On Dave Abeles’ HO scale Conrail-inspired layout, locomotive fleet operations warrant the same careful attention as it does in 1:1 scale. Follow along to see how he and his crew ready the motive power for smooth and reliable performance at the head-end of his trains! […]
Company service Texas Electric Utilities E25B No. 2304, southbound with coal for Monticello, Texas, in May 1984, represents the first generation of motive power on the power plant railroad. Alex Mayes photo […]
Shortline savior North Carolina’s Laurinburg & Southern was a GE 70-tonner bastion in the Southeast. A pair works Dixie Guano in Laurinburg in September 1984. The GE small locomotive line enabled great savings for short lines that adopted them, keeping some of them running for years longer than if powered by steam. Jim Wrinn photo […]
Great Lakes outpost Chesapeake & Ohio SW9 No. 5251 idles by the carferry City of Midland 41 in Milwaukee in 1978. The C&O’s Milwaukee trackage was reached only by the carferries across Lake Michigan. Brian Buchanan photo […]
In the late 1960s and in to the ’70s, I had numerous rides on Toledo, Peoria & Western freight trains in both directions out of Peoria, Ill., where I grew up. The TP&W interchanged with the Pennsylvania Railroad and its successors 108 miles east at Effner, Ind., and with the Santa Fe 114 miles west […]
Lonely Rock Island An inbound Rock Island commuter train arrives at the mostly vacant LaSalle Street Station on Dec. 27, 1972. The Chicago skyline shown here is drastically different from what visitors today would see. Denny Hamilton photo […]
General Electric’s 4,400 hp C44-9Ws were, by far, the most popular D.C. traction locomotives the company every produced, with almost 3,600 copies built for North American customers. Sales began in the early 1990s just as A.C. traction was taking hold in the industry. Many railroads were still either wary of the new A.C. technology and […]
On this episode of Bob’s Train Box, Bob takes a look at a Lionel steam locomotive that he acquired, sold, and bought again. We’ve all been there, right? Then, he and CTT editor Hal Miller have a look at some structures for small and odd spaces on your layout. Then they both have a look […]
On this episode of Bob’s Train Box, Bob takes a look at a Lionel steam locomotive that he acquired, sold, and bought again. We’ve all been there, right? Then, he and CTT editor Hal Miller have a look at some structures for small and odd spaces on your layout. Then they both have a look […]
Doug Harrop retired from Union Pacific in 2003. He hired out with the Southern Pacific in 1967 in Arizona. He left the management ranks a decade later to return to Utah to enter engine service out of Ogden. Known for his photographic coverage of Utah, Harrop’s enthusiasm for railroads took him across the continent. He […]
Grain train on the prairie A Canadian Pacific GP9 switches the grain elevator at Headingley, Manitoba, in August 1980. In this time of transition, the cars to be loaded are a mix of cylindrical covered hoppers and boxcars. John Uckley […]
Interurban legacy Seaboard Coast Line GP30s hustle 16 cars through Greer, S.C., on July 10, 1974, on former Piedmont & Northern trackage. SCL merged the P&N, which dropped its last mainline wires in 1954, 15 years later in 1969. Photo by Curt Tillotson […]
