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COWCATCHER MAGAZINE

2025 Product News

Following are selected product releases published in 2025 Cowcatcher editions.

M.T.H. Trains announces Premier O Express Reefers

M.T.H. Trains announced an exclusive run of Premier O-Scale R50B Express Reefers in a unique Long Island livery available only at Trainworld in Brooklyn.

The cars will come in two road numbers beginning in March. Early order price is $84.99 from Trainworld.

The models feature a detailed, durable ABS body with metal wheels and axles, and die-cast four-wheel trucks. Details include brake wheels, separate metal handrails and opening car doors.

The cars operate on O31 curves.

The R50B Express Reefer, developed in the 1940s by the Railway Express Agency, was a revolution in refrigerated transport.

Micro-Trains releases N 40-foot wood, steel boxcars

Micro-Trains Line released in April its new N-scale 40-foot Double-Sheathed Wood Reefer and 40-foot Steel Ice Reefer.

The wood reefer is lettered for Jacob E. Decker & Sons of Mason City, IA. It was built in October 1928 and repainted in East Chicago in July 1931. The car has billboard “Decker” printed on the roof.

The Merchants Despatch Transportation Co. steel ice reefer, built in 1956 by Pacific Car & Foundry, was lettered for Illinois Central service. Illinois Central Gulf was formed after the merger of Gulf, Mobile & Ohio and the Illinois Central in 1972. Canadian National purchased the railroad in 1998.

The wood reefer sells for $29.95, the steel reefer for $28.95.

Alpine Classic Pullman Express to arrive in summer 2025

LGB announced in May that its new Alpine Classic Pullman Express is expected to pull into the station this summer.

The locomotive and three-car set is modeled after the Rhaetian Railway luxury train that winds through Switzerland’s Alpine region. The sets consists of Class Ge 4/4 II locomotive No. 626, two coaches and a baggage car.

The Class Ge 4/4 II locomotives with their 2,300 horsepower and top speed of 90 km/h/56 mph can be found pulling various trains on the Rhaetian Railroad network. As early as 1973, the RhB received the first locomotive of this class – at that time still in dark green and with round headlights.

Updated and converted several times, the locomotives were equipped with rectangular headlights, and almost all of these units are still in use. They can be seen on commuter trains and others, including the Glacier Express.

The so-called Pullman Locomotive, the Class Ge 4/4 II, received new paint to match the Alpine Classic Pullman Express cobalt blue and ivory scheme on salon cars last year. It was dedicated in September 2024, according to online sources.

With its four wheel sets and all-wheel drive, LGB’s model will come with an mfx/DCC decoder with light and sound functions. The pantographs will be powered by servo motors and controlled digitally.

The two-car Pullman Express Car Set, Era V, is a reproduction of the two Alpine Class Pullman Express salon cars, Nos. 1143 and 1144. The cars are prototypically lettered and painted, have complete interior details and interior lighting, and the doors can be opened. These cars also have metal wheelsets.

RhB owns four of the historic salon cars.

The baggage car is prototypically painted and lettered, and the doors can be opened. The car has metal wheelsets.

The locomotive and cars, when coupled, are nearly 66 inches long. The Class Ge 4/4 II locomotive lists at $1,300. MSRP for the two-car set is $950; the baggage car lists for $255

2021 Product News

2022 Product News

2023 Product News

2024 Product News

Current Issue: July/August 2025

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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!