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I don’t know if any of you know Chris White of Red Star Railways. https://redstarrailways.com Chris passed away a couple of weeks ago. I’ve known him since 1998. Chris was a pioneer in modeling Soviet and Russian railways, first as an importer and then as a producer of resin models. For several years, his big red star sign was a landmark at the Timonium model train show outside Baltimore. I am not aware of any plans to continue producing his models.

My Dad, who lives in the Kaliningrad oblast in Russia, sent this photo that he took this weekend of Er-791-94 at the Kaliningrad-Passazhirsky train station. This is apparently the first steam fan trip in the area in 20 years. He noted that the 0-10-0 pulled a singular coach that was sold out, even though tickets were expensive. Hopefully, this is a sign of future steam trips. Jeremy

Youtube uploader fmnut seems to have quite a video library. All over the world and from various decades, if you're looking for some railway or railway-related video, his page is a good place to stop. Below are two recent videos of his featuring the Trans-Siberian and Circum-Baikal railways.

Sakahilin is a Russian island located north of Hokkaido. Originally part of the Russian Empire, after the Russo-Japanese war of 1905, the southern half of the island was handed over to Japan, but after World War 2, the southern part changed hands again, retourning to the Soviet Union. Nowdays it's part of the Russian Federation. But what is interesting for us? Seems familiar right? http://photos.wikimapia.org/p/00/03/67/34/00_big.jpg Well, from the early 1900s to 1945, the Japanese built a 700Km 1067mm gauge railway network in their part of the island. In 1948, the Soviet Railways lacked of cape gauge equipment, so they brougth 30 2nd-hand D51 from the JGR. They were used until 1979, 7 years after Japanese Railways stopped using steam trains, replaced by TG16 double-section diesel-electric locomotives built by Lydunovo works. In 1993, another second-hand Japanese train made it's debut on the Sakahilin railway, this time a DMU, the KiHa 58. http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/9066/43672373.18/0_b9210_932cd8e4_XXL.jpg Built between 1961 and 1969by Nippon Sharyo, Fuji Heavy Ind., Tokyu Car Corp. and many others. After the replacement with KiHa 110s in the early 90s, 29 Units were sold by JR East to the financially struggling island railways. Classified "K1 class" They were in use on suburban and commuter services around Yuzno-Sakahilinsk, temporarily replacing the spare-parts awaiting D2 (Fuji Heavy industries, 1985 - even if it resembles a Soviet train down to the bone). With spare parts avaible, the K1 were phased out in favor of the D2, and they all ceased service by 2000. Atleast one (the one pictured) has been preserved in the island railway museum. More infos: English Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakhalin_Railway Japanese Wikipedia https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B5%E3%83%8F%E3%83%AA%E3%83%B3%E3%81%AE%E9%89%84%E9%81%93 KiHa 58 - Russian Wikipedia https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B8%D1%85%D0%B058 Now, if you always secretly dreamed of mixing Soviet Ladas and JNR KiHas, here is the prototype for you!

I play games in my spare time, and I thought it would be worthwhile to record my experiences with them. The best experience I've recorded so far, though, is with the rail management game Train Valley. This indie game has plenty to offer and is continually being updated with more content, better graphics, and friendlier user interfaces, but the best part might be the funny glitches that persist despite the game developer's efforts to fix all the bugs. A new patch is coming out soon is certainly honed on to this forum's central interest: Japanese rail. I've seen this game substantially improve with time, and it has been a decent investment of my time. You can see my experience with the game from its alpha release to the most recent beta release here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq7fziG4I2WvsbCzGsxICVvHoK4CpOiuq