x

All about the community of model railroading and rail enthusiasm

COWCATCHER MAGAZINE

2010 Round Up

2010 is the last year of publication of the Cowcatcher Round Up before we became Cowcatcher Magazine.

All Issues Priced at $5.95 unless otherwise noted. Includes shipping in the U.S. Call for international shipping rates.

OPEN HOUSE – January/February 2010: Gil Freitag’s iconic Stony Creek & Western is a popular stop in Houston. PLUS, a welder’s spark may have started a blaze that gutted the interior of a former Missouri Pacific cupola caboose at the Texas Transportation Museum; Cowcatcher readers pick the best of rail in the region, and the Oklahoma City Train Show takes home top honors; manufacturers are upbeat and ready to move in 2010; and Warren Buffet makes a bet on BNSF.




DEEP RIVER III  – March/April 2010: From the West Coast to Oklahoma, the N-scale Deep River III is right at home. PLUS, the Museum of the American Railroad and the City of Dallas are embroiled in a legal fight; membership and attendance spikes for regional NMRA and Train Collectors Association groups; former Cotton Belt locomotive No. 819, the “Grand Old Lady”, needs funding to get back on the rails; and we have a retrospective on the Santa Fe and the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe rail motor cars.




ALL ABOARD!  – May/June 2010: Austin’s Capital MetroRail has a smooth start to its light-rail debut in Texas’ capitol city. PLUS, the N Scale Collector Convention is growing along with an intense collector market; Amtrak plans to phase out “obsolete” fleet equipment; InterMountain Railway Co. announces a second run of AC-12 cabs; and the Stillwater Central reaches an operating agreement with the Hollis & Eastern Railroad.




July/August 2010: A big wheat harvest and few places to put it offers a challenge for Oklahoma Class III Farmrail. PLUS, battery power offers a solution to end-of-train applications in smaller scales; get a look inside at Micro-Trains with our interview with President and CEO Eric Smith; a Union Pacific freight train derails near a historic East Texas Texas & Pacific station; and Kato releases a N-scale model of “George Bush No. 41”.




<PEAK OF CRAFTSMANSHIP  – September/October 2010: The  HO- and HOn3-scale McKinney, TX, Rocky Mountian Central & the Colorado Pacific ascends with scratch-built flare. PLUS, the Galveston Railroad Museum receives a grant to match FEMA money that will enable a complete rebuild of the museum battered by Hurricane Ike; the Texas Electric Railway was a giant in its day; and we take a look at an ATSF D918 caboose is scratch-built in HO.




HEREFORD SUB FIRST HAND – November/December 2010Trackside research refines operations for an HO-scale rendition of a Santa Fe subdivision. PLUS, vendors and exhibitors give the first Big Texas Train Show in Houston high marks; construction and weather contribute to the collapse of a corner of a historic M-K-T office building in Denison, TX; George Hollwedel’s Prototype N Scale Models fills a void with N-scale freight cars; and New Orleans eyes federal money to expand its nostalgic street car line.





 

Pick up the current issue of the Cowcatcher Magazine at a location near you or SUBSCRIBE

Current Issue: Nov/Dec 2025

$6.95 (U.S. Orders Only)

Splitrockin'

An operating session on the Split Rock Mining Co. Railroad is pretty straightforward. A three-person crew works the freelance HO-scale railroad with the sole purpose of transporting iron ore mined in Northern Minnesota to a freighter on Lake Superior. Instructions for the operators can be communicated in a few words before the shift begins. Pull all loads at the mine. Take them to the boat. Take all empties from the boat back to the mines. Rinse and repeat. There are no car cards or manifests. Switching is done by colors, and, yes, there is a rhyme and reason on this Alco-driven layout based on railroading on the Iron Range in Minnesota.

Gaining Traction

A new generation of freelance railroads is taking model railroading by storm, gaining prominence through online videos and social media. The ages-old modeling technique is attracting young modelers and unlocking creative license in veteran hobbyists.

Creating Opportunities

In Southern Wyoming, OmniTRAX is handling switching for two mines in a region known for its prolific coal mining operations. The mines deliver about 17 million tons of trona, a sodium carbonate compound that is processed into soda ash or bicarbonate of soda, and OmniTRAX is increasing safety and managing efficiencies in moving inbound and outbound cars.

Plus

G&G Model Shop in Southwest Houston credits flexibility and personalized service for its 80 years serving the model railroad community. Rapido Trains delivers an N-scale replica of the Santa Fe Railway’s storied SFRD RR-56 refrigerator car, reviewed in this issue. Also, the romance of the circus and railroads united in the circus train, which endured as the greatest shows on earth’s sideshow. And more!