Arnold provides a six-pin socket for installing an NEM-style Digital Command Control decoder. Digitrax and Train Control Systems sell decoders that fit. The Louisville & Nashville locomotive has a peaked pilot, different horn, and a different location for the firecracker antenna from the CB&Q sample. An old name has returned to N scale with a […]
Section: Reviews
MTH HO scale GE ES44AC diesel locomotive
For the last decade General Electric Evolution Series (GEVO) diesel locomotives have been a dominant force on Class 1 main lines, and increasingly in HO scale product lines. This latest HO GE ES44AC from MTH comes with a variety of user-controlled effects. Equipped with the firm’s Digital Command System, the model operates reliably on direct-current, […]
Quick Look: Walthers HO scale drive-in theater structure kit
Walthers HO scale drive-in theater structure kit Price: $49.98 Manufacturer Wm. K. Walthers, Inc. 5601 W. Florist Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53218 www.walthers.com Comments: A drive-in theater can be an eye-catching feature on a model train layout. Now Walthers is rolling out its Skyview Drive-In, a styrene structure kit that lets you use a tablet computer […]
Quick Look: Atlas HO scale 50-foot double-door boxcar
Atlas HO scale 50-foot double-door boxcar Price: $32.95 (undecorated, $26.95) Manufacturer Atlas Model Railroad Co. 378 Florence Ave. Hillside, NJ 07205 www.atlasrr.com Road names: Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic; Canadian National; Maine Central; New York, New Haven & Hartford; St. Louis Southwestern; and Union Pacific (two numbers each). Era: 1957 to 1983 (as decorated) Comments: […]
WalthersProto HO scale EMD GP30 diesel locomotive
WalthersProto HO scale GP30 diesel locomotive Featuring a high level of protoypical detail and available with a SoundTraxx Tsunami Digital Command Control decoder, the WalthersProto HO scale GP30 captures the sights and sounds of its second-generation prototype. The decoder delivers realistic sound on direct-current and DCC layouts. In the early 1960s, General Electric had severed […]
Video: Kato Sound Box analog sound controller for model trains
The Kato Sound Box provides an easy way to add realistic sound effects to a direct-current (DC) layout without having to install Digital Command Control (DCC). Senior editor Dana Kawala demonstrates the Sound Box connected to a Kato power pack on the Model Railroader staff’s N scale Red Oak project model train layout. […]
Kato Sound Box analog sound controller
Kato analog sound controller Sound brings a new level of fun to a model railroad, but what’s a modeler to do if he doesn’t want to convert to Digital Command Control? Kato USA offers one solution with its Sound Box analog sound controller. With this device attached to a direct-current power pack, a modeler at […]
Bachmann N scale 2-8-4 steam locomotive
Bachmann N scale 2-8-4 steam locomotive A late-era Super Power steamer joins the Bachmann Sound Value line with this N scale 2-8-4. All the models feature roadname-specific detailing; our review sample is decorated and detailed as Chesapeake & Ohio no. 2760. Developed with SoundTraxx, the Sound Value decoder installed in the model operates on direct-current […]
Quick Look: Rapido Trains HO scale 52′-6″ mill gondola
Rapido Trains HO scale 52′-6″ mill gondola Price: $44.95; six-pack, $269.70 Manufacturer Rapido Trains, in association with MLW 500 Alden Rd., Unit 16 Markham, ON L3R 5H5 www.rapidotrains.com Era: 1965 to 1999 (as decorated) Road names: Canadian Pacific; CP Rail; Canadian National (two schemes); and Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Comments: A new run of Canadian-specific […]
Quick Look: Tangent Scale Models HO scale 8,000-gallon acid tank car
Tangent Scale Models HO scale 8,000-gallon acid tank car Price: $44.95 (R-T-R, decorated or undecorated), $37.95 (undecorated kit) Manufacturer: Tangent Scale Models P.O. Box 6514 Asheville, NC 28816 www.tangentscalemodels.com Era: 1949 into the 1980s Paint schemes: (4 road numbers each, all GATX reporting marks) DOW Chemical Co. (1953 black scheme with bright yellow graphics), 1952+ […]
Video: Athearn Trains HO scale Topeka cab GP7
Check out the Athearn Trains Genesis-series model of the Santa Fe “Topeka cab” GP7. The HO scale locomotive model captures the road number-specific details of its prototype. Model Railroader senior editor Dana Kawala will also show you some of the highlights of the locomotive’s factory-installed SoundTraxx Tsunami Digital Command Control (DCC) sound decoder. […]
MTH Alaska RR F7 A-B-A set
O gauge EMD F7 A-B-A set from MTH Price: $729.95 (no. 20-20391-1) Features: O-31 operation, two powered A units with two can-style motors per unit; a coil coupler on each A unit, ProtoSound 3.0 command and sound system) Current run road names: Alaska RR, Northern Pacific; Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac; and Southern Pacific For railroad […]