Tourists motor to Horseshoe Curve to watch the cavalcade of trains. When Don was young, the headliners were aluminum cars on the Pennsy’s Broadway Limited. Don and Karen Williams share their layout with visitors, including grandsons Jacob and Zachary. Iron horses in the Korber roundhouse watch a 3rd Rail Pennsy Atlantic 4-4-2 steam locomotive take […]
This Map of the Month appeared in the January 2006 issue of Trains magazine. Pick up any state highway map and the multi-lane roads are shown prominently. Most railroad maps don’t distinguish between single and double track, however, so to compile this map of U.S. multiple-track main lines, a variety of other sources had to be […]
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 […]
Bill Metzger This Map of the Month appeared in the February 2006 issue of Trains magazine. Mention the Pennsylvania Railroad and iconic images come to mind immediately: passenger trains rocketing down a four-track electrified main line; limiteds scooping water on the fly from track pans; impossibly long coal drags; and mammoth engineering projects, from Horseshoe […]
Click the image to download a PDF of this article as it would appear in TRAINS magazine. Quick: Name one locomotive model to which the word “obscure” would never apply. There’s a high likelihood that, if you watched trains in the 1980s and ’90s, the SD40-2 came quickly to your mind. After all, thousands roamed […]
HO scale locomotives Electro-Motive Division SD40T-2 diesel locomotive. Denver & Rio Grande Western (with 88″ nose), Ohio Central (88″ nose), R.J. Corman RR (81″ nose), and Southern Pacific (123″ nose). Three road numbers available. Upgraded tooling, prototype-specific details, and McHenry scale magnetic knuckle couplers. $109.98. March 2010. Ready-to-Roll. Athearn Trains General Electric U23B diesel locomotive. […]
Late in the day, but early on author Fred Frailey’s trip, Pan Am train AYMO passes Otter Creek, Mass., on Aug. 6, 2009. Ryan Parent In our January 2010 issue, Fred W. Frailey explores Pan Am Railways’ history and its history-making partnership with Norfolk Southern Railway: Pan Am Southern, which provides Pan Am a lot […]
U.S. railroad electrification In 1939, the United States was the global leader in railroad electrification, with over 20% of the world’s total. Today, electrification is a non-factor on almost all American railroads outside the Northeast Corridor. How did this happen? The heady projects from the early 20th century that propelled the U.S. to world leader […]
Arkansas & Missouri Railroad roster Legendary among Alco operators, the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad is an independent Class III railroad operating 139-miles of onetime Frisco trackage between Monett, Mo., and Fort Smith, Ark. In addition to freight service, the road also operates passenger excursions. The road’s all-Alco fleet is dominated by 16 C420s of various […]
HO scale locomotives Electro-Motive Division SD40 diesel locomotive. Detroit Edison Co. (DEEX reporting marks), First Union Rail (FURX), Montana Rail Link, Penn Central, Soo Line, and Wheeling & Lake Erie. Two road numbers each. Plastic handrails, wire grab irons, prototype-specific dynamic brakes, and McHenry scale magnetic knuckle couplers. $109.98 December 2009. Ready-to-Roll. Athearn Trains General […]
Walthers HO scale GP15-1 diesel locomotive A smooth-running mechanism and accurate lettering are just two of the highlights of this HO scale GP15-1 by Proto 1000 from Walthers. The ready-to-run locomotive is based on the Electro-Motive Division (EMD) prototype built between June 1976 and April 1983. The prototype. In just under seven years, EMD built […]
