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Welcome to Edition 11 of Railroading In America magazine!

As our company grows, we must thank all of our supporters, old and new, for keeping us going. As a young organization ďŹ ghting an uphill battle, your support means everything to us. This company started out as a fun idea that maybe a couple people would read, but since then we've grown to be an award winning and internationally sold publication. We are so proud of the progress we've made and happy to help keep the great hobby of trains and model railroading alive. Please be sure to subscribe to our magazine if you haven't done so already, and check out our news site, www.riamindustryheadlines.com. Thank you again and we will see you trackside!

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RIAM President and CEO Evan Cihlar

Railroading in America is a newly founded magazine run by the next generation of railroaders. We pride ourselves on taking a different and more lighthearted perspective than our competitors, and take extra steps to ensure we are reporting on quality and factual news.

Table of Contents

Slugs: What Are They?..............................................................Page 1

The Whole Picture on Cost Friendly Cameras.......................Page 3

The N&W 611 at North Carolina Transportation Museum...Page 5 The History of the Pere Marquette 1225.................................Page 8 Year-Round Operations on the Cumbres and Toltec..........Page 10 Atlas HO Scale C40-8W Review.............................................Page 13 Lionel O Scale Theater Car with WiďŹ Camera Review........Page 15

Building a Catenary System in O Scale.................................Page 17

A Visit to Steve Zapytowski's HOn30 Layout........................Page 17 Building a Brass Shay in HOn30...........................................Page 19

Rich Melvin's "Highball" Column..........................................Page 26 The Laughing Stock................................................................Page 27

Photo Corner...........................................................................Page 29

The Norfolk And Western 611 at the North Carolina Transportation Museum

Knowing what a steam locomotive is is a good thing. Experiencing one is a far greater thing. The folks at the Virginia Museum of Transportation (VMT) and North Carolina Transportation Museum (NCTM) have done an excellent job of showing the public what steam is all about, as the late W. Graham Claytor said, “Let another generation know what a steam locomotive is”. Though the 611 faces an uncertain operational future, she still let out one big last hurrah when I last saw her at a nighttime photoshoot in September 2018. I got up early on September 1st, leaving before six am for Spencer. Along the way, my dad and I made two stops: the Tastykake factory store in Danville, and the MESDA in Winston-Salem. Beyond this, the road trip was uneventful. We rolled into Spencer in the late a ternoon. The museum grounds were thick with the acidic smell of coal smoke and lubricating grease. There were tall clouds forming all around us, and they seemed to promise rain. The ﬁrst order of business was to check on what was happening with the 611. They were running on the

Jonah Collins

outside track, doing the last of the “At the Throttle” sessions for the day. There, I had some of my senior portraits taken with the engine and chatted with some nearby photographers. The second order of business was to check in and chat with the train crew. On this day, engineer Sandy Alexander was running things. It was my second time with him; the ﬁrst was in June 2016 when I rode behind the 611 for the ﬁrst time in Manassas. He remembered this experience and was open and very friendly towards us. Mr. Alexander gave us a rundown of what he expected to happen that night. With that information, I went o f to eat in the dining car. They served fried chicken, biscuits, a salad, and apple pie. The food itself wasn’t bad; actually, I quite liked it, but what made this particularly memorable was that here, I met some special people: one, a man named Eric Jolly, who was a very pleasant individual; the other, Col. Bud Je fries, author of N&W: Giant of Steam and a classmate of my grandfather. This struck up a pleasant conversation, and soon I had managed to land myself into a position to get in the cab later

that night. A ter dinner, the group disbursed; some went home, others stayed for the photoshoot. I was part of the latter group. They had us board the train, and we were o f to the first spot: the open field by the sanding tower. They backed the train beyond the roundhouse, and ran her forward, inching closer, blowing darker smoke, picking up speed, and blaring the beautiful sound of the Hancock 3-chime. They ran forward, back, forward three times in the late summer evening, and we boarded back on the train shortly before dark. Once on board, we waited. We waited a long time. The tall clouds had moved in, and they were aggressive; they held a thunderstorm. The rain never started in our area, so eventually, despite the threat of lighting, the o ficials let us out of the train to begin taking photos at the station. I was one of the first o f, and made a beeline towards the front of the engine, where I watched and waited. It was really something:

the actors were being debriefed on how to pose themselves, and the engine crew was was doing lastminute maintenance. Soon, we were instructed to make a photo line in front of the engine and along the hill. Lights were slowly put into place and I began shooting photos. O f in the distance, the thunderstorm raged, providing a gorgeous backdrop for our photographs. We stood for over an hour in that spot. Once the last of the lights were set up and the actors in place, they began doing extra steam

leto fs and whistle blasts. That whistle blew for all her dead sisters; she was the last of her kind and we knew it. Her ﬁre was soon to be let out, too. The next spot required no boarding. We walked across the museum’s parking lot to the south track and waited. Lights were again put in place, but this time, the 611 ran through them. Extra props were also put in place: a state line marker and the actors were, too. They ran up and down the track, back and forth three times, with and without the actors, before stopping by the actors, and letting o f steam. This scene went by quickly, though, as we soon found ourselves walking to the next photo spot. Here, the train ran down the track from beyond the photographer’s bridge to us. The train reversed and headed back, and this was the last runby. The whistle blew for us, and then the 611 detached from its train and headed toward the roundhouse. At the roundhouse, the 611 was

Photo Corner

Edition 11 of Railroading in America Magazine was made possible by...

Evan Cihlar, President and CEO Garrett Monnin, VP and COO Max Harris, Publisher and Adman Walker Wood, Writer Adam Zappacosta, Writer Carlos Llamas, Writer Clayton Cook, Writer Riley Ginger, Writer

Special Thanks To...

Larry Alamoo and Jonah Collins for submitting photos! Steve Zapytowski and Rich Melvin for guest writing! Lionel Trains for giving us a product to review! John Brahaney for drawing a comic! Our Readers for their continued support!

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Edition 12 of Railroading in America Magazine releases May 31st!

Note from the Publisher Max Harris

As I normally do, I wrote my note from the publisher about two weeks before publication. But soon before we published, something happened that justiďŹ ed me to totally re-write my note. Something happened in my life which once again showed me why trains are so important. Something that made me realize how lucky I am to have a passion that I can always rely on for a smile. Trains are more than a hobby for me; Trains are a passion, a profession even. But in this case trains can be even more meaningful than both of those things: A coping mechanism. Life o ten swerves o f course and plunges you into the unknown, whether it's for the better or the worse. When life takes me to the dark side, its nice to be able to go down to my trainroom and work on my layout and zone out from reality for a bit. I'm seldom brought to this place in life, but when tragedy strikes, trains have the unique ability to let me escape to my own little world and live there in spirit. While it is, all in all, only temporary, and of course my problems will still exist when I return to Earth, having a place where my troubles are ignored and I can let my mind rest is a great opportunity that trains give me. And yes, this method of coping shouldn't be used on its own, as simply forgetting problems exist can be harmful to your mental health. Coupled with having friends and family to talk to, and having a constructive and safe way to cope with your problems, like model trains, is the best way to get through hard times. I'm grateful that I have a method of coping through trains, because when life gets rough, I know I can always count on trains to be there for me.

Railroading in America Magazine

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