APOPKA, Fla. — Regional Rail LLC’s Florida Central Railroad soon will receive two rebuilt EMD GP15-1s dressed in a black-with-yellow-stripes image reminiscent of the Seaboard Coast Line. Regional Rail, established in 2007 and based in Kennett Square, Pa., now has 13 operations throughout the eastern United States and in Saskatchewan, Canada. As a growing short […]
ORLANDO — Brightline has introduced a new All-Station Shared Pass for frequent travelers between Orlando and South Florida, offering consistent fares over a 90-day period. The pass is good between Orlando and any of the five South Florida stations — West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Aventura, and Miami — and is good for […]
Rapido Trains hosted a dealer open house at the Essex Steam Train & Riverboat on Monday, Oct. 16, 2023 in Essex, Conn. During the event, the manufacturer unveiled several new HO scale products. Here’s a rundown of some of the items announced. Locomotives Electro-Motive Division SD7, SD9, and SD10 diesel locomotives were among the six […]
To see why it is so difficult to build anything these days, consider the sad case of the proposed Savage Tooele Railroad. Savage wants to revive Union Pacific’s abandoned 6-mile Warner Branch in Tooele County, Utah, restore a quarter mile of ripped-up track, and build 5 miles of new track within the Lakeview Business Park […]
Common name: Creeping milkwort, chapparal pea, box-leaved milkwort Latin name: Polygala chamaebuxus var. grandiflora Plant type: Perennial USDA Hardiness Zones: 6-8 Plant size: 4″ (possibly mounding to 10″), spreading very slowly to 2′ wide Cultural needs: Well-drained, moist, acid soil; sun or bright shade; slow-release evergreen/acidic fertilizer If we didn’t wait so long to get […]
Q: I’m planning on making steel slab, H-column, and I-beam loads for my run through freight trains. What is the width, length, thickness and height of the load for these structural steel loads? – James Shepard A: Hi, James. You asked a similar question not long ago, which I answered in my January 2023 “Ask […]
Steam locomotive tenders It’s easy to forget that most steam locomotive designs are usually in two major parts; the locomotive itself and its tender dutifully hauling fuel and water. Take away one, and the other is useless. It seems reasonable to assume that a steam engine and its tender served together from the time they […]
FARMINGDALE, N.J. — The Delaware & Raritan River Railroad, a Chesapeake & Delaware subsidiary, celebrated the completion of its F&S Connection with a golden spike ceremony in Farmingdale on Oct. 13. The $12 million project extended D&RR’s Freehold Branch by 5 miles from Freehold to Farmingdale, where it joins D&RR’s Southern Branch. Interchange with Conrail, […]
The Pullman-Standard (PS) 40-foot PS-1 boxcar, a staple on prototype railroads from the late 1940s through the 1980s, is now available as an easy-to-build HO scale kit from ScaleTrains. The injection-molded plastic model, which uses former MTH Electric Trains tooling, features a one-piece body, various modeler-installed parts, and a freestanding brake system. Prototype history Pullman-Standard […]
When you think of Burlington Northern, passenger service may not be the first thing that comes to mind. But from March 2, 1970 (Burlington Northern’s first day) to April 30, 1971 (the day before Amtrak started operations), the railroad offered passenger service. Among the name trains were the Empire Builder, Mainstreeter, North Coast Limited, and […]
PUEBLO, Colo. — The driver of a semi truck was killed when a bridge collapsed Sunday as a result of a BNSF coal-train derailment that has closed Interstate 25, Colorado’s main north-south highway, near Pueblo. An image from a Colorado State Patrol post on the social media site X, formerly Twitter, shows the train derailed […]
Walt Downer’s collection of Lionel Factory Layouts Ever since Walt Downer can remember, he has been fascinated by things that move. That desire to see something move explains the approach Walt has taken to collecting Lionel trains and accessories from the postwar era. Passionate about Lionel history, he set out to build a great collection […]
