CPKC keeps its fingers crossed amid trade war: Analysis

Freshly painted red and black diesels with gold trim and white letters

Canadian Pacific Kansas City CEO Keith Creel is the calm in the center of an international storm that threatens to engulf his railroad. With the 2023 merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern, Creel’s CP made a $31 billion all-in bet on the combined railways’ ability to tap growing free trade in North America. […]

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News & Products for the week of March 17th 2025

An orange model locomotive

News & Products for the week of March 17th 2025   Model railroad operators and builders can get the latest information about locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, tools, track, and more by reading Model Railroader’s frequent product updates. The following are the products Model Railroader editors have news on for the week of March 17th, […]

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Dwarf baldcypress

A baldcypress with green and orange leafs

Common name: Dwarf baldcypress, dwarf swamp cypress Latin name: Taxodium distichum ‘Peve Minaret’ Plant size: 6-10′ high by 3′ wide in 10 years USDA Hardiness Zones: 5-11 (marginally in Zone 4) Cultural needs: Moist, acidic soil; sun T.d. ‘Peve Minaret’ is a dwarf variety of the magnificent swamp cypresses of the Florida Everglades. The dwarf […]

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From The Cab: Caboose memories

A long line of blue and yellow cabooses in a railroad yard.

I’ve been around long enough to have caboose memories. Am I really that old? I guess so. When I transferred to Amtrak after 10 years with Seaboard Coast Line, my former freight railroad, we still employed full crews of five persons — an engineer, fireman, and brakeman on the head, with a conductor, and flagman […]

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Repair Marx plastic rolling stock

four pieces of Marx rolling stock

Although our family had a wind-up Marx set when I was very young, my real interest in Marx trains began when I received a Marx Allstate set for Christmas about 1961 when I was 10. My father bought it at the Sears surplus store on North Main St. in High Point, N.C. for, I think, […]

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How to build a simple L-girder

Two wood boards being glued together

According to Model Railroader Editor Eric White, former Editor Linn H. Westcott’s L-girder benchwork has been a hallmark technique in the hobby that’s been passed down to today’s modelers. It checks off many boxes, especially being a straightforward process in its assembly. How straightforward is it? Let’s find out as we learn how to build […]

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Early Burlington Northern locomotives in review

Freshly painted green-and-black diesel locomotive in front of freight cars in yard

  When the long-anticipated “Hill Lines” merger finally created the Burlington Northern on March 2, 1970, it was time not to mourn the loss of a favorite, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, but to embrace and record the details of the changeover. I had been through this six years before, when the Norfolk & Western […]

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Chicago intercity passenger terminals

Aerial view of brick passenger station alongside river

Having six intercity passenger terminals at one time, and that doesn’t include the electric interurbans, is a muscle flex to Chicago’s claim as the nation’s railroad capital. That is also why former Trains and Classic Trains Senior Editor J. David Ingles made regular visits to document whatever was left, prior to Amtrak’s formation in May […]

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Weather, fires disrupt Texas Eagle and Southwest Chief routes

Baggage cart next to bilevel passenger train at station

CHICAGO — Miles of downed trees and power lines through rural Missouri and Arkansas over the weekend resulted in half-day delays or truncations for two Texas Eagles. Meanwhile, a Los Angeles-bound Southwest Chief sat for 8 hours in New Mexico when a wind-driven brush fire blocked the right-of-way. Texas Eagle challenges  A Washington Post storm […]

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