Bill Metzger This Map of the Month appeared in the February 2006 issue of Trains magazine. Mention the Pennsylvania Railroad and iconic images come to mind immediately: passenger trains rocketing down a four-track electrified main line; limiteds scooping water on the fly from track pans; impossibly long coal drags; and mammoth engineering projects, from Horseshoe […]
U.S. railroad electrification In 1939, the United States was the global leader in railroad electrification, with over 20% of the world’s total. Today, electrification is a non-factor on almost all American railroads outside the Northeast Corridor. How did this happen? The heady projects from the early 20th century that propelled the U.S. to world leader […]
Now on display at the Reading Co. Technical & Historical Society’s Reading Railroad Heritage Museum in Hamburg, Pa., office car No. 15, the Henry E. Huntington, led a rich life. No. 15 served the Reading for 40 years. Then, Philip and Diana Goldman purchased, preserved, and used the car. Author of “Going Home” in August […]
Marc Horovitz 1:32 scale, gauge 1, live-steam Royal HudsonAccucraft Trains33268 Central AvenueUnion City CA 94587Price: $4,285Web site: www.accucraft.com All metal, live-steam model of Canadian Pacific Royal Hudson; internally fired, multi-tube boiler; alcohol fired (gas firing also available); Walschaerts valve gear controlled from the cab; sprung drivers; equalized front truck; sprung rear truck; sprung, six-wheel tender […]
A window in Thrums By Steven Duff Thrums is a name that somehow resonates above most others, a name, as we say these days, that has Attitude. It is a Scottish word, immortalized in Sir James Barrie’s novel, A Window in Thrums, and is perpetuated in Canada by a small town in British Columbia. In […]
Marc Horovitz 1:20.3 scale, gauge 1, live-steam 4-4-0Accucraft33268 Central AvenueUnion City CA 94578Price: $1,895Web site: www.accucraft.com All metal, live-steam model of a Baldwin 4-4-0; sprung chassis; sprung tender trucks; fittings include throttle, safety valve, water glass, pressure gauge, lubricator; single-flue boiler; butane fired; simple-eccentric-with-reversing-link reversing, controlled from the cab; painted and lettered; some minor assembly […]
I thought of “Portrait of the Rails” by Don Ball, Jr. immediately when reading Jim Wrinn’s editorial about favorite railroad books. As a child I spent hours gazing at the photos it contained of steam trains billowing smoke and funny looking streamliners while my dad would tell me stories about the trains of the 40’s […]
I had little interest in trains until I went to college and decided to take Amtrak home for a change. My eight hour trek on the Vermonter lead me to instantly love passenger rail as a means of travel. It was relaxing, very comfortable, and provided me with a power outlet so I could work […]
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 […]
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 […]
Henry Dreyfus created the timeless design worn by the streamlined 4-6-4s that pulled the Twentieth Century Limited. New York Central rostered North America’s largest fleet of Hudsons. In this photo, one of the speedsters prepares to depart LaSalle St. Station in Chicago. W.C. Merle, II In the early 1920s, as passenger train lengths grew and […]
Roundhouse Trains HO EMD Model 40 The first time I saw this tiny four-wheel EMD Model 40 switcher, I wondered if a prototype really existed. I soon learned that it’s an industrial switcher. Then the model surprised me by pulling a prototype-size load of 15 free-rolling freight cars, and I was really intrigued. On first […]
