LIONEL’S POSTWAR Celebration series is a tip of the hat to the toy train maker’s golden years by re-creating classic products of a bygone era. Lionel offers collectors and operators a chance to buy fresh versions of childhood favorites that have been gussied up the latest Command-control and Railsounds marvels. The postwar celebration series products […]
THIS LOCOMOTIVE will dominate your fleet. The end. What? Okay, okay, the review can’t be that short. The Southern Pacific General Service (GS) 4 -class 4-8-4 Northerns, nos. 4430-4457, graduated from the Lima Locomotive Works and entered service in 1941. They were top notch high performance machines that cost $175,000 each. The Northerns were capable […]
WITH THE TORRENT of product flowing from manufacturers today, people no longer say “I never thought I’d see that in O gauge!” The more common remark is, “I was wondering when they would do that.” MTH Electric Trains produced a Premier line Santa Fe 2900-class Northern 4-8-4 in 1995. A beautiful and imposing product that […]
MTH ELECTRIC TRAINS owner Mike Wolf has a quest: to produce tooling for virtually every type of locomotive ever to ride the rails. This noble goal has enabled a unique locomotive to be offered at a price within the reach of most tight-radius operators. The RailKing line has been home to several unusual streamlined Hudsons […]
THE ONLY DISAPPOINTMENT I’ve had with the RailKing diesel line is the size of the locomotives. Don’t get me wrong, RailKing diesels have a lot going for them: quality, detailing, superb decoration, and low prices. But set your RailKing Dash 8 or SD60 side-by-side with a friend’s Premier line model and it becomes clear you […]
THE WILLIAMS E60 electric locomotive has the distinction of being the first modern O gauge electric locomotive offered by any manufacturer other than Lionel. It is also notable that the first E60 offered by Williams Electric Trains predated the creation of Classic Toy Trains by more than a decade! The prototype E60 is a General […]
WALTHERS’ NEWEST additions to its Cornerstone line of O scale structures are attractive, easy to assemble, and flexible enough to fit a wide variety of modeling eras. I assembled kits for the Steel Water Tank, the Interlocking Tower, and the Five Star Service Gas Station. All three plastic kits went together easily. The only tools […]
THE GENERAL ELECTRIC Rectifier was the first of several brick-shaped freight locomotives made by GE to satisfy the limited market for freight-hauling electric locomotives. In the mid-1950s the Virginian Railway, a regional carrier known for heavy coal trains and electric locomotives, sought replacements for its fleet of aging “square head” freight motors. Pleased with the […]
TIME MARCHES ON in both reality and the toy train world. Electric boxcab locomotives often replaced steam engines, streamlined GG1s replaced boxcabs, and finally the venerable GG1s fell victim to the passage of time and were replaced by the AEM7 electric. AEM7 you say? In the mid-1970s Amtrak saw the handwriting on the wall. The […]
THE NEW YORK CENTRAL Hudson! Now there’s a locomotive nobody has done for a while. All kidding aside, the New York Central J-class Hudson is a locomotive that virtually everybody but Atlas O has produced. You have your choice of scale, semi-scale, or toy-like; prewar, postwar, or modern; and in S or O gauges. The […]
THE BUDD RAIL DIESEL Car (RDC) has a time honored place in railroading as well as toy train operation. Prior to World War II, America’s railroads tried to stem losses from passenger service on under-populated branch lines by use of various motorized car units that were collectively dubbed “doodlebugs.” These units often looked like baggage […]
FOR HE WHO stands still in today’s aggressive toy train market, all may be lost, and the staff at Williams Electric Trains has no intention of fumbling around, looking for a map! Williams wants to stay in out in front of customer satisfaction and variety. Williams has unveiled its latest addition to its economical three-rail […]
