NO DOUBT, EVER since grade school, we’ve all looked at slot-car tracks and our three-rail trains and wondered how to put the two together. We at CTT have been enraptured with the prospect of O gauge street running ever since we saw the two-rail cobblestone street system by Czech manufacturer ETS/SemafÖr (CTT, January, 2005). As […]
THE LATEST SWITCHER to be added to the MTH Premier line lineup is the Alco S-2, which was ubiquitous on American railroads and industrial operations 20 to 60 years ago. More than 1,400 of the 1,000-horsepower locomotives were built for U.S. railroads between 1940 and 1950. According to one diesel preservation website, there are at […]
IN THE GOLDEN YEARS of railroading, the Great Northern route from the Midwest to Seattle was undoubtedly the premier way to get to the Pacific Northwest. With such named trains as Empire Builder, Oriental Limited, and Fast Mail, the line’s reputation hung on swift, reliable passenger transportation as much as it did freight. In 1929 […]
YES INDEED! Atlas O’s Alco C-424 is another squat, homely diesel that will make a segment of the O gauge community happy, if not downright giddy. I’ve often wondered why some segments of our clan of railroad hobbyists (myself included) are so, well, hard-core about Alco diesels. Oh, I know that Alco’s PA was larger […]
FOR MANY YEARS, manufacturers have been tempting the once-a-year train-running crowd as well as tinplate regulars with gaily decorated sets. These outfits usually reflect the holiday spirit more than they reflect real railroading, even by the liberal standards of the three-rail crowd. K-Line’s latest addition to the holiday railroad is the no. K-1409 Santa’s Christmas […]
AS THEY SAY, nothing succeeds like success, and the EMD F40 is nothing if not a winner. In the early days of Amtrak in the 1970s, it became clear that the railroad’s aging fleet of mismatched locomotives inherited from various passenger railways needed both standardization and modernization. First out of the gate to power Amtrak’s […]
The Simpsons are the titular stars of the longest-running animated series on television. Their TV-time fun has now come to O gauge! So why toy trains? Why now? Simple. To make money, of course. If Mickey Mouse was the cat’s meow back in the prewar era, Homer and his dysfunctional family are the cartoon of […]
Lillian “Curly” Lawrence and the history of live-steam locomotives Lillian “Curly” Lawrence was a British model engineer who lived from 1882 to 1967. He built his first live-steam locomotive at the age of 13 on a used treadle lathe. A curious and reclusive fellow, he wrote live-steam columns for British model-engineering magazines under the pen […]
Electro-Motive Division GP9 road switcher Here’s a great-looking model of the classic Electro-Motive Division GP9 road switcher that includes a powerful mechanism and provisions for easy conversion to Digital Command Control (DCC). Atlas O offers it in two versions for two-rail layouts that operate with either DC or Lionel’s TrainMaster Command Control and RailSounds 4.0 […]
Atlas O scale GP60 Atlas O has introduced an excellent model of Electro-Motive Division’s GP60 road diesel that captures the prototype’s angular good looks and delivers plenty of pulling power. It’s a well-detailed mainline locomotive similar to the GP35 reviewed in the February 2004 Model Railroader. Two GP60s are available for use on two-rail layouts. […]
Atlas O scale EMD GP35 diesel O scale GP35 is a top performer This versatile EMD GP35 diesel road switcher is a good-looking and powerful second-generation general purpose locomotive that will be right at home hauling a hotshot freight or switching a yard. It’s made by Atlas O in two versions for two-rail layouts that […]
Atlas O scale NE-6 cupola caboose An excellent postwar steel caboose is now available from Atlas O. It comes ready-to-run in two versions fitted with different wheel-sets and couplers for use on either two-rail scale or three-rail tinplate layouts. The model follows a prototype class NE-6 scale caboose built by International Car Co. for the […]
