Main Street of the Northwest

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Mountains and rivers defined the scenic attraction of the Northern Pacific. Here, an A-B-B-A set of F units leads a six-locomotive consist on a freight following the Yakima River near Ellensburg, Wash., in 1964. Tom Gildersleeve photo […]

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Minute Man maroon

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Surrounded by the new wave of motive power, a Boston & Maine worker rests at Boston’s Charlestown engine terminal in May 1952. E7 3818, a Budd RDC3, and Alco RS3 1515 and siblings at right can ignore the steam locomotive facilities, all but obsolete by now. B&M’s “Minute Man” emblem dated from 1945. Frank and […]

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Big Easy’s big terminal

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The plaza for newly minted New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal remains unfinished in this 1954 view. Previously, the site was occupied by the former Union Station. In the distance, past the Claiborne Avenue overpass, is the NOUPT coach yard and diesel shop. Leon Trice photo […]

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Gravity assisted railroading

20200220

A Chesapeake & Ohio Mallet starts downgrade for Barrett, W.Va., with loads from Eastern Gas & Fuel’s Wharton No. 2 mine in June 1955. Trains’ Editor David P. Morgan tracked two cars from mine to Tidewater in the April 1956 issue. W.A. Akin Jr. photo […]

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Highballing Hudson

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New York Central J-1 Hudson No. 5403 accelerates west at Mattoon, Ill., with an express train for St. Louis in September 1954. When built in in 1927, the Central was given to throwing up marble monuments of stations, running seven-section Centurys, and paying 8-percent dividends. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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Research sources for prototype railroad information

CNW Crystal Lake 1960s

Not everyone has a fabulous railroad library to work from, but the library at the Model Railroader offices didn’t get me as far as you’d think. Following is a short list of places I’ve found amazing stuff when looking for research: • Most railroads have a historical society, so it’s good to have an up-to-date […]

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A busy urban model railroad

HO scale Canadian Pacific Montreal Terminals_01

  Prototype operations weren’t the focus of many model railroaders when I started work on my HO scale layout in 1988. But I had a clear vision of an operations-oriented layout that would depict the Canadian Pacific Ry.’s Montreal Terminals Division in Canada’s second largest city in the late 1960s. That was when I spent […]

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HO scale Western Maryland Ry. Blue Ridge Division

HOscaleWesternMarylandRyBlueRidgeDivision

The layout at a glance Name: Western Maryland Ry. Blue Ridge Division Layout designer: Brian Wolfe Scale: HO (1:87.1) Size: 28 x 39 feet Prototype: Western Maryland Ry. Locale: Maryland/Pennsylvania border Era: 1970 Style: multilevel walk-in Mainline run: 200 feet Minimum radius: 29″ (main), 18″ (Hagerstown wye) Minimum turnout: no. 6 (main), no. 4 (yards) […]

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Winter wonderland

20200103

The eastbound Western Star kicks up snow as it approaches a freight at the west end of the Tintah, Minn., siding on February 14, 1969. The Star carried Nos. 27 and 28 at the time. Howard S. Patrick photo […]

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Howard Zane’s HO scale Piermont Division photo gallery

  Forrest Nace took plenty of fascinating photographs of Howard Zane’s spectacular HO scale Piermont Division. Enjoy this exclusive gallery of selected scenes from the 60 x 70-foot HO scale model railroad, including many of Howard’s superdetailed brass steam locomotive models. A full article on Howard Zane’s layout appeared in the February 2020 issue of […]

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HO scale Piermont Division

HOscalePiermontDivision

The layout at a glance Name: Piermont Division Scale: HO (1:87.1) Size: 60 x 70 feet Theme: freelanced Locale: Pennsylvania, New York State, northwestern New Jersey Era: early 1950s Style: walk-in Mainline run: more than 1,400 feet Minimum radius: 38″ Minimum turnout: no. 10 (main and sidings), no. 8 (yards) Maximum grade: 1.5 percent (main), […]

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