Obsolete railcars are getting a reprieve from the scrapper’s torch to serve as vital road links in an area of North Carolina ravaged by Hurricane Helene. The North Carolina Department of Transportation and Innovative Bridge Co. are installing retired flatcars as a quick fix to temporarily replace road bridges damaged or destroyed by the storm […]
STEARNS, Ky. — McCreary County Heritage Foundation officials, owners of the Big South Fork Scenic Railway right-of-way, have confirmed the Jan. 28 derailment of a locomotive was the result of a runaway incident. No one was injured in the incident on the 14-mile tourist railway [see “Big South Fork Scenic locomotive derails …,” Trains News […]
I constructed my first N scale layout in a coffee table in 1976 based on the East Glasstop project railroad series that appeared in Model Railroader from December of 1970 to April of 1971. However, it was not until I retired in 2016 that I completed my second layout, a 5 x 5 foot square […]
Norfolk & Western class Z1b 2-6-6-2 1480 is at Norton, Va., in May 1952. A decent-sized engine by most standards, the Z1 was small in comparison to N&W’s class Y 2-8-8-2s and A 2-6-6-4s. Ed Theisinger photo […]
STEARNS, Ky. — A former Atlantic Coast Line EMD SW9 has been badly damaged in a light-engine derailment on Kentucky and Tennessee’s Big South Fork Scenic Railway. Aerial photos on the cover of the McCreary Journal, a southern Kentucky local newspaper, reveal a badly damaged EMD SW9 No. 106 derailed and resting against a mountainside […]
SPRUCE PINE, N.C. — Freight cars are once again rolling though the western North Carolina town of Spruce Pine, N.C., after CSX Transportation crews reopened about 2 miles of its Clinchfield Railroad route north of Spruce Pine, gaining access to a local freight customer. CSX officials confirmed the line’s restoration in a video posted to […]
CUMBERLAND, Md. — Public TV series Great Scenic Railway Journeys has joined with the restoration effort for Western Maryland Scenic Railroad 2-8-0 No. 734, launching a $10,000 donation-match program for the restoration project. The program is offering a dollar-for-dollar match up to $10,000 for the effort to return the locomotive to operating condition. The 2-8-0, […]
CRUM, W.Va. — A rockslide led to the derailment of 18 cars of a Norfolk Southern train on Friday (Jan. 31, 2025) near the town of Crum, the railroad has announced. The incident occurred about 10 p.m., according to WVMetroNews.com. WOWK-TV reports one of the derailed cars carried a hazardous substance, toluene, but railroad spokeswoman […]
Brooks-built class Norfolk & Western K2 4-8-2 No. 117 goes for a turntable ride at Schaffers Crossing in Roanoke, Va., in 1954. The locomotive is one of 22 class K1 Mountain types given J-style streamlining in the late 1940s. W.A. Akin Jr. photo […]
CUMBERLAND, Md. — Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-2 No. 1309 is poised for reassembly after spending the 2024 season sidelined for planned maintenance work, Western Maryland Scenic Railroad officials say. The Mallet has undergone a laundry list of in-house projects and subcontracted work aimed at positioning the locomotive for long-term operation. The tourist railroad tapped D&G […]
BIG STONE GAP, Va. – A three-week exhibition of railroad watercolors and photographs by author and Trains contributor Ron Flanary is scheduled to begin Jan. 17 on the campus of Mountain Empire Community College. Titled “The Tracks of my Years,” the display of 30 pieces consists of about two-thirds photos and one-third paintings, all made […]
Built by Others is an article series showcasing layouts constructed by modelers using plans and projects from the pages of Model Railroader and its related products. The HO scale Winston-Salem Southbound Tar Branch layout project layout first appeared in the pages of Model Railroader in January of 2018, as well as the 2017 issue of […]
