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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.





 

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O Triad

The O-scale Reader & Caney Creek, the Virginian Railway and the Cheapskate & Ohio are distinctly different. Well-known among Southwest O-scalers, the protolance 2-rail Virginian is spectacularly scenicked and spans over 1,200 square feet. Same with the freelance Cheapskate & Ohio, still mostly under construction. It showcases fine-scale 2-rail modeling integrated with hi-rail AC toy trains. The around-the-walls Reader & Caney Creek is proof that 2-rail doesn’t require a ballroom. While they share a size more associated with nostalgia and collecting than fine-scale model railroading, the layouts embody a very individual spirit. And the goal isn't necessarily running trains.

Craftsman Courtyard

Laser-cut craftsman kit makers on the East Coast are working together to change the dynamic of a model railroad segment traditionally reserved for elite modelers because of its reputation for complex kits requiring extensive handwork. Through affordable, easy-to-assemble wood kits, the companies are attracting the experienced and beginners alike.

Mail on the Rails

For a century, “these couriers” included the railroads and what was known for most if its life as the Railway Mail Service. In 1950 more than 14,000 clerks toiled away sorting mail in Railway Post Offices on 3,000 moving trains.

Plus

The Northeast Outdoor Railway Festival is adding a new touch by creating a citywide large-scale experience in Palmer, MA; OminTRAX buys three Arkansas short lines to expand into a new growing market; a recent release of a Denver & Rio Grande Western caboose fills a niche with classic paint; InterMountain Railway's HO 5161 Trinity hoppers feature BNSF's Heritage roads; and an ex-Canadian National Railway F7A finds a home. And more!