Monon Route passenger trains All through March 2023, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history and heritage of the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway — the Monon Route! Please enjoy a selection of images of Monon Route passenger trains selected from the files of Kalmabch Media‘s David P. Morgan Library. This gallery was originally published […]
The railroad with the largest 2-10-0 Decapod fleet should come as no surprise. Throughout most of its history, the Pennsylvania Railroad called itself “The Standard Railroad of the World,” and yet in so many ways it was anything but “standard.” From position-light signals along its right-of-way to Belpaire boilers for its steam locomotives to […]
Modelers often compress industries to fit more of them on our model railroads. But doing the opposite – expanding a modeled industry to prototypical proportions – can create an intensely realistic operating experience that can’t be matched. Let’s explore that idea with a 4×8 HO scale paper mill layout. Some industries are just too large and […]
Visiting the Strasburg Rail Road History of the Strasburg Rail Road Visiting the Strasburg Rail Road is on the top of many a railfan’s bucket list. The Strasburg Rail Road, based in Strasburg, Pa., is the oldest railroad in America. It was founded in 1832 and is still running under its original name. It is […]
It’s been more than a decade since Lou Sassi photographed my HO scale White River Division for a feature in the March 2009 Model Railroader. A lot has changed since then. The track plan has been altered to better view and photograph scenes. I also eliminated the duckunder. Now a point-to-point layout, there’s a yard […]
Meet Cody Grivno How did you get started in the hobby? My journey to model railroading isn’t the one you often read about in the pages of Model Railroader. There wasn’t a Lionel set under the Christmas tree. Though my dad, Steve, dabbled with model trains as a kid, he was more into military modeling. […]
Burlington Zephyr 9900 left a shiny legacy on North American railroading that’s still evident today. Zephyr! It’s a name in the world of American passenger trains that dates from 1934 and is still in use by Amtrak. Its pronunciation even has a fast sound to it. Let’s do what Classic Trains does best: […]
Q: I’m building a new layout using Kato HO scale Unitrack. I have read many different opinions on whether to solder all track joints. What’s the best practice? Some say that using terminal joiners on Kato Unitrack for connection to the DCC bus is OK, while others say they’re unreliable. I use terminal joiners every […]
Louisville & Nashville diesel locomotives show a variety that was typical for the era. The railroad’s roster was largely comprised of Alco and EMD models, but the road also sampled Baldwin and GE switchers and later GE road power. In the 1960s, L&N management opted to stick with what it knew, acquiring a number of […]
The Alco C855 locomotives is a locomotive that Union Pacific should have never considered purchasing. The railroad’s operating department had always favored big motive power to move its mainline trains; just look at its 4-12-2 Union Pacifics, 4-6-6-4 Challengers, and 4-8-8-4 Big Boys in steam days. That philosophy carried over to a fleet […]
Monon Railroad diesel locomotives showed a variety of models from four builders. The Monon began dieselizing after World War II in 1946. It opted for EMD F3 units for mainline freight and passenger service and with EMD BL2s and Alco RS2s for locals. An A-B-A set of F3s started as EMD demonstrators. The […]
Choosing model rail sizes is one of the things modelers often spend time on when building their second layout. We often start with whatever came in the train set we began with, but then we start to hear about rail “codes,” and how they can differ. Regardless of scale, model rail sizes are specified […]
