OTHER THAN THE venerable train station, no structure says “railroad” in the minds of the masses like the roundhouse. It’s a term that easily rolls off the tongue, even from people who often have never seen this near-extinct locomotive servicing/storage facility. The traditional roundhouse is fast becoming a memory. Modern diesel locomotives are serviced in […]
WITHOUT NEW YORK CITY’S Penn Station, there wouldn’t have been a need for the DD1 electric locomotive. And without the shoeboxed-shaped DD1, would Penn Station have been such a success?Nearly a century after the creation of both the station and the locomotive, it’s an interesting question to ponder. The DD1 was born of the need […]
THE MTH RAILKING MODEL of Electro-Motive’s SW9 switcher is a nice-looking, universal locomotive that is great for starting out in the hobby. It also makes a terrific addition to a larger fleet. By sharing an almost generic body with other models from the EMD catalog, the SW9 fits right in on a layout set anytime […]
THE FAMED BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS was one of the major losers in the transition from steam to diesel locomotives in the 1940s and early ’50s. Railway executives, who had held Baldwin steamers in high regard, described Baldwin diesels as “oddball” or “one off.” An observer noted, “They never got the standardization concept like GM did. […]
WILLIAMS HAS DIVED head first into the postwar pool with its new line of “Golden Memories” trains. These Lionel postwar reproductions are attractively priced, built with Williams’ reputation for durability and simplicity in mind, and are being marketed in an illustrated catalog that looks as though famed Lionel artist Bob Sherman had stepped from the […]
ATLAS O HAS CHOSEN to offer an O gauge model of a locomotive that doesn’t get much attention. Yet Fairbanks-Morse’s Alt.100.3 diesel, better know by its “Erie-Built” nickname, illuminates an interesting chapter in railroad history. During World War II, the federal government placed restrictions on the manufacture of diesel locomotives. Firms could make only those […]
THE K-LINE K4s 4-6-2 Pacific locomotive needs little introduction to railroad hobbyists because the prototype steamer was the standard Pacific-type favored by the Pennsylvania Railroad. In its search for the perfect 4-6-2, an engine that could adequately handle freight or passenger work, the Pennsy stumbled onto the K4s design and liked it so much that […]
A BIKER FRIEND TOLD ME that no one stops after getting one motorcycle, body piercing, or tattoo. I can’t personally verify his assertion, but I would amend it to read that no one stops with just a single Lionel log-loading accessory. On many of the traditional three-rail layouts that I’ve visited, the owner has a […]
LET ME SAY RIGHT OFF THE BAT, this is the sort of quality entry-level locomotive that Lionel should have come out with five years ago! But I’m not complaining, because it’s here now and it’s a winner! While Lionel has offered a few saddle tank locomotives in the past, this model is brand new. It […]
ONE OF THE MOST distinctive locomotive styles on any railroad – real or 1:48 scale – is the “Camelback,” also known as “Mother Hubbard.” The name “Camelback” came from the early days of railroading, when some steam locomotives were designed with their cabs atop the boiler. “Mother Hubbard” referred to locomotives that had the engineer […]
WORN DOWN BY THE Depression and the war years, the Virginian Railway embarked on a program in the 1940s to revive its aging fleet of locomotives using existing designs developed for railroads briefly owned by the Van Sweringen Brothers (Chesapeake & Ohio, Erie, Nickel Plate Road, and Pere Marquette). From these plans the Virginian produced […]
AMONG THE MOST MASSIVE locomotives on North American rails just about 100 years ago was the 0-8-8-0. Surprisingly, 85 locomotives with this wheel arrangement were in service in the early years of the 20th century. Surely the most interesting of them all were the Camelback, or Mother Hubbard, 0-8-8-0s run by the Erie Railroad. The […]
