Recent content by ATSFRailfan

I have been an HO guy, but my 10 year old daughter has fallen in love with trains and wants to build a layout in her bedroom. The space available has dictated N scale, so we are going with Kato N unitrack. I have always liked Kato's HO stuff, and since they make a nice Super Chief in N scale...

I am also just getting back into model railroading. I decided to go with the NCE Power Cab DCC starter setup. Really nice system that is fully expandable. I got mine here for $139.99 http://www.modeltrainwarehouse.com/NCE-DCC-Power-Cab-System_p_227-777.html I also got a BLI Blueline...

Well, of the older units I have to say there's nothing like an ATSF Warbonneted Passenger F unit! I was in awe when I saw the A and B units they have at the Museum in Sacramento. I remember these when I was a kid. They were simply THE quintessential diesel loco in my mind. Of the modern...

For me, its gotta be the ATSF's 4-8-4. Man, it just says power, speed, and good old gritty muscle. No streamlining. Who needs streamlining? This machine just shoves the air out of the way with sheer power! Yeah. Gotta love it!

Just thought I'd post a couple pics from our recent trip on Amtrak for all you fans of passenger rail. The first is a nice shot of the motive power for the eastbound Southwest Chief arriving Flagstaff, Arizona on June 29th, 2006. This consist had 2 sleeping cars and 3 coaches with 3...

Howdy Chris! I'm up in Prescott. The Santa Fe bypassed Prescott with a new survey back in 1966. They pulled up the rails for good in 1989, after a washout made it too expensive to continue to maintain for the limited use it was seeing. Now I have to drive for about 15 minutes to get to the...

Thanks GandyDancer! I'll check into that. We just got back from our Amtrak trek, and to our disappointment, there was not a Pacific Parlour Car on either the northbound (train 14) or southbound (train 11) parts of our trip. If you want, you can read more about our trip and the maddening...

Just got back from a trip on Amtrak. We had alot of fun travelling on Amtrak. And for me, an airline captain, it was great to travel in a more relaxed fashion. We boarded the Southwest Chief in Flagstaff, Arizona, and connected to the Coast Starlight in Los Angeles. The Southwest Chief...

Thanks for the pics! Nice work!

I'm starting to think that the Overland model is the only example being made right now. As best I can tell, the Train Station/Intermountain cars only come in the coach, step-up coach, and diner varieties. No lounge car. At least not right now. It doesn't seem as though they ever made the...

Well, Walthers has the coach and diner cars in the Hi-Level cars, but the lounge car is the one I need. It has windows in the roof above each of the side windows. The coach and diner cars only have the side windows. Maybe the lounge car is out of production or something. I hope not, but it...

As he ran in to the layout room, to his horror, he saw that the......

Howdy fellow railfans! I am about to take my family on vacation aboard the Amtrak Coast Starlight. We're all really looking forward to it, and I would like to have an HO Pacific Parlour car, which is unique to that train, to add to my superliner consist. I know Overland makes a gorgeous...