New products for February 23, 2012

Athearn HO scale Electro-Motive Division GP35 diesel locomotives HO scale locomotives Electro-Motive Division GP35 diesel locomotive. New paint schemes and road numbers: Southern Pacific; CP Rail; Denver & Rio Grande Western; Nickel Plate Road; Toledo, Peoria & Western; and Western Maryland. Three road numbers each. Directional headlights, prototype-specific details, and McHenry scale magnetic knuckle couplers. […]

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Atlas HO scale coil steel car

Atlas HO scale coil steel car An HO scale model of a 52-foot coil steel car with distinctive fish-belly side sills is now available from Atlas Model Railroad Co. The ready-to-run car is based on a modern prototype introduced by Canada’s National Steel Car Co. in the mid-1990s. The new NSC cars are 51′-10″ long […]

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ExactRail HO scale 60-foot Greenville boxcar

ExactRail HO scale 60-foot Greenville boxcar Price: $36.95 ManufacturerExactRail LLC251 W. River Park Drive, Suite 300Provo, UT 84604exactrail.com Era: 1973 to present Road names (multiple road numbers available): Conrail (CR or NYC reporting marks); Detroit, Toledo & Ironton; Norfolk Southern; Penn Central Comments: This HO scale Greenville boxcar from ExactRail is an accurately detailed model […]

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New products for December 15, 2011

HO scale locomotives  General Electric Dash 8-40C and 8-40CW diesel locomotives. New road numbers and paint schemes. Dash 8-40C: Canadian National (15th anniversary or modern paint schemes), Ferrocarriles Nationales de Mexico (three road numbers). Dash 8-40CW: BNSF (three new numbers); Conrail (“Quality” lettering), CSX (patched Conrail), Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific (three new numbers). Two […]

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Running long hood forward

Southern Railway SD45 No. 3121 leads long hood forward on a unit coal train at Oreton, Va., in 1984. Such design enhanced bidirectional capability. Ron Flanary Q When did railroads such as the Norfolk & Western stop running their road engines “long hood first?” How effective was this practice for crew safety? Did it have […]

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New products for August 25, 2011

HO scale locomotives  Baldwin AS-16, AS-616, and DRS 6-6-1500 diesel locomotives. Lehigh Valley (AS-16, two road numbers), National Ry. of Mexico (AS-616), Norfolk Southern (pre-1982 company, AS-616), Pacific Electric (DRS 6-6-1500 with trolley pole), Peabody Coal Co. (AS-16), Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines (AS-16), Union Pacific (AS-616). Four road numbers each except as noted above. Can motor […]

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2011 National Train Show preliminary report

HO scale locomotives Electro-Motive Division GP7 and GP9 diesel locomotives. New paint scheme on GP7 is Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (zebra stripes). New scheme on GP9 is New York Central (two-tone gray). Separately applied details, wire grab irons, and plastic handrails. Both road names offered with and without steam generators. Direct-current models with Quick […]

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Railroad timeline, 1950-1989

An Alco PA diesel and Berkshire 2-8-4 diesel meet on Tony Koester’s HO scale Nickel Plate Road model train layout. This timeline will help you choose an era for your model railroad. Tony Koester 1950: Dieselization. Ten Class 1 railroads had already dieselized before this year, including the Atlanta & St. Andrews Bay; Chicago, Indianapolis […]

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Hooded signal lights

The hood on this Norfolk Southern signal better directs the light’s beam. Doug Koontz Q CSX lineside signals all have “blinders,” a cone about a foot long that surrounds all three signal lights, so the lights only show straight down the track. Why are they used?— Richard Hoffman, Bowling Green, Ky. A The use of […]

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The Indiana Hi-Rail’s best and worst of days

Indiana Hi-Rail GP20 No. 203 leads two Alcos and an Evansville-Olney train of empty Consolidated Grain & Barge cars northwest of Griffin, Ind., on Nov. 27, 1993. Scott Muskopf Alco C420 Nos. 334 and 315 sandwich GP7u No. 2097 heading south on the IHR’s Newton line (now abandoned) south of Newton, Ill., on May 29, […]

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ExactRail HO scale 100-ton auto parts car

ExactRail HO scale 100-ton auto parts car Here’s another contemporary high-capacity HO scale high-cube boxcar that captures the look and tall proportions of a Pullman-Standard 7315 waffle-side boxcar used to transport heavy automobile parts. It’s a recent addition to ExactRail’s Platinum line, and it comes ready-to-run with scale-size magnetic knuckle couplers. It’s also the first […]

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The railroads behind today’s U.S. rail trails

Steve Glischinski Match the initials below to the Map of the Month in the May 2011 issue of Trains Magazine. The three-page foldout map will show you which recreational trails 10 miles or longer in the United States were fashioned from abandoned railroad lines. We mapped 415 trails in all (strung together, they would stretch […]

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