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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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Throttling Up

Ever wonder why railroads chose certain locomotives to pull freight trains? Railroads have practiced multiple-unit train control since the 1890s when Frank J. Sprague developed a system to combine motive power in electric train operation. When assigning power and consisting locomotives today, railroads generally match the horsepower per ton and tractive effort ratings to specific locomotives designed to meet specific network needs. But other factors are involved, and it's not uncommon for railroads to mix makes and models of locomotives when consisting for trains.

State of Model Railroading

Response to the Cowcatcher’s 2025 State of Model Railroading survey was positive and many say the hobby is rolling along fine, maybe a bit complicated for some. The 31-question survey sent to readers across the U.S. in November earned a 42 percent response rate. Questions ranged from personal preferences and skill levels and layouts to how modelers buy and spend.

Joint Agency

Whether shuttling power, moving cars through interline carrier agreements or running on joint lines, North America’s largest rail providers interact. One of the more obscure examples is the Milwaukee Road’s Joint Agency Yard in Kansas City, MO, where the Milwaukee Road and Kansas City Southern coexisted for 40 years. On the N-scale Whitehurst & Pine Ridge Railroad, joint yard agreements in Kansas City and Dallas make sense, allowing KCS traffic to move in and out of both ends of the layout to service grain customers without the need for another yard.

Plus

BNSF posts record agricultural volumes on the heels of a good harvest. A Milwaukee Road stock car with a storied past is now on display at the Galveston Railroad Museum. And a United Kingdom retailer and manufacturer introduces its camera car, the Eye-Choo, to the U.S. And more!