News & Products for the week of July 1, 2021

Bachmann large scale Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe animated stockcar no. 27905.

Large scale freight cars  Animated stockcar. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (horse transport); Chicago & North Western (horse transport); Denver & Rio Grande Western (cattle transport); and North Pole & Southern (reindeer transport). One road number per scheme. Four animated animal heads, blackened metal wheels, and truck-mounted knuckle couplers. Runs on 45mm track. $152. Big […]

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Trains magazine exclusive photo charter with Soo Line No. 1003

black steam engine in rual setting

HARTFORD, Wis. — Trains magazine is excited to announce an exclusive photo charter with Soo Line 2-8-2 No. 1003 with a freight consist through scenic rural Wisconsin on Nov. 14. Enjoy multiple runbys, sweeping curves, and watching the Soo Line crew load coal! This photo charter is open to only 50 registered guests, so book […]

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Caltrain governance talks break down in dispute between counties

Caltrain logo

SAN MATEO, Calif. — Discussions over the governance of Caltrain have broken down, reflecting concerns about a lawsuit between the agencies involved in operating the San Francisco Bay Area commuter railroad. The San Mateo Daily Journal reports board chair Dev Davis attended Friday’s Caltrain meeting but would not participate in discussion of the governance issue. […]

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BNSF coal train derails on recently reactivated line

BNSF Railway logo

BENNET, Neb. — Ten cars of a BNSF coal train derailed Friday evening on a recently reactivated line southeast of Lincoln, Neb. The Lincoln Journal Star reports portions of the train still on the tracks initially blocked traffic on Bennet Road, but crews were able to separate the train to allow traffic flow to resume. […]

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‘Broadway’ interrupted

Steam locomotive with passenger train by signal gantry

‘Broadway’ interrupted Pennsylvania Railroad K4s Pacific 5369 pauses with the eastbound Broadway Limited at Englewood Union Station on Chicago’s South Side in the late 1920s or ’30s. Singly and later doubleheaded, the K4 was standard power on PRR trains 28 and 29 for a quarter of a century. Andrew Hritz photo […]

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Making your cars’ wheels more free-rolling

A “truck tuner” – a double-ended reamer sized for the job – is used to clean and reshape the sockets in an HO scale truck sideframe assembly

Q: The axles stick in the journal boxes of some of my rolling stock. I tried scraping them out and lubricating them. Any help would be appreciated. – Christopher Kramer, Chicago A: Depending on what tool you’re using, scraping them out might be making the bearing surfaces rougher, worsening your problem. And lubricating axle bearing […]

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Design “elemental” layouts in large scale

Scene on a large-scale railway built of wooden blocks

  When I was young, I had an American Flyer train and a set of American Plastic Bricks (interlocking toy bricks made in the 1960s). I liked running the train, but I was particularly drawn to the bricks. I could easily build something, tear it down, and build something else. Years later, I built an […]

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Meet the Modeler: Pelle Søeborg

A blue CSX diesel locomotive crosses a truss bridge over a muddy green river

What was your first train set or locomotive? As a kid I had a Märklin train, but I never had a layout, just a circle of track I put on the floor when I wanted to play with my trains. When I became a teenager, I lost interest in my trains and sold them. I […]

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Pennsylvania RR Washington Avenue Branch switching layout

HO scale model of arched roof freight house with Pennsylvania Railroad switcher and boxcars

When I first moved to Wisconsin to start working for Model Railroader, my family and I were in a two-bedroom apartment. I had built a freelanced Pennsylvania RR layout in my apartment back in Pennsylvania that filled a 7 x 11-foot section of our long apartment living room. It was basically a donut, with a […]

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JTC N scale 53-foot high-cube containers

Three high-cube containers

While Jacksonville Terminal Co. has up until now stuck to producing accurate scale models of prototypical intermodal equipment, the company is branching out into fantasy schemes with its new Visionary Series. The first three offerings in this series let N scale modelers simulate interchange with the well-known railroads of the fictional Appalachian Lines: W. Allen […]

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