Pere Marquette Berkshire steam locomotives

One of Pere Marquette Berkshire steam locomotives with freight train by gas holder

  By the late 1930s, the Pere Marquette Railway had made a big splash in motive power acquisition. And rightly so, as the tired and second-rate fleet of steam locomotives was not enough to pull the Michigan railroad out of the hardship of the Great Depression. An order of 15 N-class 2-8-4s initially was rolled […]

Read More…

Big day for the Broadway

20140312

It’s June 15, 1938, the date on which the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Broadway Limited made its debut as a streamlined train. K4s 3768, given a streamlined cowling two years previously, handled the train out of Chicago. Classic Trains collection […]

Read More…

Slim Princess, wide valley

20151215

Southern Pacific’s narrow-gauge line in the vast Owens Valley of California was known as the “Slim Princess.” Here a single freight car separates engine from caboose near Zurich (Big Pine) in July 1959. William H. Mills photo […]

Read More…

Majestic Switzerland by rail 2024

train in Switzerland

2024 Majestic Switzerland Special Interest Tours and Trains Magazine bring you a rail excursion tour like no other. From Sept. 19-30, join Trains Senior Editor David Lassen on an 11-night, 12-day adventure into the mountains. Switzerland has one of the most extensive railway networks in Europe. Beginning in 1847, the Northern Railway line was established, […]

Read More…

Doug Dederick’s N scale Great Northern

Title screen from video showing N scale model railroad.

Doug Dederick’s N scale Great Northern Kalispell Division is set in Montana in the late 1950s. The 29 x 36-foot walk-in layout, featured in the April 2024 issue of Model Railroader, is set between Whitefish, Mont., and Shelby, Mont. The model railroad features several of GN’s name passenger and freight trains, including the Empire Builder, […]

Read More…

News & Products for the week of February 26th 2024

A collection of several model freight cars in different paint schemes

News & Products for the week of February 26th 2024   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 February 26th […]

Read More…

Doug Dederick’s N scale Great Northern

Title screen from video showing N scale model railroad.

Doug Dederick’s N scale Great Northern Kalispell Division is set in Montana in the late 1950s. The 29 x 36-foot walk-in layout, featured in the April 2024 issue of Model Railroader, is set between Whitefish, Mont., and Shelby, Mont. The model railroad features several of GN’s name passenger and freight trains, including the Empire Builder, […]

Read More…

News & Products for the week of February 19th 2024

A model bomb shelter underneath a model railroad layout

News & Products for the week of February 19th 2024   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 February 19th […]

Read More…

Reimagining a freelanced narrow gauge shelf layout

A long view of a narrow shelf model railroad

I’ve had a fondness for narrow gauge modeling since I was a teenager reading Model Railroader stories by John Olsen and Malcolm Furlow in the early 1980s. So when it came time to build my first real layout, it’s no surprise that I chose HOn3 scale. It’s also no surprise I chose a freelanced route, […]

Read More…