtrak and Chicago-area safety advocates, sponsored a daylong symposium entitled “Breaking the Silence.” The session Wednesday at Chicago Union Station was intended […]

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CTA flagger hospitalized after touching third rail NEWSWIRE

CTAlogo

CHICAGO — A Chicago Transit Authority track worker is recovering after she made contact with the track’s electrified third rail, the Chicago Sun Times reports. The track flagger was holding a metal object near the Wilson station on the agency’s Red and Purple Line when she accidentally touched the third rail, a CTA representative tells […]

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Trains Presents: The Ohio Central in Steam

Long-time railroader and steam enthusiast Jerry Joe Jacobson died in September 2017. In addition to building a shortline railroad empire, Jacobson is remembered as the man who championed steam excursions, locomotive restoration, and ultimately, the Age of Steam Roundhouse. Join Trains‘ on a look back at a handful of memories from the 1990s and 2000s […]

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Trains Presents: The Ohio Central in Steam

Long-time railroader and steam enthusiast Jerry Joe Jacobson died in September 2017. In addition to building a shortline railroad empire, Jacobson is remembered as the man who championed steam excursions, locomotive restoration, and ultimately, the Age of Steam Roundhouse. Join Trains‘ on a look back at a handful of memories from the 1990s and 2000s […]

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Trains Presents: Summerail 2017

Join Trains Magazine video contributor Marshall W. Beecher on the road to Summerail 2017 in Marion, Ohio. You’ll see Norfolk Southern’s popular heritage locomotives, regional railroad Wheeling & Lake Erie, and much more across Indiana and Ohio! […]

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Trains Presents: Summerail 2017

Join Trains Magazine video contributor Marshall W. Beecher on the road to Summerail 2017 in Marion, Ohio. You’ll see Norfolk Southern’s popular heritage locomotives, regional railroad Wheeling & Lake Erie, and much more across Indiana and Ohio! […]

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Swift refrigerator cars

Swift refrigerator cars

A mix of older wood reefers and new steel cars mingle on the cleanout and ready tracks at Swift’s Sioux City (Iowa) plant in 1954. A lone car in the old yellow scheme stands out among a sea of cars in the red 1950 paint scheme. George Berkstresser photo […]

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Meat reefers at Hormel

Milwaukee Road switcher at Hormel plant

A Milwaukee Road switcher moves a cut of refrigerator cars at the Hormel plant in Austin, Minn., in 1942. Most of the reefers are wood-sheathed cars leased from North American. Classic Trains collection […]

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A 4-4-0 in 1952

Chicago and Illinois Midland Railway in Hill Top, Illinois

Chicago & Illinois Midland 4-4-0 No. 500, built by Baldwin at the late date of 1927, pulls away from Hill Top, Ill., with the daily-except-Sunday train from Pekin to Springfield, Ill. The date is May 20, 1952 — late in the game indeed for American types on Class I railroads. Ed Theisinger photo […]

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GM&O’s “Plug”

Gulf Mobile and Ohio Railroad at Chicago Union Station

Gulf, Mobile & Ohio F3 883-A leads the road’s weekday commuter train to Joliet away from Chicago Union Station not long before GM&O merged with Illinois Central to form Illinois Central Gulf. The little train was widely known as “The Plug.” John R. Taibi photo […]

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