Train Magazines: Will the "real" trains please now stand up!

[John Busby]

Hi briane1027

Well I though about running real trains on my variouse layouts that I have built but then realised a 4'81/2" gauge train just will not fit on any of the track gauges I have used its just too big

So I settle for the brands that fit the gauge.

I run what I like apart from the definatly toy's stuff just about anything you can dream up has been done on the prototype railways some where in the world.

Just have your brand of train fun its a lot easier, every one else knows where to go if they don't like it.

regards John

[Deputy]

We have an Amtrak passenger consist that regularly traverses the rails on our 1950's era layout. I say who cares?! As long as we have fun, none of the rest of it matters. C'est la vi!

As for real trains, to be honest, I don't get much out of seeing real trains. I do enjoy seeing the old ones up in New Hampshire, but modern trains? Feh...

Jim 

I'm with Jim as far as the real trains are concerned. They all leave me pretty cold. For me, my train world stopped when New York Central merged with Pennsylvania (February 1,1968). I won't buy or run anything newer than that. I also won't run any of the red/white Jersey Central stuff.

As far as rolling stock, no Railbox or Conrail stuff on my shopping list. Not sure when Railbox came into existence, but I'm playing it safe.

Dep

[billbarman]

i love this magizine there was this whole one about the hudson this is a great magizine.

[ADCX Rob]

The Finger Lakes runs right through my town.  Because of work, etc, and their operation hours, lately I get to see the trains on the old NYC "Auburn Road" from the kids' Little League field more than any other vantage point.  It's a great little operation. (Today is Tuesday - we'll probably see some action at the 6:00 game...)

Their Geeps & U-Boats(B23-7's actually) in the Lightning Stripe scheme are quite a sight.

The LA&L is close to us too.  They are of special note because of their dedication to Alco diesels(no FA's or PA's, sorry).

The Adirondack Scenic Railroad is also not too far away.  Alco RS-3 8223 as seen in the Lionel 11744 New Yorker Passenger/Freight Set is based in Thendara / Old Forge, NY.   They roster a variety of Alco, EMD, and a couple of small GE locos.

Rob

[dwiemer]

Brian,

     I read the Trains magazine you referred to.  My neighbor is the owner of the FP7s that you mentioned.  Georgia Southwestern Railroad.  They use a Central of Georgia paint scheme which is both simple and nice.  If you are interested in actually doing one of these, I can get as many photos as you need.  I am interested in painting up one or two engines in GSW livery.  I agree in that it is a very good issue and I often return to the bookstore checking out the latest issues.  Another good magazine is RailPace.

Dennis

[fifedog]

Just says to me, no matter what the chuff rate or the rivet count, they are ALL still TOY TRAINS! So my lower end Alco FA's and Alco S-2's done up in Norfolk Southern, Conrail and CSX are indeed as realistic as what I see many more high end operators doing on their layouts!

I don't recall anyone saying they weren't...

[Jumijo]

We have an Amtrak passenger consist that regularly traverses the rails on our 1950's era layout. I say who cares?! As long as we have fun, none of the rest of it matters. C'est la vi!

As for real trains, to be honest, I don't get much out of seeing real trains. I do enjoy seeing the old ones up in New Hampshire, but modern trains? Feh...

Jim 

[brianel027]

I don't how many of you guys read the "real" train magazines, but I enjoy them. I pick up Trains when the cover grabs me, which is quite a bit. In the past couple years, there have been some real winning issues. The current one has a great article on short line railroads. I've actually seen the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville locos shown on page 44. But what's really great is to see all these older locomotives still in use on shortlines today. Many times, these new shortlines replicate the paint scheme of more well-known larger lines (like the Finerlakes Railway imitation NYC lightning stripe scheme - not metnioned though in the issue).

I love the photo on pages 52-53 of the RJ Corman line FP7's pulling some streamlined passenger cars in Jan. 2006. As I look through the issue, it says to me, gee, you can run older locomotives and cars and still be "prototypical" on today's current railroads. And get a load of that paint scheme.... you can paint your own name on your toy trains and have it be "prototypical." And if that RJ Corman red, silver and white paint scheme doesn't scream "toy trains' I don't know what does.

There's another magazine (sorry Kalmbach) called The Railroad Press which is almost always just superb. The photos and the stock they're printed on are worthy of framing. The current issue has a big Pennsy feature with superb photos. I'm not a big PRR fan, but I still enjoyed it. But what gave me a hoot were two other photos.

One of what appears to be an ordinary Conrail box car, which is actually a travelling display and movie theatre for Operation Lifesaver. What a hoot! You can run a box car on your toy train layout, with passengers boarding the box car and when some guy hollers "that ain't prototypical" you can can answer back "oh yes it is!"

The other photo that was a hoot was the on page 74 of a modern aluminum body coal porter bathtub hopper with the markings "MARX." It even had a 4-digit number "6587." The actual trin car number sounds like the number of a toy train! Even the magazine caption made note of the humor here of the toy becoming the prototype, and how they were anxious to see a real missle launching train car with the companion exploding box car.

Even as a 027 toy train operators, I get inspiration and ideas from looking at magazines like Trains and The Railroad Press.

I also get a hoot when I look at both toy train magazines(OGR and CTT), as with the current issues, and see photos of steam locos pulling modern waffle box cars and coil cars. Or steamers on one track and CSX SD90MAC's running along side on the other track.

I know there's an element of the 3-rail hobby that demands full scale, prototypical realism in their trains, with correct everything. But then I see the photos of these guys layouts, and I laugh when I see things like modern engines pulling old woodside reefers. And the first thing that hits my mind is TOY TRAINS! They run their "REAL" trains like toy trains! Hahaha hahaa!

Ah yes, they many be running as realistic models as are available, with the latest accurate electronic sounds and gizzmos, but they still run them like I do.... as toy trains! Again, I do enjoy the real train magazines: I get ideas and see how things I thought weren't prototypical actually are. BUT I have never seen photos of a real PRR steam engine running next to a Chessie System loco. And I was unaware that bathtub hoppers, waffle box cars and coil cars existed during the days of the NYC and PRR.

Just says to me, no matter what the chuff rate or the rivet count, they are ALL still TOY TRAINS! So my lower end Alco FA's and Alco S-2's done up in Norfolk Southern, Conrail and CSX are indeed as realistic as what I see many more high end operators doing on their layouts!

Matter of fact, the Norfolk Southern has done up some F-units in a classic Southern inspired NS scheme for their business train, as shown in the current Trains issue. How ironic that a true toy train company, RMT, is the first one to do this loco. How perfect!