The shortest distance between stations on the London Underground is 0.26km (0.16 miles) is Leicester Square to Covent Garden on the Piccadilly Line.

Flying Scotsman is arguably the best-known steam locomotive in the world. Model Train manufacturer Hornby produce replica models of ‘Flying Scotsman’for model train enthusiasts to add to their model train sets.

The A1 4-6-2 is presented in LNER livery with four teak coaches to represent the period of non-stop running between London and Edinburugh over the summer seasons of the 1930s.
The spectacular A3 Class ‘Flying Scotsman’ this year joins the impressive stable of Live Steam locomotives from Hornby.

Hornby even have a complete ‘Flying Scotsman’ model train set containing everything needed to just set up and run including: a transformer, controller and track

The 40+ member Apple Valley Model Railroad Club (AVMRC) is located in a 100 year-old historic Hendersonville Depot . The HO model railroad represents the Hendersonville and Western North Carolina.

In its heyday, a 22,000 gallon water tank stood on the other side of the tracks with underground pipes to two stand pipes in between Track #1 & #2. Just far enough apart for two Mikado steam locomotives to be serviced at the same time. At its peak, six passenger trains a day stopped in Hendersonville collecting and discharging passengers for our City, while making their way from as far away places as Cincinnati and Charleston.

This section of track is still claimed to be the steepest Class #1 railroad in the United States at the 600’ elevation in less than 3 miles between Saluda and Melrose. While passenger service ended in 1968, thousands of tons of freight particularly coal and wood chips traveled over these track and through the Hendersonville station with as many as 6-7 trains a day up until 2002. At that time the current owners, Norfolk Southern Railroad, elected to re-route trains South by selecting different routes thereby by-passing Hendersonville.

Except for occasional local deliveries to area industries the tracks at the Hendersonville Station sit quietly beside the station providing a nostalgic reminder of the hustle and bustle of years gone bye.

The Apple Valley Model Railroad Club has its own website http://www.avmrc.com/

The Central Alabama Model Railroad Club was formed in 1968 and is located in it own building in Prattville, Alabama. Since its inception the model train club and it’s members have been strong supporters of the National Model Railroad Association by supporting the building fund and by hosting Southeastern Regional Conventions in the past.

All trains originating on the Central of Alabama line are determined by a computer program that insures the proper type of car is set-out or picked up at the different industries along the right of way.

There are several trains from other railroads that have traffic rights on the Central of Alabama line and are included in the computer program. All train orders generated by the computer must run in sequence to insure that cars are available when needed or picked up when loaded by the industries served by the Central of Alabama line.

This model train layout operates with extensive use of walk-around throttles from Aristro-Craft, and several fixed location Model Rectifier hand-held throttles are used in areas of the layout.

The Central Alabama Model Railroad Club layout is fully scenic and features an outstanding painted backdrop that is a perfect match to the scenery and was painted by the wife of a former member. The backdrop includes trees lining the roads, casting their shadows across the highways and byways.

Presented here are photos of sections of the Central Alabama Model Railroad Club layout. To see more fascinating photos of this excellent model train layout be sure to visit the Central Alabama Model Railroad Club website http://www.camrrc.org

Look at the excellent detailing in the above photo. Photos are published with kind permission of the club. Photos are copyrighted by Central Alabama Model Railroad Club, Inc.

It all began on April 4, 1949, when 16 model train enthusiasts gathered together at a local hobby shop and formed the Glendale Model Railroad Club.

Then in 1968, work started on the present railroad with the laying of 3,000 feet of rail encompassing 400 feet of a single track mainline and three classification yards, all on a framework measuring 25 by 40 feet.

Over the next two years miles of electrical wiring installed to provide not only for operation of the trains, but illumination of trackside signals, street lights and the buildings that comprise the cities and towns. In addition, the trolley and branch lines materialized, a narrow gauge railway was built and more scenery began to cover the framework of the layout itself.

The Verdugo Valley Lines portrays operations of the Southern Pacific Railroad between downtown Los Angeles and the city of Bakersfield over 100 miles to the north. Intermediate stations represented in miniature are: San Fernando, Saugus, Lancaster, Mojave and Caliente. As a visitor views the layout, the foreground from right to left is occupied by the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal and supporting coach yards, roundhouse, diesel facilities, Taylor Yard (the massive facility that in real life stretched for more two miles along San Fernando Road), the Glendale station and finally, at far left, the city of Burbank.

The diesels above are being serviced at Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal on the Glendale Model Railroad Club layout. Visitors can see this scene from just inches away–it is right up by the front aisle.

The two locos above are spotted at our Taylor Yard area. Notice the rattlesnakes between the tracks!

The Glendale Model Railroad Club has its own website http://www.gmrrc.org/ and the street address is – Glendale Model Railroad Club, 619 Hahn Ave.Glendale, CA 91203

The Osoyoos Desert Model Railroad has 2000 square feet model train layout has more than 500 houses and over 4000 hand painted miniature people.

The Osoyoos Desert Model Railroad is Canada’s largest Marklin lay-out, with more than a dozen computer controlled trains running through very detailed landscaping with European style towns and houses.

Well worth a visit if you British Columbia.

I came across an excellent model train site for you to look at. It is called http://www.stevestrains.com It has some excellent photos of the model trains in action including photos of the family cats.

Steve is modeling the P. H. Glatfelter Paper Plant in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania. This plant, once served by both the Western Maryland Railway and the Penn Central Railroad has been in operation well over 100 years. Their original and still main production plant is in Spring Grove and to this day still relies heavily on the railroads for their products. Today the plant is served by Yorkrailway Inc, a subsidiary of GWI (Genesee and Wyoming Inc.). Yorkrailway is the combination of Yorkrail and the Maryland and Pennsylvania RR’s.

Here is something you don’t see often, a VERY clean PC GP-38. Must not have been any switchers available today, so the crew gets a higher horsepower ride. We will follow this guy for a bit.

The PC crew at work again switching the Paper Track. Cars on both ends means lots of work to be done and chances are, the boxcar in front of the engine is a buffer car since Steve can’t take power into the building. This way we use the buffer car to reach in and grab the cars we need.

Visit Steves site and take a look at some of his other photos.

Around 42 percent of freight is now carried by rail in the USA. With increasing fuel costs, more and more people are shipping that way. 2004 set a record, and 2005 will likely break it, according to the Association of American Railroads.

The number of small rail companies actually has risen in the past 25 years, thanks to deregulation that allowed larger rail companies to dump track sections that weren’t profitable.

Model railroaders can get frustrated with derailments and accidents that happen with model train sets. Sadly, real train accidents are far more serious and cause tragedy and mayhem like what happened in Pakistan in 1990 and 1991:

January 4, 1990

More than 210 people killed and hundreds injured when an overcrowded 16-car passenger train struck a standing freight train in Sindh Province, Pakistan.

June 8, 1991

A train carrying 800 passengers from Karachi to Lahore slammed into a parked freight train at Ghotki, Pakistan, killing more than 100 people.

1830

The first regularly scheduled steam-powered rail passenger service in the U.S. begins operation in South Carolina with a U.S. built locomotive “The Best Friend of Charleston.”

1797

The steam locomotive is invented in England in 1797.

1827

The first railroad in North America (the Baltimore & Ohio) is chartered by Baltimore merchants.

1850

More than 9,000 miles of track were in operation in the U.S., as much as in the rest of the world combined. The 1850s saw unprecedented growth across the face of the continent. During that decade every state east of the Mississippi was served by an ever-expanding railway network.

1860

The track milage in operation in the U.S. reached 30,000 miles of railway track.

The Australian National Railways Trans-Australian line over the Nullarbor Plain, is 478 km. (297 miles) dead straight, from between Nurina and Loongana, Western Australia, to between Ooldea and Watson, South Australia.

How times have changed. It is estimated that 6,279,288,000 pounds of mail were handled by the US Post Office Department in the year ended June 30, 1941, of which it is estimated over 5,800,000,000 pounds, or more than 92 per cent, were handled by the railroads.

Model railroaders can get frustrated with derailments and accidents that happen with model train sets. Sadly, real train accidents are far more serious and cause tragedy and mayhem. In this series we look at some of the more serious train accidents from history.

February 1, 1970

236 people are killed when an express train rams stationary commuter train in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

October 6, 1972

A train carrying religious pilgrims derails and catches fire in Saltillo, Mexico, killing 208.

Model Train Sets: Garrett, Indiana, USA.

The Greater Midcontinent Railroad Company was founded in 1991. The HO scale model train set layout occupies approximately 20 by 30 feet of the basement of the Garrett Historical Society Museum. The model train layout has about 7 scale miles of track, which typically takes 20 minutes for trains to complete a circuit. Prototypical operations are duplicated with the aid of a computerized system which controls the model train set layout.

Between the years of 1951 and 1972, railroad industry employment declined by an average of more than 40,000 US railway jobs per year. US Railroad employment stabilized in the mid-to-late 1990s.

Pressures to operate more efficiently left some freight railroads unprepared for the recent surge in rail demand since 2003. For example, Union Pacific, the country’s largest railroad, hired approximately 5,000 employees (an increase of more than 10%) between 2003 and 2005 in response to this demand.