ONE OF THE HOTTEST locomotives ever made was the streamlined Pennsy K4-class Torpedo. The rocket-shaped steamer looked ready to launch even when standing still. In the 1930s, when the Pennsylvania Railroad re-designed its signature train the Broadway Limited, management wanted the train’s 4-6-2 locomotive to be just as striking as the passenger cars. Industrial designer […]
SOME OF THE slickest-looking steam locomotives were the streamlined Atlantics and Hudsons that served the Milwaukee Road’s speedy Hiawatha passenger trains. During the Great Depression, competition for diminishing passenger traffic was intense. Some roads, such as the Union Pacific, opted for cutting-edge diesel streamliners. Others, such as the Chicago & North Western and Milwaukee Road, […]
GETTING BACK INTO the hobby in the early 1990s, one of the engines that impressed me most was the postwar Lionel turbine. I loved the prototype and thought that this was such an amazing locomotive that I just had to add one or two to my fleet. My Lionel turbines are real workhorses; the only […]
THERE ARE PLENTY of great-looking steamers on the market. Walk into any hobby shop and you’ll see row after row of these beauties. So amid a virtual sea of four-cylinder, huffing, puffing black giants, what can make another big engine stand out? Try mixing in a little color. MTH has modeled a brawny green champion […]
AS FAR AS STEAM switchers go, the Pennsylvania Railroad B6-class 0-6-0 may be the most recognized locomotive in model railroading. The humble little steamer could likely have been found at any freight yard anywhere on the railroad, from New York to St. Louis. Images of it dotted the pages of the Railroad Man’s Magazine (later […]
WEAVER MODELS HAS produced a superb model of what must be classified as one of the finest-looking 4-8-4 Northern locomotives of the era of steam power. In the 1920s, the Rio Grande needed some new engines to supplement the line’s heavy 4-8-2 Mountain types that were handling longer and heavier passenger trains through the Rocky […]
THE DREYFUSS HUDSONS look fast standing still and they backed up their speedy image with superb performance. In the 1930s, the New York Central streamlined 10 of the line’s famed 4-6-4 Hudsons as part of an upgrade of the railroad’s premier express, the 20th Century Limited. But despite their celebrity status, in time the locomotives […]
AMONG THE LATEST in Lionel’s LionMaster line of traditional-sized locomotives is an exceptionally sharp rendering of a Union Pacific-style 4-6-6-4 Challenger, painted and lettered for the Western Maryland Railroad. Although in real life that Appalachian coal hauler used a different style of 4-6-6-4 locomotive, Lionel’s model will probably please everyone but the most die-hard, rivet-counting […]
ONE OF THE MOST recognized American locomotives is the bullet-faced Norfolk & Western J-class 4-8-4 Northern. Between 1941 and 1950 the railroad, which stubbornly supported steam locomotives while other roads embraced diesels, built 14 J and J-1 class locomotives, keeping them on the active roster until 1959. The notable exception to retirement was no. 611, […]
LET’S FACE IT: Most U.S. railroad enthusiasts don’t know much about the railways or trains run by our Canadian cousins. This is unfortunate, since the railroad history of the Great White North is just as interesting as that of the Lower 48. Until recently, the major toy train manufacturers applied Canadian National and Canadian Pacific […]
THE PENNSYLVANIA A5-class 0-4-0 may be among the smallest steam switchers this side of a tenderless tank engine, but K-Line Electric Trains has big hopes that its attractive switcher will draw new members into the company-sponsored K-Line Collector’s Club. The A5-class switchers consisted of 47 locomotives built in three groups in 1916, 1917, and 1924, […]
THANKS TO THE BOARD GAME Monopoly, tens of millions have taken a ride on the Reading, although far fewer ever saw its 1,500 miles of rails. Had the ride on the Reading been real, by chance the locomotive out front might have been a high-wheeling 4-6-2 Pacific. According to A Century of Reading Company Motive […]
