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That is sad. I had been holding out hope that it would survive long enough for Portland to get a railroad museum where it could be at least cosmetically restored for static display. The former SP unit would have been a great exhibit. I wonder if any effort was made to find it a new home. It probably...

Probably the easiest solution is to give them dad's credit card and have them buy full-price adult tickets at a QuikTrak machine. According to Amtrak's website, a 15 year old with photo ID, such as a school ID, can buy tickets and travel unaccompanied, and her 13 year old sister could travel with he...

I remember the ads for the Marlboro Unlimited. Some of the cars were partially completed by Rader Railcar, aka Colorado Railcar, before Philip Morris cancelled the project. Four of the unfinished cars were retained by Colorado Railcar as demo models. Two of them had interiors installed. I don't know...

That movie, or at least the train scenes in it, was filmed in Sweden. The locomotives are swedish locomotives painted in Great Northern colors. There is more information near the bottom of this page: http://homepage.mac.com/jon_snyder/gn/o ... reens.html

The Portland Tribune has a story on them. http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=125678766638415300 These Budd RDCs are for backup service when the Colorado Railcar DMUs break down so they don't have to resort to shuttle buses. They haven't been delivered yet, and apparently won't be...

The Kadee #34 & #37 have an underset shank, which would change the coupler height. If you were going to use a 30-series, it would probably be the centerset shank #33 (short) or #38 (medium length, same as #5). I don't think removing the cast-on coupler box is going to do much for you though. The...

The Kadee #37 is the same length as the common #5, and is the length I'd use unless I had a good reason not to. Being coupled too close can cause problems. If you don't want to use the plastic coupler, you can use the #47 metal coupler in the 30-series box. Just to make sure there's no confusion, th...

According to http://espee.railfan.net/sp-business-cars.html the car is owned by the City of Santa Barbara Redevelopment Agency.

I don't think any SD45s were "built" with elephant ear radiator shrouds. The elephant ears were added later as an early 70s experiment between Southern Pacific and EMD to determine the benefit of the radiators drawing in air from closer to the ground, where it would be cooler in tunnels, l...

Union Pacific had a total of 8 PA-1s and 6 PB-1s, delivered in 2 batches. PA-1s 994A-997A and PB-1s 998B-999B were delivered in 1947. They were soon renumbered 600-603 & 600B & 602B. The other 4 PA-1s and 4 PB-1s were delivered in 1949, numbered 604-607 & 604B-607B. They were used in pas...

"Truth in advertising" only prevents outright lying. There's nothing wrong with portraying the ideal. (Ever notice how fast-food shown in TV spots barely resembles what you actually get in the restaurant?) And pretty much EVERY commercial uses photogenic models. As long as they are showing...

When I first saw this commercial on TV a few months ago, my initial reaction was "Why didn't they get a model of an AMTRAK train?" Otherwise it's not bad. It reminds people that Amtrak is a transportation option, which is good for a first commercial in a campaign. They need some subseqent ...

The prototype for the Athearn 57-foot reefer is the Pacific Fruit Express R-70-20 to R-70-24 classes. These are conventional reefers and are not at all like the cryogenic reefers. They were built new in the 1969-1971 era. Pacific Fruit Express was jointly owned by UP and SP. When built the cars were...

I've never actually tried this, but maybe you could heat seated plastic figures enough to adjust their legs. You'd have to be careful not to heat them too much that they turn into an unrecognizable blob, but it could work. (I once used a soldering iron to "open" the door of a cheap HO auto...

I agree that plain Life-Like train sets are poor choices (the Proto 1000 sets are OK) but since you've already bought it, you can make it decent. I don't recommend putting knuckle couplers in the truck-mounted pockets; while it is possible for a short-term solution, it's not really an improvement, a...