The biggest 4-6-2 Pacific came from a surprisingly small railroad. Any history of the American steam locomotive must save some superlatives for the 4-6-2 Pacific. The wheel arrangement allowed a wide variety of design and performance, such that approximately 6,000 were manufactured in the first half of the 20th century, all in the […]
Type of Train: Steam Locomotive
Recapping five years of News Wire’s top stories
Trains News Wire wrapped up its countdown of 2022’s top stories on Saturday. In case you missed any of our coverage, we open the new year with a recap — not only of this year, but of five years of News Wire top stories. 2018: Richard Anderson The highly controversial three-year tenure of the former […]
Garden railroading in the snow
I am a member of the Genesee G Gauge Railway Society and enjoy garden railroading in the snow. My Crow Haven line is in Springwater, NY and was built over the last five years. It is comprised of 300+ feet of track on three levels, three trestles, 72 buildings (each with solar lights), 24 diecast […]
Top 10 stories of 2022: No. 7, Railroading Heritage of Midwest America makes its mark in Silvis
At the beginning of 2022, no one would have considered Silvis, Ill. a center of the railroad preservation community. The massive former Rock Island shop facility had just been downgraded by owner National Railway Equipment. It was closed in March 2021 as part of a plan to consolidate NRE rail operations to its shops in […]
Locomotives we didn’t get for Christmas
Trains and Christmas go hand-in-hand, and many of us had some special railroad-related gifts on our wish list, but instead of a wish list, this is a list of the locomotives we didn’t get for Christmas. These models either have never been mass-produced in our preferred scale or have not been produced in a decade […]
Top 10 stories of 2022, No. 9: Reading & Northern 4-8-4 No. 2102 returns
The star of the show for 11 mainline passenger excursions on Reading & Northern in 2022 was the railroad’s newly restored former Reading Co. Class T-1 4-8-4 steam engine No. 2102 (Reading Shops, 1945). Most of the trips ran from Reading, Pa., to Jim Thorpe, Pa., about a 135-mile round-trip. All of those trains ran […]
Rotary snowplow clears Cumbres Pass
Of all the forces that can bring trains to a halt, snow has to be one of the fiercest elements that Mother Nature can throw at a railroad. Keeping the tracks clear is a never-ending battle in the winter months. Depending on the severity, plows and flangers can do a good job winning the battle. […]
The Lionel 2065 Hudson, ‘hair curler’ and all
The Lionel 2065 Hudson is not uncommon, and it isn’t particularly valuable. What makes it so important to me is all that I remember because of it. This middle-of-the-road Lionel steamer from my youth has left me with so many wonderful memories. I was born in January 1953, and my brother Steve came along 4 […]
Year in review: Preservation stories from coast to coast
Trains News Wire continues our review of the top stories of 2022. We’ll count down the Top 10 stories of the year, as voted on by Trains editors, columnists, and correspondents, beginning Dec. 26. As a prelude, we’ll be looking at major stories that didn’t make that list. Today: Preservation. While some preservation stories did […]
Olympia & Sand Creek, Episode 4 | Cutting curves and building backdrops
David has cleared the deck and marked his track configuration on the plywood, so he’s ready to cut things to pieces! No fears! In this video, he’ll show you how to make accurate measurements, so you can make equally precise cuts. Once those cut parts are assembled, David also shares how to install the styrene […]
Olympia & Sand Creek, Episode 4 | Cutting curves and building backdrops
David has cleared the deck and marked his track configuration on the plywood, so he’s ready to cut things to pieces! No fears! In this video, he’ll show you how to make accurate measurements, so you can make equally precise cuts. Once those cut parts are assembled, David also shares how to install the styrene […]
Santa Fe reefer block
A Santa Fe 4-8-4 powers a long string of new Santa Fe Refrigerator Department reefers near Winslow, Ariz., in the mid-1940s. Santa Fe photo […]