An overview of garden railroading

a model steam locomotive approaches a switch

An overview of garden railroading: Garden railroading is the art of combining a model railroad and a beautiful garden to create a railway-like atmosphere. The difference between a traditional indoor layout and a garden railway is the difference between realism and reality. Indoors, the goal is to create the illusion of reality through the use […]

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EBT No. 16 limbers up for Winter Spectacular

Steam locomotive at edge of turntable with red shop buildings in background. East Broad Top expanded tours

ROCKHILL FURNACE, Pa. – East Broad Top’s 1916 Baldwin 2-8-2 Mikado steam locomotive, under restoration for nearly three years, stretched its legs Thursday (Feb. 9) in preparation for the narrow gauge railroad’s annual Winter Spectacular railfan weekend. Expanded to a two-day event this year, it is scheduled for Feb. 18-19. The 81-ton engine has created […]

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Noted Western photographer Ronald C. Hill dies at 85

Man with camera around neck in western landscape

Ronald C. “Ron” Hill, a prolific photographer of Western railroad subjects but also other forms of transportation, died Jan. 23, 2023, at age 85. His work constitutes “an incredible body of both color and black-and-white photography,” said Scott Lothes, executive director of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art, which had a close relationship with […]

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A brief encounter with Argent Lumber

Steam locomotive under log flume

If you’re driving on Main Street through Hardeeville, S.C., it’s easy to miss the little steam locomotive tucked away in a small open shelter alongside the city’s library. As engines go, it doesn’t get much smaller than Argent Lumber Co. narrow-gauge 2-8-0 No. 7.   I found the engine, though, during a brief stop last […]

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Matt Bumgarner, historian, author, publisher, dies at 56

Man in overalls on steps of railroad car

HICKORY, N.C. — Matt Bumgarner, founding member of the Southeastern Narrow Gauge and Shortline Museum, historian, author, publisher, entrepreneur, and restorer of wooden railroad cars, died Jan. 26 after a brief illness. He was 56. Bumgarner was a director of the museum in Newton, N.C., an organization spearheaded by the Newton Depot Authority, a non-profit […]

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East Broad Top No. 16 set to operate at Winter Spectacular (updated)

Steam locomotive on turntable

ROCKHILL FURNACE, Pa. — Steam-powered excursions will highlight the East Broad Top Railroad’s upcoming Winter Spectacular, the railroad said in a press release today (Thursday, Feb. 2), with the return of 2-8-2 No. 16 to operating condition. The railroad, which posted a video of the 1916 Baldwin-built locomotive on its Facebook page on Wednesday, confirmed […]

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Lehigh Valley Railroad remembered

Streamlined red Lehigh Valley Railroad diesel locomotives pull freight train through curve in city

Without an ampersand, directional vector, or superlative in its title, the Lehigh Valley Railroad was of understated geographical reach. Its 440-mile New York-Buffalo line was slightly longer than competing routes of the Erie, New York Central, and Lackawanna, but shorter than the Pennsylvania’s. LV’s earliest component dated to 1836, but “the Valley” owed its existence […]

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