Facts & features Name: Penn Central at Bellefonte, Pa.Scale: HO (1:87.1)Size: 9’-8″ x 11’-6″Prototype: Penn CentralLocale: Bellefonte, Pa.Mainline run: 36 feetMinimum radius: 24″ (main), 18″ (siding)Minimum turnout: No. 6Maximum grade: 4% Download a PDF of this trackplan! Buy the December 2023 issue of Model Railroader! […]
Facts & features Name: Western Pennsylvania Model Railroad MuseumScale: HO (1:87.1)Size: 40 x 100 feetPrototype: Baltimore & Ohio and freelancedLocale: Pittsburgh, Pa., to Cumberland, Md.Era: 1953Style: walkaroundMainline run: Mon Valley, 443 feet; B&O, 357 feetMinimum radius: 36″ (main)Minimum turnout: No. 8 (main), No. 6 (branch lines and yards), No. 4 (industrial)Maximum grade: 2%Benchwork: L-girderHeight: Mon […]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California High-Speed Rail Authority and 13 unions have announced an agreement to use union labor to operate the state’s high speed rail system. The Memorandum of Understanding announced today (Friday, Nov. 17) will cover an estimated 3,000 workers to operate the full system between the Bay Area and Southern California; about […]
ATLANTA — A collision between Norfolk Southern and CSX trains led to a derailment and fire this morning at CSX’s Howells Yard in northwest Atlanta. CSX said in a statement that at 6:28 a.m. ET, “a Norfolk Southern train came in contact with a CSX train at an interchange point in Howells Yard .. […]
T-TRAK Project part 1: Back in the game again: Modelers David Popp, Brian Schmidt, and Bryson Sleppy begin a series of projects build a small modular T-TRAK N scale layout. T-TRAK is a modular N scale railroading system that uses small foot-wide boxes to build tabletop layouts. They are designed to click together using Kato […]
In seeking the oddest of oddball locomotives, today we will follow our compass to California’s Ludlow & Southern, one of many, many railroads past and present with the name of a city or a state and the addition of a compass direction. Think Kansas City Southern, Colorado & Southern, Arizona Central, Missouri Pacific, and Texas […]
CHICAGO — Service on the Chicago Transit Authority’s Yellow Line remains suspended today (Friday, Nov. 17) after the Thursday collision between a two-car Yellow Line train and a piece of maintenance equipment that injured 38 people, 23 of whom were sent to hospitals for treatment. The train reportedly rear-ended a snow plow, according to a […]
KEARNY, N.J. — NJ Transit, which has previously wrapped or painted locomotives to honor its railroading predecessors, has now wrapped a locomotive to honor a New Jersey-based model railroading-firm: Atlas Model Railroad Co. of Hillside, N.J., which will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2024. The special wrap has been applied to Bombardier ALP-45DP dual-mode diesel-electric […]
NEW BUFFALO, Mich. — Eleven people reportedly suffered minor injuries when Amtrak Wolverine train No. 355 bound for Chicago struck vehicles at a grade crossing and derailed in New Buffalo Township, Mich., about 10 p.m. Thursday night, WZZM-TV reports. At least eight trains scheduled for today have been cancelled while derailment cleanup takes place. The […]
NEW YORK — Canadian Pacific Kansas City CEO Keith Creel is not the least bit surprised at how rival Class I railroads have responded to the CP-KCS merger by launching new and faster cross-border intermodal service. “We’re creating competition and this industry is getting stronger as a result,” Creel told the RailTrends conference on Thursday. […]
NAPA, Calif. – The Napa Valley Wine Train has placed the first of two Tier 4 compliant switcher units into service as the tourist railroad’s new regular motive power. Napa Valley Railroad NZE15B No. 1864 arrived on Oct. 30, 2023. The 1,560-hp unit was rebuilt by Knoxville Locomotive Works from a National Railway Equipment Co. […]
BISMARCK, N.D. — The fight over the future of BNSF Railway’s Bismarck-Mandan Rail Bridge over the Missouri River was back in front of the North Dakota Supreme Court on Thursday, as the court heard arguments on a preservation group’s effort to overturn state permits allowing construction of a new bridge to proceed. The group Friends […]
