2025 Cowcatcher Magazine

All issues priced at $7.25 each unless otherwise noted. Includes shipping in the U.S. Call for international shipping rates.

Throttling Up – January/February 2025:

Cover Story: 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.

PLUS, 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.

And, whether shuttling power, moving cars through interline carrier agreements or running on joint lines, North America’s largest rail providers interact. For 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.

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!

January/February 2025 – $7.25

Coal Stragglers – March/April 2025:

Cover Story: North American railroads have hauled coal in quantity ever since the anthracite roads were built on the East Coast. Decades later and despite many changes that have diminished production, coal remains a top (but declining) commodity.

While it has weathered shifts in power generation and other factors leading to its decline, coal still accounts for 28 percent of total rail tonnage and 12 percent of revenue.

Watch a coal train roll by and you’ll notice that most cars are painted a stripe or block of color on one end. The color doesn’t matter, but the painted end has a rotary coupler, the non-painted end a solid drawbar. Learn how this combination of couplers enable railroads to move coal efficiently.

PLUS, Manufacturers roll out the red carpet at January’s Amherst Railway Society’s Railroad Hobby Show in Springfield, MA. The show set an attendance record of 27,535 at what has become the big daddy of train shows.  Also, after almost 20 years of top-line service, the Pennsylvania Railroad’s St. Louisan and New Yorker were rechristened Spirit of St. Louis after the custom-built Ryan monoplane in which Charles Lindbergh made the first transatlantic flight. 

CN rolls out a medium horsepower hybrid locomotive that will be deployed this year across several of the railroads’ yards and branches. And watching trains circle a layout adds a warm touch to modeling and relieves stress, say modelers.

March/April 2025 – $7.25

Tuned In – May/June 2025:

Cover Story: Spring is when large-scale model railroaders with their green thumbs plant and prune colorful foliage grown nearly to scale. In some areas, maintaining outdoor layouts is quite challenging because of changing weather.

Nancy Norris, an author who builds garden railroads professionally, says some plant varieties have become more difficult to grow in certain Hardiness Zones. In some cases it means garden railroaders having to put more emphasis on growing native plants rather than relying on varieties more susceptible to extreme conditions.

She recommends new gardeners consult with their local nurseries for the best choices for an outdoor layout. Norris also has a few recommendations of her own.

PLUS, Sweeping tariffs imposed on goods imported into the United States are stirring model railroad manufacturers. As a result, model railroading and other hobbies will cost more. In February the U.S. applied a 10 percent tariff on goods imported from China, and the tax has since escalated. Suppliers – including Athearn, InterMountain Railway Co., Broadway Limited, Rapido Trains and ScaleTrains – have been putting dealers and customers on notice that prices will increase tariffs are implemented.

Also, the North American freight car fleet in 2023 consisted of 2.03 million rail cars, according to Railinc’s Umler Equipment Index. Rail car fleet management — how empty cars get dispatched to move to their next loading point — is an ever-moving process and often requires fleet car managers to be nimble. And, A vintage Lionel store display is always a crowd pleaser, Atlas’ N-scale True-Track is the right solution for a new test track on the Whitehurst & Pine Ridge Railroad and The Green Diamond was Illinois Central’s gem on the St. Louis-to-Chicago route.

May/June 2025 – $6.25 SALE!

Katy Flavor – July/August 2025:

Cover Story: 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.pring is when large-scale model railroaders with their green thumbs plant and prune colorful foliage grown nearly to scale. In some areas, maintaining outdoor layouts is quite challenging because of changing weather.

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.

PLUS, 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.

Also, 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.

And columnist Michelle Kempema writes that model railroaders and railfans can preserve their legacy for a good cause.

July/August 2025 – $7.25 Copies are limited!

Sprucing Up – September/October 2025:

Cover Story: It’s easy to not see the forest for the trees on a model railroad, so the Colorado Model Railroad Museum won’t mind if visitors focus closely on the towering firs and glowing aspens on the Oregon, California & Eastern Railroad. A panoramic scan is most appropriate now that many of the 28,000 trees are getting a makeover.

One of the country’s top model railroad museums, CMRM is refreshing scenery along its Pacific Northwest-based signature HO-scale layout with laborious help from staff and volunteers. For the past year, trees, ground cover and other scenery have been cleaned or replaced on the 15-year-old masterpiece inspired by museum founder David Trussell.

PLUS, freight stations and engine service facilities are the most common assets for railroads, and Gene Mangum’s HO-scale Mystic Branch is no exception. In the first of a two-part series, Mangum details the many railroad-owned structures on the layout.

Two years after Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern became North America’s first continuous north-south railroad, Union Pacific Railroad Co. and Norfolk Southern Railway Co. are working to stitch a seamless east-west transcontinental railroad. Leaders from UP and NS say a seamless railroad devoid of interchanges creates valuable synergies for shippers and the Union Pacific Transcontinental Railroad.

Pat Hiatte takes a ride from Chicago to Milwaukee on the Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee Railway’s Electroliner. Plus, Kadee Quality Products follows its successful run of the Nickel Plate Road AAR 50-ton flatcar with an undecorated model – see the review. Also, construction on BNSF’s bridge over the Missouri River near Bismarck-Mandan, ND, is nearing the halfway point. And more!

September/October 2025 – $6.95

Splitrockin’ – November/December 2025:

Cover Story: An operating session on the Splitrock 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 owner Thomas Gaisor’s Alco-driven layout.

The Split Rock Mining Co. Railroad is a snapshot of transporting iron ore in Minnesota’s vast Iron Range, where mining has been the region’s lifeblood since the 1800s. Operations are based on the prototype practices of the time in moving, sorting and shipping iron ore to the steel mills in the eastern U.S.

Gaisor has devised a unique car system that easily facilitates moving several loaded and empty cars to and from the boat.

PLUS, 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

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.

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!

November/December 2025 – $7.25 Copies are limited!