INSIDE THIS ISSUE

In the past four years, Mike Armstrong’s HO Rock Island Lines has received much attention in the model railroad press and is one of 30 or more layouts that will be on tour at the NMRA National Convention, Aug. 20-26 in Grapevine, TX. Growing up in Nevada, IA, in the 1960s, Armstrong learned to appreciate the six major roads that ran through the state and others that juked around the Central U.S. While the Rock Island Lines covers the Mid-Continent Route from Inver Grove Yard in St. Paul, MN, to Armourdale Yard in Kansas City. several Midwestern railroads make frequent cameo appearances. Like it was when he grew up in the 1960s, Armstrong is in the middle of all the action.

When a bright 14-year-old wowed model railroaders decades his senior with custom O-gauge switches in his Illinois basement in the 1970s, it heralded the second coming of three-rail. Since then, Ross Custom Switches has cemented itself into model train history with the country’s largest offering of O-gauge items. The company makes track and switches for both the discerning modeler who strives for a prototypical look and the guy who just likes toy trains

Southern Pacific’s NEW Golden Gate touted Arizona’s “cowboy and cactus country” for a ride from El Paso, TX, to Los Angeles in the golden era of passenger trains.

 

GVT Rail has big plans for its new ALCO PA “Nickel Plate Road No. 190.” The railroad company recently purchased the restored locomotive from a top rail preservationist. …

April’s Rocky Mountain Train Show accomplished its mission in April of increasing attendance and adding more exhibitors. …

Project Layout: The N-scale Whitehurst & Pine Ridge Railroad solves a switching puzzle for a cement distributor in Pine Ridge with help from its Class I parent. …

THESE STORIES AND MORE, PLUS A FULL CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS AND THE BUSINESS PULSE OF THE RAILROAD INDUSTRY!

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InterMountain HO ADM Corn Syrup Car

The Cowcatcher reviews InterMountain Railway Co.’s newly released HO-scale Trinity Industries 19,600-gallon corn syrup car. The tank car is one of several in the company’s second release.

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