Design your railway, Part 1: Organize the plan

plan_your_railway1

1. Retired but still active, Jerry and Alison Ogden maintain their Possum Creek Railroad to stay lush, with wall-to-wall plants they bought from Miniature Plant Kingdom. At this stage, six years after its initial construction, the trackplan still works and access is easy, but several unruly or languishing plants have been replaced. Jerry started with […]

Read More…

Chinese workers and the first Transcontinental Railroad

Workers who built the first Transcontinental Railroad, by hand, in the late 1860s labored through grueling heat, biting winter cold, snow, attacks from Native American tribes, and long, long work days.   Learn how they did it with this excerpt from one of Trains’ newest DVD’s, Journey To Promontory, available from the Kalmbach Hobby Store. […]

Read More…

Tunnels on the first Transcontinental Railroad

Workers who built the first Transcontinental Railroad, by hand, in the late 1860s labored through grueling heat, biting winter cold, snow, attacks from Native American tribes, and long, long work days. Learn how they did it with this excerpt from one of Trains’ newest DVD’s, Journey To Promontory, available from the Kalmbach Hobby Store.  EXCERPT TRANSCRIPT: Dave Seidel, […]

Read More…

Design your railway, Part 2: Focus on a theme

setting_scene1

1. Near their back door in Nevada, a railyard introduces viewers to the theme of Joe and Mary Schrock’s highly detailed railway, Bulldog Junction. This picture communicates the teamwork necessary on railroads. All parts support the main theme. The distant backdrop of pointed dwarf Alberta spruce (Picea glauca ‘Conica’, Zones 4-8) suggests the scale world […]

Read More…

844 Excursion Train

Closeup of model diesel locomotive

Brian Olson’s N scale Union Pacific Excursion Train is now complete. A project more than a year in the making, he started with Kato’s 844 steam engine, later adding the tenders and the Spirit of Union Pacific 1943 diesel engine, and finally, Kato’s 7-car Excursion Car Set. The train in this video is on a […]

Read More…

N scale Erie Lackawanna

Scene of n scale model railroad

Henrik Akesson’s N scale version of the Erie Lackawanna RR in Pennsylvania is set during the late 1960s to the mid 1970s. It’s built in a spare bedroom around the walls in a dogbone on styrofoam. It features Peco code 80 track, Digitrax DCC, and a small copy of the Starrucca viaduct kitbashed from several […]

Read More…

Ron Hoess’ Eastbound Chestnut Hill & Stifftown Branch PRR

Scene of model train layout

This HO scale layout (13′ x 18′) is a point-to-point switching layout that depicts the Stifftown Branch and the first portion of the Chestnut Hill Branch of the PRR. The setting is North Philadelphia circa 1958. Since this is a prototype layout, all of the structures are scratchbuilt to better match the prototype. Key signature […]

Read More…