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HO scale locomotives Electro-Motive Division GP9 diesel locomotive. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; Baltimore & Ohio; Canadian National; Louisville & Nashville; and Pennsylvania RR. All available with dynamic brakes except for L&N. Digital Command Control, directional lighting, and E-Z Mate Mark II magnetic knuckle couplers. $89. October 2010. Ready-to-run. Bachmann, 215-533-1600, www.bachmanntrains.com Alco RS-3 diesel […]
Atlas Model Railroad Co. HO scale Electro-Motive Division GP40-2 Phase 2 diesel locomotive HO scale freight cars Electro-Motive Division GP40-2 Phase 2 diesel locomotive. Conrail (four road numbers), Indiana Harbor Belt, Kansas City Southern, Ontario Northland, Quebec-Gatineau (two numbers), St. Lawrence & Atlantic (two numbers), Vermont Ry. (two numbers), and Western Pacific (five numbers). Three […]
The undeniable triumph of U.S. railroading can be seen in this graph of revenue ton-miles: the most basic unit of measurement (hauling one ton of freight one mile) for the work railroads perform. The data for this illustration come from the Association of American Railroads, and are confined to Class I railroads, the largest group […]
Before the mega-merger movement of the 1980s, only a few U.S. Class I systems attained route-mileage in five figures. Santa Fe, Southern Pacific, and Milwaukee Road did so by spanning the transcontinental West, Pennsylvania and New York Central bulked up in the East, and Chicago & North Western and Burlington Route (if you include its […]
HO scale locomotives United States Railroad Administration heavy and light Mikado steam locomotives. Heavy: Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; Chicago & North Western; Missouri Pacific RR; New Haven; Nickel Plate Road; Southern Ry.; and Western Pacific. Light: Canadian National, Florida East Coast, Lehigh & Hudson, Maine Central, National Ry. of Mexico, New York Central (Indiana […]
In the early 1970s, economic growth was transforming the South and West, and Western railroads surpassed Eastern roads in ton-miles carried for the first time in 1971. Traffic declines in the East heped trigger a rash of bankruptcies, which spurred Congress to commission detailed studies of railroad lines and operations. The results warned that, absent […]
Coal is the No. 1 rail-shipped commodity by tonnage in the U.S., and power plants consume most of it. Three key characteristics shape this map (see June 2002 Trains for the East, and January 2003 for the South): Population is concentrated in cities; most plants are mine-mouth or near the mine; and its most populous […]
Fox Valley Models N scale ES44AC diesel locomotive A General Electric ES44AC is the debut locomotive from Fox Valley Models. The direct-current ready-to-run N scale model, based on GE’s Evolution Series locomotive, uses a split-frame mechanism and features numerous railroad-specific details. A package of modeler- installed etched-metal and wire details is also included. The GE […]
Lloyd Stagner’s book AMERICAN STEAM FINALE, 1954-1970 (South Platte Press, 2001; www.southplattepress.com) is the definitive resource on the end of steam on U.S. Class 1’s and short lines. In “Just Who Was First to Dieselize,” in Diesel Victory (2006), we mentioned 17 U.S. Class 1 railroads that dieselized early. To qualify for the list, the […]
Micro-Trains’ Z scale EMD SD40-2 diesel locomotive This SD40-2 from Micro-Trains Line Co. has an impressive amount of accurate detail, especially considering that it’s a 1:220-proportion model. This diminutive diesel also has one of the quietest, smoothest running mechanisms of any locomotive that I’ve encountered in any scale. Prototype. General Motors Electro-Motive Division built the […]
Jeff Wilson and Robert Wegner This Map of the Month appeared in the February 2007 issue of Trains magazine. Twenty-five years separate these two maps showing the busiest freight railroad lines in the United States. The 1980 map depicts American railroads at the end of regulation — the Staggers Rail Act of 1980 was signed […]
Robert Wegner This Map of the Month appeared in the January 2003 issue of Trains magazine. This is the second in our series of coal-fired power plant maps of the U.S. The first, showing the Northeastern quadrant of the U.S., appeared in June 2002 Trains. Electrical generation in the South obeys a much different pattern […]
