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All about the community of model railroading and rail enthusiasm

COWCATCHER MAGAZINE

2009 Round Up

All Issues Priced at $2.95 unless otherwise noted.

In 2009, Cowcatcher Round Up expanded its coverage from Texas to include Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.

PROTOTYPICAL IS IN – Jan/Feb 2009: We celebrate our fifth anniversary with an inside look at the Texas Western Model Railroad Club’s Texas & Pacific layout. PLUS, the model railroad industry braces for a tight economy on the heels of a devastating recession; six of New Orleans’ 24 Canal Street streetcars return to the rails after much of the fleet was damaged by Hurricane Katrina; Fort Worth modeler Olaf Melhouse finds a way to make uncoupling tools out of worn Microbrushes; and volunteers step up to revitalize the museum in Denison’s fomer Katy depot.





FLAVORFUL HILL COUNTRY RAILROADIN’ – March/April 2010: San Antonio Model Railroad Association’s San Antonio & Northern is a Hill Country railroad with a lot of flavor. PLUS, a few snips make older X2F-type couplers compatible with knuckle couplers; a Santa Fe locomotive was a public relations dream; sales on small-ticket items flourish during economic downtown and Austin’s MetroRail begins testing of its fleet as the launch of light-rail service nears.





GULF WESTERN MODULAR SOCIETY SIZES IT UP – May/June 2009: A Corpus Christi, TX, model railroad club is big on presentation. PLUS, Claremore & Southern co-founder George Maulsby leaves behind an Oklahoma legacy; the Central Arkansass Model Railroad Club refurbishes a 1950s park train; a new HO track cleaning car vacuums, scrubs and polishes; and the Trinity Railway Express opens the first of two bridges.





EXTRA SPECIAL ON AMTRAK – July/August 2009Publisher’s Choice Special $2.75 Editor and Publisher Tim Blackwell takes a ride on Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer and gets one-on-one with crew members. PLUS, the dispatcher for the South Texas & Gulf has his eye on the railroad at all times with the help of nine computer monitors; a Longview, TX, conductor carves his way into a side business that gets national attention; and the Galveston Railroad Museum awaits funding after getting hit hard by Hurricane Ike.





‘O’H TO BE IN PENNSY – September/October 2009: It’s 1957 and coal trains are hustling on Brady McGuire’s O-scale Pennsylvania line to Pittsburgh. PLUS, restoration on the ex-Southern Pacific steam locomotive owned by the Austin Steam Train Association is moving forward; the Katy Flyer linked St. Louis and Galveston and gained fame after the Dalton Gang robbed the train in Adair, OK; and the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad beefs up its bridges and fleet with capital investments.





BACK IN BUSINESS – November/December 2009Publisher’s Choice Special $2.75: The Texas State Railroad is back in business and the future looks bright under American Heritage Railways. PLUS, the Cowcatcher asks readers to vote for the best of the best in the four-state area in the first Cowcatcher Gold Rail Awards competition; the Oklahoma Railway Museum splurges on its 10-year anniversary with the purchase of adjacent land to be used for expansion; and the region’s model railroad dealers like what they are seeing in the diesel market.





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Katy Flavor

Growing up in Central Texas in the 1980s, David Heyde loved big machinery. Only natural for a boy surrounded by a mighty river complemented by steamboats, an active Army airfield and regional airport, and equipment that tended row upon row of corn, soybeans and other grains. What loomed largest, though, was the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. Heyde’s MKT Central Texas Subdivision, a compact but bold HO-scale layout, captures on two levels around the walls the zest of the iconic railroad that ran from Kansas City and St. Louis to Galveston, TX, and the Gulf of Mexico. All while maximizing space in what once was a one-car garage.

Holding Steady

This year’s National Narrow Gauge Convention is coming home, where it all began 45 years ago. The Mudhens will once again have a large presence at the convention Sept. 3-6 in St. Louis. Over the last four decades, their rise has been rather circuitous. While developing national appeal in narrow-gauge circles, these dedicated modelers from St. Louis to Arizona to Texas have persevered.

Personal Switcher

The Kansas City West Bottoms Railroad (KCRR) debuted in early March, with no small impact on a parcel of track along the former Missouri Pacific Railroad near the Kansas-Missouri line. What’s turning heads, says KCRR president Rich Duncan, is that the tiny Class III short line is rewriting the railroad marketing narrative on first-mile, last-mile service with a new level of dedicated switching so its three customers can better connect to the Union Pacific.

Plus

Columnist Michelle Kempema writes that model railroaders and railfans can preserve their legacy for a good cause, railroads once ran special trains in enormous size and variety and autonomous battery-electric rail cars are being piloted on two Georgia short line railroads. Also, one modeler looking for something unique for his layout found just the thing in an old model railroad magazine - plans to scratch build a rock bunker. And more!