Marc Horovitz 1:29 scale, gauge-1 GP30USA TrainsPO?Box 100Malden MA 02148Web site: www.usatrains.comSee your local dealer for price and availability Plastic model of an EMD GP30; two motors; eight-wheel drive; four traction tires; directional lighting; fan-driven smoke unit; interior cab lighting; detailed cab interior; metal handrails; opening cab doors; hook-and-loop couplers installed, knuckles also supplied; engineer […]
AT A UNION PACIFIC yard in Chicago, I recently saw the face of railroading today side by side with that of yesterday. A huge Chicago & North Western Dash 9 was idling next to a rusty, battered old North Western GP9. The difference was like night and day. Similarly, the difference between 3rd Rail’s brass […]
USA TRAINS CONTINUES to crank out well-made large scale diesels. The company’s locomotives have earned a reputation for realism, quality components, top notch decoration, and value. USA Trains’ latest venture is the 44-ton diesel switcher, and it appears to fit right in to the company’s line of good running engines. The 44-tonner is an engine […]
THE ONLY DISAPPOINTMENT I’ve had with the RailKing diesel line is the size of the locomotives. Don’t get me wrong, RailKing diesels have a lot going for them: quality, detailing, superb decoration, and low prices. But set your RailKing Dash 8 or SD60 side-by-side with a friend’s Premier line model and it becomes clear you […]
IN THE WORLD of prototype railroading, these are exciting times indeed. If you’ve ever been fortunate enough to be in a railroad yard and see a modern Dash-9 or SD60, 70, or 90 resting next to an elderly Geep, you can easily see how far railroading has progressed in the past 30 years. These new […]
IN THE MODERN era few locomotives have been as successful as the EMD SD45. This 3,600-horsepower, C-C truck diesel took America’s railroads by storm, and more than 1,600 of all versions of this unit were sold between 1965 and 1975. If the unit had an undoing, it was its high-maintenance 645-series prime mover – a […]
S-HELPER SERVICE injects new diesel power into the S gauge market with the SW1. By any criterion, the Electro-Motive SW1 diesel switcher was a milestone locomotive. The humble engine was a real pioneer of the diesel era. More than 560 were sold between 1939 and 1953. These engines were the first taste of internal combustion […]
THE NORTH WESTERN’S E-4 class Hudson represents the high water mark of locomotive streamlining. In fact, when Superman’s creator coined the phrase, “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive,” I suspect he had an engine like the North Western’s E-4 class Hudson in mind! The 4-6-4 locomotive was powerful and unique in […]
WILLIAMS ELECTRIC TRAINS continues to field unique, detailed locomotives that are, in the words of the retail trade, “priced to move.” The latest two engines from the Columbia, Md., firm are an Alco FA and an EMD BL2. Both locomotives come from the electrifying days when the direction diesel motive power would take was still […]
WHILE STIFF COMPETITION among the bigger boys of the toy train world pushes O gauge locomotives to new levels of sophistication, Williams has found its niche producing well-made toy trains – minus some of the frills – at a price that is well within reach of most operators. Among the newest items on Williams’ list […]
MY OFFICE WAS hotter than a jail cell in on the wrong side of the border. I sat in the dark with my .45 on my desk, enjoying a lively conversation with Misters Jack Daniels and Jim Beam. Then I heard it. That rumble, those voices. It was haunting. Almost like the faded memory of […]
THE RAILKING SD90MAC is another one of those modern behemoths that tight-curve operators would never be able to run if MTH hadn’t hit it with the old Shrink Ray Gun. The RailKing SD90MAC measures 143/4 inches coupler to coupler, or 59 feet long in O scale. That’s a full five inches short compared to an […]
