Breakdown of Streamliners What are streamliners? Essentially, it’s a sleek design for lightweight passenger rail equipment that once had a faster schedule with fewer stops than other trains on the same route. They often included nicer amenities like stewardess service, reserved coach seating, barber shops, and libraries. Before 1970, three major manufacturers built passenger cars […]
Overlooked during the prewar era and for the first decade of the postwar, it inspired four O gauge diesels and an operating boxcar in the space of four years in the second half of the 1950s. Let’s focus on the No. 2240 F3s. Introducing the Wabash The Wabash Ry. was one of several lines crossing […]
Locomotives & rolling stock Metropolitan Division of the Train Collectors Association (METCA) has several custom-run products. The first is a Lionel 2-8-0 Consolidation in New Hope & Ivyland livery. They also have two Lionel Legacy engines, an SD50 Reading & Northern (red head paint scheme) and two SD70Aces, one in Lionel Lines and one with […]
Mind-blowing facts — New York Central passenger trains We are 50-plus years into the Amtrak era, which began on May 1, 1971. A few Amtrak trains still carry the identity of the conveyances they imitate — California Zephyr, Empire Builder, and Crescent — to mention a few. What lives on today is a contemporary train […]
Driving south recently on Interstate 75, nearing the Kentucky/Tennessee line, an upcoming offramp caught my eye, causing me to make a quick turn to the right. “Next exit, Jellico.” Jellico! A town I likely never would have known were it not for a memorable July 30, 1975, steam excursion behind celebrated Southern Railway 2-8-2 […]
The Atlas O Fall 2023 Premier Catalog was recently posted on the manufacturer’s website. The 32-page catalog features a mix of locomotives, commuter cars, and rolling stock from the Premier, Master, and Trainman product ranges. The last four pages of the catalog include previously announced track, structures, and accessories. Two models that will be making […]
News & Products for the week of October 9th 2023 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 October 9th […]
History of track gauge: The gauge of a railroad is the distance between the inside vertical surfaces of the head of the rail. Standard gauge is 4 feet, 8-1/2 inches. This is the gauge used when steam railroading began. It became the common gauge of Britain, North America, and Western Europe — except for Spain, […]
From the smallest narrow-gauge locomotive right up to Big Boy, steam locomotives capture the imagination and occupy a significant place in world history. The steam locomotive’s story runs far, wide, and deep. It continues to unfold today through preservation and restoration. Around every curve, there is another facet of the story waiting to be discovered. […]
ROANOKE, Va. — Strong sales have followed Tuesday’s release of tickets for the upcoming fall excursions with Norfolk & Western steam locomotive No. 611 on the Buckingham Branch Railroad. The Shenandoah Valley Limited will offer twice-daily, 60-mile round trips during October and November weekends between Goshen and Staunton, Va. Traffic was high on the website […]
Southeast tourist railroads you must visit include museums full of regional history, logging railroads in the Allegheny Mountains, and everything in between. From Trains Magazine’s Tourist Trains Guidebook, here’s our list of tourist railroads, museums, and displays to experience across the region. Southeast Tourist Railroads and Museums Alabama Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum – 1919 […]
There is more to understanding railroad wayside signals than simply “green means go, red means stop.” To appreciate what the signals you see along the track are telling you, you first have to grasp a few basic concepts. Railroad traffic control boils down to three situations: trains running in the same direction on the same […]
