High-cube boxcars seemed to be everywhere in the 1970s, and thanks to Tangent Scale Models, highly detailed models of Greenville Steel Car Co. 86-foot high-cubes can roll on your HO layout, as well. These monster cars were products of the 1960s, when bigger was better and efficiency was the watchword of corporate America. Earlier methods […]
NEWTON, Iowa — Fifteen years have flown by for Chinese-built QJ 2-10-2 No. 6988, and it is making its last runs today and Saturday before going into storage. The locomotive is at the point where it is required to have a 15-year inspection per Federal Railroad Administration. It and sister No. 7081 were brought to […]
A contemporary 60-foot high-cube double-door boxcar with exterior posts is the latest N scale body style from Micro-Trains Line Co. The model, based on a National Steel Car (NSC) prototype, has body-mounted couplers, metal wheels, and a mix of molded and separate, factory-applied details. Exterior Our sample is decorated as TBOX no. 667101, part of […]
Walthers has reissued its HO scale Electro-Motive Division FP7 and F7B diesel locomotives with new tooling and a LokSound 5 Digital Command Control sound decoder. And wow, is it a brute. The pair of locomotives together mustered almost 2⁄3 of a pound of drawbar pull in our benchwork test and wrestled 30 cars up a […]
BOSTON — A Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority conductor is suing the operator of MBTA commuter trains, saying a defective door caused the partial amputation of one finger. The Quincy (Mass.) Patriot Ledger reports the suit by Quincy resident Allen Chin is one of eight against contract commuter operator Keolis over the last six years over […]
HAMBURG, Germany — Rail equipment firm Siemens has launched two types of driverless train operations in Germany, introducing a commuter train in the northern port city of Hamburg and a fully autonomous streetcar in Potsdam, just west of Berlin. The company is working toward making both technologies commercially available within a few years, as is […]
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — With environmental planning completed for construction of a 200-mph electrified railroad from Las Vegas, Nev., only as far as Victorville, Calif., Brightline West has entered into a memorandum of understanding with California transportation authorities to explore extending tracks to an existing Metrolink commuter rail station in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., where passengers […]
CLEVELAND — One person required transport to a hospital after a Regional Transit Authority Red Line train separated while in motion on Thursday afternoon, WKYC-TV reports. The incident involved a westbound train heading for Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, with the uncoupling occurring between the Cudell and West 117th Street stations. Police and Cleveland Fire first […]
PITTSBURGH — Wabtec will supply components for a Metra order for new passenger cars, the company announced today. Included are brakes; passenger doors; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems; and event recorders. The 200-car order for new bilevel cars is being built by Alstom under a contract approved by the Metra board earlier this […]
PETALUMA, Calif. — Current Utah Transit Authority official Eddy Cumins will become the new general manager of Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit, the agency has announced. KPIX-TV reports Cumins, UTA’s chief operating officer, will join SMART on Nov. 29. “This is a terrific hire for SMART,” the agency’s board of directors said in a statement. “Eddy […]
Chihuahua al Pacífico Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacífico chop-nosed 515 and unadulterated sister 509 work a freight at La Junta, Chihuahua, in March 1975. The government-owned railroad began service in 1961 and became part of Ferromex in 1998. Keith E. Ardinger photo […]
Accurail, an Elburn, Ill.-based manufacturer of easy-to-build HO scale injection-molded plastic kits, announced the models it will be offering for “virtual Trainfest.” Accurail has a longstanding tradition of producing custom-run cars for the annual train show, which has been on hiatus the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s lineup includes Burlington […]
