3-D print a rail cart porta-potty: A requirement of a modern railroad, besides moving freight and passengers, is addressing the needs of the employees while on the job. This includes, of course, all of the workers, from the office personnel devising service plans to the maintenance-of-way crews doing track upkeep. As modelers, we only become […]
This 1940s night view of Galesburg shows the lineup of carts for hauling mail and express. Galesburg was on the CB&Q’s Chicago-to-Denver line, with additional lines heading north to the Twin Cities, southwest to Kansas City and St. Louis, and south toward Centralia, Ill. Henry J. McCord photo […]
Common name: Columnar Japanese holly Latin name: Ilex crenata ’Sky Pencil’; synonym I.c. ‘Sky Sentry’ Plant type: Shrubs & small trees Plant size: 4-6′ high x 4-12″ wide USDA Hardiness Zones: 5-9 Cultural needs: Sun; moist, drained soil Introduced by the National Arboretum in 1985, columnar Japanese holly is usually called Sky Pencil or Sky […]
Digital Command Control (DCC) or direct current (DC)? That is the question. If you’re preparing to build a new model railroad or are just starting out in the hobby, you may be pondering the reasons to use DCC instead of an old-fashioned power pack to run your trains. Here are seven reasons to use DCC, […]
One night in 1992, I was in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, waiting for a plane. Bombay is about as far away as a person can travel from Little Silver, N.J., where I grew up, and just as far from the Lionel fun factory where my greatest find was manufactured. But because one day I asked […]
My greatest find could also be known as the one that almost got away. This Lionel outfit was sitting on a shelf of a local pawnshop for quite some time, collecting dust with many other items that no one was interested in buying. Enter my wife, who had worked for a large telecommunications company that […]
Being a longtime toy train collector and a member of the Train Collectors Association since 1971, I have had more than my share of great finds. Recently, though, I chanced upon one that I consider my greatest. Turbines without and with Magne-Traction Like most postwar train enthusiasts, I have always liked the model of the […]
Lionel Mint Car Coin collection with a matching collection of souvenir US Mint coins In 1961, when Lionel first produced the #6445 Fort Knox Gold Bullion Car, it had a coin slot in the top so it could be used as a bank. In 1979, when the car was reproduced as #9320, Lionel also created […]
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The diagram in the Lake Street interlocking tower for C&NW’s North Western Terminal in Chicago shows 16 station tracks and the complexity of the trackage at the throat of the terminal. C&NW photo […]
Isn’t amazing how a single vintage photograph of a store that stocked electric trains can serve as a time machine to carry us back several decades. Pictures like this one are scarce, and so we at Classic Toy Trains know how fortunate we are to be able to share it with you. Our gratitude goes […]
Sometime ago I decided to build a combination small rural station with a freight house. I often use pieces of several kits (or sometimes broken items) to make my projects. For this one, I started with a Korber station and used part of an Aristo-Craft platform to add waiting platform with roof. I wanted the […]
