From The Archive

Welcome to From the Archive! Here you’ll find some of our favorite historical anecdotes about the model railroad industry, researched by our team of editors and writers.


AHM’s Oldtime Freight Cars

January 6, 2024

AHM’s Oldtime Freight Cars

A popular group of releases from Associated Hobby Manufacturers (AHM) are the collection of Oldtime freight cars in HO scale.

A Boxcar 50 Years in the Making: Micro-Trains Celebrates a Half-Century

January 9, 2023

A Boxcar 50 Years in the Making: Micro-Trains Celebrates a Half-Century

Micro-Trains Lines marks 50th Anniversary.

Yellowbonnet Turns 50

September 12, 2022

Yellowbonnet Turns 50

Santa Fe’s Yellowbonnet livery was introduced a half-century ago.

Remember Your First Car? HO’s early plastic vehicles of the 1950s and early 1960s

August 18, 2022

Remember Your First Car? HO’s early plastic vehicles of the 1950s and early 1960s

Rapido Trains’ recent release of HO-scale Chevrolet Caprice and Impala vehicles may have you wondering about early 1:87 vehicle offerings.

About That Stock Car

April 24, 2022

About That Stock Car

What’s the prototype for this vintage-tooling Atlas N-scale stock car?

From The Archive: The Milwaukee Road Bucket List Steam Locomotive

February 14, 2022

From The Archive: The Milwaukee Road Bucket List Steam Locomotive

Have you seen an example of Rivarossi’s 1950s era Hiawatha steam locomotive model? It’s an uncommon release to find today.

From The Archive: Lionel’s Southern Pacific Daylight from 1983

November 19, 2021

From The Archive: Lionel’s Southern Pacific Daylight from 1983

Chris Raines of RBP Trains takes a look at classic Lionel O-gauge Daylight releases.

From the Archive: Road-Specific HO-scale NYC GP20 in 1960

September 12, 2021

From the Archive: Road-Specific HO-scale NYC GP20 in 1960

How does a 1960 HO-scale GP20 pass the road-specific test?

From the Archive: In Pursuit of the Ultimate HO U25B

August 19, 2021

From the Archive: In Pursuit of the Ultimate HO U25B

Is the coming Rapido Trains’ HO-scale U25B going to be the ultimate reproduction of this General Electric landmark locomotive?

Obtaining a high hood the old-fashioned way

July 7, 2021

Obtaining a high hood the old-fashioned way

There was a time when having a high-hood on your railroad was a bit of work.