THE DIMINUTIVE A5-class 0-4-0 switcher will never be first in line when thinking about the stellar locomotives of the great Pennsylvania Railroad. But from the look of this steamer, its lineage to the Standard Railroad of the World is plainly evident. It has closely positioned domes, a Belpaire firebox, a headlight square above the number […]
Atlas O Alco Century 628 heavy duty road diesel An excellent model of one of the true monsters of mainline railroading, Alco’s Century 628 has been released by Atlas O. The powerful model is offered in a DC version with an optional (user installed) Digital Command Control (DCC) wiring harness, and unpowered. Horsepower plus. Billed […]
WITH THE DEVELOPMENT of the Century-628 diesel in 1963, Alco hoped to secure the number two spot in the three-way race among locomotive builders. The firm, based in Schenectady, N.Y., conceded supremacy to Electro-Motive but hoped to vanquish General Electric. Of course, Alco didn’t secure anything, but the 180 C-628s the factory cranked out were […]
AS THE SAYING GOES, necessity is the mother of invention. As proof, we give you the SD40T-2. The diesel locomotive, nicknamed the “tunnel motor,” was born out of a specific need among western railroads. Air problems in mountain tunnels and long snowsheds are not new. The lack of fresh, cool air plagued locomotive crews in […]
I HAVE A VISION of Walter Matuch, the owner of Ready Made Toys, dashing around the country in search of some lost or forgotten toy train tooling. On discovering something, he holds it up to the light and asks, “How can I improve this?” The RMT O-27 gauge caboose is one of those items that […]
WELL, THE MAURY KLEIN era of K-Line Electric Trains is toast. In a quarter century he took his company, MDK Inc., from re-issues of Marx trains to some of the hottest new trains in several price ranges on the market. Alas, K-Line went out in a blaze of litigation, debt, and innovative model railroad products. […]
MTH HAS STEPPED BACK in time in an exciting way with an O gauge model of New York City’s rumbling R-1 subway cars. Until now, MTH has offered more contemporary models of mass transit equipment, in both its Premier and RailKing lines. The R-1 changes all of that. Between 1930 and 1931, American Car & […]
THE VO-1000 IS one of my favorites of the early diesel years. Baldwin Locomotive Works built more than 500 of these 1,000-horsepower locomotives between 1939 and 1946. The VO-1000 was replaced in 1946 by the outwardly similar DS-4-4-10, which came equipped with a different diesel engine. The VO-series switchers were exemplary at their job. As […]
THE FREIGHT TRAINS that I run on my layout are probably typical of most three-railers: a mix of road names and freight car types. Add to that list of runners Weaver’s 57-foot mechanical refrigerator car with sound.What? Sound in a big box? Yep. Weaver’s reefer is as nice as they come. Weaver has delivered plenty […]
One of the complaints heard from hobby curmudgeons is that O gauge railroading is too expensive. And if you mention to them some of the lower priced Lionel products, MTH’s RailKing line, and K-Line’s high-value semi-scale steamers, you often hear the retort: “Well, I mean scale-sized trains.” Atlas O has stepped up to fill this […]
IF YOU RECALL the 1970s TV comedy Welcome Back Kotter, one of the more eccentric characters, Arnold Horshack, had a unique way of signaling his excitement. He would get nervous and shout something that sounded like “Uho uho, uho uho.” Well, that happens to me when I see an SD40 or SD40-2s. Forget your 21st-century […]
THE PENNSYLVANIA Railroad GG1-class locomotive would almost certainly win the title of best all-around North American electric-profile locomotive, both in terms of performance and popularity. But who would have thought that a rather Plain Jane New Haven Railroad boxcab was the progenitor of the Pennsy classic? The New Haven Railroad wasn’t a fan of motor-generator […]
