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Facts and features Name: Georgia & Florida RRScale: HO (1:87.1)Size: 12 x 13 feetPrototype: Georgia & FloridaLocale: Central and South GeorgiaEra: late summer, 1966-1972Style: around the wallsMainline run: 55 feetMinimum radius: 24″Minimum turnout: No. 4Minimum grade: noneBenchwork: open gridHeight: 40″Roadbed: corkTrack: Atlas code 83 flextrackScenery: cardboard strips covered with plaster gauze and SculptamoldBackdrop: 1⁄8″ […]
Facts and features Name: Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe 4th Street SpurScale: HO (1:87.1)Size: 1′-6″ x 8′-0″Prototype: Atchison, Topeka & Santa FeLocale: downtown Los AngelesEra: 1950-1953Style: shelfMainline run: 8 feetMinimum turnout: No. 4Maximum grade: noneBenchwork: 1⁄2″ plywood secured to wall with shelf bracketsHeight: 48″Roadbed: 3⁄32″ basswood Track: Atlas code 83 Scenery: extruded-foam insulation board […]
The 1947 Empire Builder, its E7s already in their second livery, poses for a publicity photo in western Montana. In the distance, a freight waits to follow. Great Northern photo […]
Louisville & Nashville J-4 class 2-8-2 No. 1882 rests at Carrolton, Ky., in 1956. Charles B. Castner photo […]
At the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Pittsburgh Region desk F (foreground), the dispatcher for the Esplen (south end of the Ohio Connecting Bridge)–Brownsville, Pa., line works with a new style of trainsheet, while his colleague on desk I, Pittsburgh–Gould Tunnel, Ohio, uses the standard type in 1956. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Freight paint schemes When public image was a big deal for railroads, many of them went out of their way to put together great looking freight locomotive paint schemes. Passenger locomotives were an obvious choice, but for many, just as much care went into a suitable freight scheme After all, a train stopping traffic at […]
Three F units start Great Northern train No. 27, the Fast Mail for Seattle, out of St. Paul Union Depot in June 1953. Robert R. Malinoski photo […]
The much-anticipated Krauss-Maffei ML-4000 diesel-hydraulic locomotive is now available from PIKO America. The newly tooled model, based on the 1961 prototype, has an injection-molded plastic body, die-cast metal chassis, and can motor with dual flywheels. Prototype history The PIKO America models are decorated as Southern Pacific 9000, 9001, and 9002 in their as-delivered appearance. The […]
Delayed in transit Grain cars in transit were stalled by a brief strike in 1946. To keep grain from overheating and spoiling, cars were opened and a few (the Missouri Pacific car at left) had some grain removed. This was on the Missouri-Kansas-Texas in Oklahoma. Preston George photo […]
Lionel’s perfect postwar train set features a classic steam engine and a whistle tender pulling five different and very colorful freight cars or five streamlined passenger cars. How, you may be wondering, do we at Trains.com and Classic Toy Trains know this fact? Because a good number of loyal and experienced readers, familiar with the […]
The eastbound City of Portland passes the tower at Clinton, Iowa, behind two Chicago & North Western E units at 9:10 a.m. on June 4, 1953. Ahead lies the Mississippi River crossing and the Windy City. Robert R. Malinoski photo […]
The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, commonly known as the Burlington Route, had many Zephyrs. But out of all the streamlined trainsets and services famously named after the Greek God of the West Wind, which of the five where considered the most prestigious? Pioneer Zephyr Rolled out on April 7, 1934, by the […]
