Jack Hedge O gauge layout

model train with smoke on layout

Jack Hedge, a lifelong O gauge enthusiast and talented layout builder, created the fictitious city of Hedgerton for his three-rail display. His layout features four loops and includes contemporary steamers and diesels from just about everybody, including Atlas O, K-Line, Lionel, Right-of-Way Industries, 3rd Rail, Weaver, and Williams. Jack outlines what he installed, beginning with […]

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Pennsylvania to increase funding for public transit, averting SEPTA crisis

Four-car electric multiple-unit trainset

PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has proposed a $282.8 million annual increase in public transit funding — the first increase in state funding in more than a decade — to prevent service cuts or fare increases on the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. The 1.75% increase in statewide funding announced Sunday, reported by WHYY, follows […]

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Nine rail projects included in Mega, INFRA grant awards

a train on a bridge

WASHINGTON — Nine rail-related projects were included among the 37 receiving funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation through Mega Grant and INFRA Grant program funding announced on Friday. Two projects — including one from the rail-related group — received grants under both programs. The Mega Grant program — formally the National Infrastructure Projecg Assistance […]

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Maya Train will not meet Feb. 29 target for completion

Three trains at station

CANCÚN, Mexico — The launch of Mexico’s tourist-oriented Maya Train on the Yucatán Peninsula continues to run into problems, the latest being that the last portion of the looping 950-mile route will not be complete by the end of February, as President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had previously said. López Obrador — the project’s primary […]

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From starter train set to layout

A printout of a simple HO scale 4x8 track plan, highlighted in three colors

Many model railroaders get their start during the holiday season, with a train set either wrapped in colorful paper or already set up and circling under the tree on Christmas morning. But after a while, even a starry-eyed kid can get bored watching that train go around and around in an endless loop. It would […]

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Meet Jerry Paladino

long train on garden railway with structure

Meet Jerry Paladino How did you get started in the hobby? I was looking for a hobby that would help me relieve workplace stress. Two friends recommended that I build a model railroad. My Dad and grandfather both worked for Union Pacific in Council Bluffs, as well as in Omaha, so I was already interested […]

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Blue flags save lives

A blue sign reading stop, men at work, is clamped to a rail in a weedy railroad yard

We’ve all seen blue flags. A sign with words “STOP MEN AT WORK” clamped to the head of a rail, or hanging from the side of a locomotive. It was placed there by a railroader working in the area, and the rules of its use are strict and unbending. A blue flag, is defined by […]

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NJ Transit cancels power plant, reallocates funds to other projects

NEWARK, N.J. — NJ Transit has cancelled a controversial natural-gas power plant designed in part to provide emergency power for rail lines, saying the project is “not financially feasible,” and will reallocate federal grant funds to other projects, the transit agency announced on Friday. The TransitGrid Microgrid Central Facility in Kearny, N.J., would have generated […]

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NASA awards contract for FRA, FAA safety reporting systems

Logo of National Aeronautics and Space Administration

WASHINGTON — NASA on Friday awarded a contract to Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. of McLean,Va., for maintenance and operation of incident-reporting programs the space agency runs for other federal organizations, including the Federal Railroad Administration’s Confidential Close Call Reporting System. The contact also covers the Aviation Safety Reporting System for the Federal Aviation Administration. Both […]

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Guide to N scale metal wheelsets

Color photo of N scale wheelsets in packaging

Last month, I wrote about metal wheelsets offered in HO scale. In this guide to N scale metal wheelsets, I’ll cover the options available for those who model in 1:160 proportion. The case for metal wheelsets N scale wheelsets have come a long way since the 1960s and 1970s. For many years, Micro-Trains N scale […]

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Late era railroad dining car meals

Advertising picture for railroad dining car meals served in a snack bar car

  In the past, railroad dining car meals were something to write home about, positively. A notable summary of this can be found in the lyrics of the popular song Chattanooga Choo-Choo, with its assertion that “dinner in the diner, nothing could be finer.”   As private-railroad passenger service declined in the 1960s, however, this […]

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