Precision Craft HO scale 4-8-8-4 Big Boy video

Precision Craft HO scale 4-8-8-4

Precision Craft HO scale 4-8-8-4 We reviewed Precision Craft’s Big Boy steam locomotive in the December 2006 issue of Model Railroader. Click the icons below to see a video clip of the locomotive in action. All videos may take several minutes or more to download depending on your connection speed […]

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MTH Tinplate Traditions O gauge no. 263E reproduction

LIONEL’S PREWAR no. 263E steam locomotive was the last of its kind. The tinplate O gauge 2-4-2 locomotive was everything that its die-cast metal successors were not. It was glossy and bold and featured plenty of smooth sheet-metal surfaces accentuated by stamped rivets, nickel ladders, railings, and domes, with a red cow-catcher thrown in too. […]

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S-Helper Service S gauge 2-8-0 Consolidation

I’VE LONG THOUGHT that the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad’s E-27-class 2-8-0 Consolidations were some of the most attractive, balanced-looking products the steam era ever produced. They were powerful, sure-footed, and reliable. The B&O at one time had more than 400 of the E-27-class 2-8-0 locomotives. The flexibility and utility of those locomotives led them to […]

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1:29 scale, gauge 1, Pennsylvania K4 Pacific

Marc Horovitz 1:29 scale, gauge 1, Pennsylvania K4 PacificAmerican Mainline (AML)33268 Central AvenueUnion City CA 94587Price: $1,949Web site: www.accucraft.com” All metal, electrically powered model of Pennsylvania Railroad K4 4-6-2; lighted classification lights; directional headlight; sound ready; smoke-unit ready; 12 electrical pickups; three drawbar positions; independent, ball-bearing wheels on tender; sprung trailing truck; sprung tender trucks; […]

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Williams O gauge postwar-style no. 2056 4-6-4 Hudson

MORE THAN a decade ago, I bought a postwar Lionel no. 2056 Hudson. I paid close to $300 for the steam locomotive – on installments – at a local hobby shop. The rush of buying a “real, vintage Lionel train” lasted a few years before it faded as newer and better trains entered the marketplace. […]

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Steam locomotive profile: 0-4-0

Baltimore & Ohio 0-4-0 Tom Thumb

Baltimore & Ohio constructed this replica of the 0-4-0 Tom Thumb, its first steam locomotive. The original Tom Thumb was built in New York by inventor Peter Cooper, and made a successful first trip on August 25, 1830, when it pushed an open car hauling 18 passengers from Baltimore to Ellicott’s Mills. Early four-coupled locomotives […]

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Texas Types: Musclemen of steam

T&P 2-10-4

Texas & Pacific 600 was from the first group of 2-10-4’s. In 1919 Santa Fe purchased a group of 2-10-2’s. One of them, No. 3829, was built with an experimental four-wheel trailing truck, but was otherwise identical to the rest of the group. The experiment was inconclusive: No. 3829 was not converted to a 2-10-2, […]

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The Berkshire: Steam’s fast-freight legend

Berkshire

One of Nickel Plate’s handsome Berkshires leads a westward freight across the Grand River bridge in Painesville, Ohio. No. 802 was originally built for the Wheeling & Lake Erie in 1937, then went to work for the Nickel Plate Road in 1949 when the NKP leased the W&LE. John A. Rehor In 1920, when American […]

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Steam locomotive profile: 0-6-0

Rock Island USRA 0-6-0 switcher No. 283

Rock Island switcher No. 283 was one of ten USRA 0-6-0s delivered to the railroad in 1919. W. Krambeck The 0-6-0 began life as a road engine in the late 1830s but was built only in limited numbers. Like the 0-4-0, the 0-6-0 could not easily traverse the poor track of the day, and within […]

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Steam locomotive profile: 0-8-0

Norfolk & Western 0-8-0 switcher No. 244

Norfolk & Western 0-8-0 switcher No. 244 holds the distinction of being the last U.S. reciprocating steam locomotive built for an American Class 1 railroad. It was the final steam engine to emerge from N&W’s Roanoke Shops, delivered to the railroad in December 1953. Norfolk & Western The first 0-8-0 was built in 1844 by […]

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Steam locomotive profile: 0-10-0

Duluth, Missabe & Northern 0-10-0 switcher

One of Duluth, Missabe & Northern’s mammoth 352,000-pound 0-10-0 switchers works the yard at Proctor, Minn., on September 15, 1951. J. C. Seacrest collection The first 0-10-0 was built in 1905 at Alco’s Brooks Locomotive Works as a hump engine for the New York Central. Over the next five years, New York Central took delivery […]

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