Atlas O has introduced the first three of four new holiday boxcars that salute traditional American celebrations. I’m very impressed with them. Most holiday boxcars that I’ve owned were simply a basic boxcar with some cheery graphics. Not so with these; Atlas O applies the fun graphics to a top-of-the-line car that the most dyed-in-the-wool […]
The MTH RailKing SW1 locomotive is a model of a humble but evolutionary piece of machinery. Steam locomotives truly were amazing transportation machines, but they basically shook themselves apart as they ran. As such they required lots of care and feeding to keep them service. Accordingly, railroads needed substantial support networks including engine shops, turntables, […]
In 1995, Norfolk Southern was in the market for a modern, high-horsepower diesel to add to its roster. If you run an N scale railroad, you can do as NS did and pick up the General Electric Dash 9-40C, the latest offering from ScaleTrains.com’s high-detail Rivet Counter line. This modern six-axle workhorse is available as […]
We took Lionel’s new legacy GP30 in Chicago & North Western livery out for a spin on our City Transfer & Terminal RR. It runs just as good as it looks! For a full review, check out the December 2021 issue of Classic Toy trains or click here. It also makes an appearance on Bob’s […]
Kalmbach Media is making holiday shopping a little easier with a well-rounded gift guide for the railfan or train enthusiast in your life. Whether the person is a hard-to-shop for family member, a train-curious acquaintance, or someone in between, Kalmbach has you covered. 10 items top our list this year — each selected from the […]
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 […]
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 […]
Rapido has returned with the second release of its HO scale New Look buses, and this time the vehicles are packed with an array of intricate details and new features that come together to create a model that impresses with its levels of realism. The New Look buses were originally built by General Motors in […]
Electro-Motive Division’s GP30 was a pioneer of sorts: a herald of the second generation of diesel-electric locomotion on American railways. By 1960 most American railroads had an idea of what worked and what didn’t cut it in diesel operations. Watch Lionel’s Legacy GP30 run here. Builders such as Alco, Baldwin, Lima-Hamilton, and Fairbanks-Morse fell to […]
A standard-cupola caboose is the latest addition to the WalthersMainline series of HO scale rolling stock. The ready-to-run car is offered with two cupola window styles, see-through plastic running boards, and body-mounted Proto-Max metal couplers. The prototype The WalthersMainline model is based on a Great Northern (GN) prototype built by the International Car Division of […]
Jacksonville Terminal Co. (JTC), best known for its magnetically interlocking intermodal freight containers, is expanding its line of cars that carry those containers. The newest offering from the manufacturer is a 53-foot, 17-post National Steel Car double-stack well car in N scale. The cars have die-cast metal bodies, etched stainless steel details, and Micro-Trains Line […]
