It's an extra large wrap

No, it's not something delicious to eat.  Instead here's Caltrain wrapped up in a colorful ad taken at South City.  The next photo is taken at Muni Metro East facility to what looks like an old yellow or GM motor coach adjacent to a 1950 era Marmon-Herrington trolley coach all wrapped up.

Classic N & W and BN units

More pre-production photos - classic N & W and Burlington Northern PC-90s. As you probably guessed it, most railroads begin equipping their piggy-back operations with piggy-packers to speed loading and unloading of trains. BN had a variety of logo design on their units. A photo of this BN one appeared in Jane's Freight Container book.

FWD Piggy-Packer

Here's a pre-production photo of our HO scale FWD Wagner Piggy-Packer. The strongman logo on the FWD units are different than the Raygo Wagner ones. FWD's are the earlier models.

CSX Piggy-Packer!

Here's a pre-production shot of our HO scale CSX Piggy-Packer. Noticed the logos on the left and right sides are different - just like the real thing!

A Vanishing Breed

On my recent travels, I am always on a lookout for a little bit of history. My interest in history, if you haven't noticed, is in our Wheels of Time trains and vehicles. So case and point: the once ubiquitous searchlight signals that I have taken for granted for so many years are almost completely vanished from the American railroad landscape. A  few photos for the record: Two from Sacramento which are no longer around; one recently taken in Redding; and one preserved at Niles Canyon. So when you are on your road trip this summer, check it out. See how many searchlight signals you've find. And by the way, the great thing about model railroad is that you can still recreate it in miniature! Happy model railroading!