The Lionel LionChief 2.0 Baby K4 is a modern O gauge steam engine that represents the Pennsylvania RR’s proud Pacific type. The model is simply detailed with lots of operating features including a fan-driven smoke unit, lighted flickering firebox, crew figures, and more! It runs well and is equally at home pulling a set of […]
Era: 1920 - 1945
7 great Lionel locomotives and 4 duds
7 great Lionel locomotives and 4 duds – this list recognizes what we consider to be the Lionel Corporation’s crowning achievements in locomotive manufacturing 1900-1969. Admittedly, it’s subjective, based on experience owning, operating, and repairing Lionel locomotives. We both value solid construction and reliable operation, so those were key factors in awarding our trophies. Our […]
CV Mountain type
Boys young and old walk up to look at Central Vermont 4-8-2 601 at White River Junction, Vt., in the 1940s. Classic Trains coll. […]
Rio Grande M-68 Northern
Handsome D&RGW 1800, first of the road’s five class M-68 passenger 4-8-4s built by Baldwin in 1938, poses for a broadside portrait near Denver Union Station in August 1940. R. H. Kindig photo […]
Chicago Great Western Railway freight trains
Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history and heritage of the Chicago Great Western Railway all through December 2021. Please enjoy this photo gallery selected from the archives of Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library. The Chicago Great Western was an agriculturally oriented Granger road linking Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha, and St. Paul. Those cities, […]
Layout visit: Marshall Sommer’s HO scale Rhode Haven
Watch trains running on Marshall Sommer’s HO scale Rhode Haven model railroad, which is featured in the January 2022 issue of Model Railroader magazine. […]
Layout visit: Marshall Sommer’s HO scale Rhode Haven
Watch trains running on Marshall Sommer’s HO scale Rhode Haven model railroad, which is featured in the January 2022 issue of Model Railroader magazine. […]
Southern Pacific HO scale 40-foot boxcars coming from Rapido Trains
Southern Pacific class B-50-15 and B-50-16 40-foot boxcars are the latest HO scale announcements from Rapido Trains. The models are based on cars that were built in the steam era and lasted into the steam-to-diesel transition era. The B-50-15 will be offered in the following configurations and paint schemes: Wood sides and Murphy roof (Southern […]
The versatile 2-8-2 Mikado
The 2-8-2 Mikado-type steam locomotive was the first with a firebox behind the drivers and supported by a trailing truck. Originally conceived by Baldwin Locomotive Works and the narrow gauge Interoceanic Railway in Mexico, the first U.S. Mikado was a 50-inch drivered Baldwin built in 1901 for the Bismarck, Washburn & Great Northern. In 1902, […]
Reefer block
Reefer block 4-8-2 2605, a product of IC’s own Paducah (Ky.) shops, leads a long string of refrigerator cars north on the main line at Peotone, Ill., in the 1940s. Illinois Central photo […]
Handsome Hudson
Handsome Hudson For a few years in the late 1930s, the steam queens of New Haven’s Shore Line were 10 class I-5 4-6-4s. The handsome Hudsons’ wheel-balance woes prompted NH to begin acquiring a fleet of 60 DL109 diesels in 1941. Here, an I-5 roars west with the Merchants Limited at Sharon, Mass. Wayne Brumbaugh […]
Feather River freight haulers
Feather River freight haulers Western Pacific’s original road freight locomotives were 65 Consolidations; 20 came from Baldwin in 1906, followed by 45 from Alco’s Schenectady plant in 1909. Engine 63 was still on the job at Oakland in 1952. Western Pacific photo […]