Trains Presents: Peru 2017 tour, day 4

A GE C30-7 pulls a mix of passenger and freight cars on the Ferrocarril Central Andino railroad branch in Peru

We’ll ride the nose of a GE C30-7 for the trip from LaOroya to Hauncayo, Peru. We were riding on a Ferrocarril Central Andino railroad branch down a gorge that sees about one train a week. We’ll also herd llamas by train, cross bridges, pierce tunnels, see a display steam locomotive, and get a final […]

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Coast Mail at Guadalupe

Coast Mail at Guadalupe

Mt-4 SP 4360 detaches from #72 and picks up two carloads of strawberries in the yard at Guadalupe Calif., in April 1954. Because they were so delicate, strawberries were carried in express reefers on first-class trains. This video was filmed on the still-unscenicked section of my model railroad, which will eventually depict several areas of […]

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B&M NH Mainline – Ballasting the Track

Hand adding ballast to model track

This is the second part of a two-part series where I demonstrate the process I used for ballasting the track on my B&M NH Mainline. This video details the four step process shared by Cody and others: Glue down cinders if appropriate; ballast the track center; light ballast on roadbed shoulders; and final ballast on […]

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BNSF Coal Operations

N scale coal operations

The bulk of my layout is set in Wyoming with a bit of Colorado and Nebraska. Coal is a key source of revenue for the BD&O. Here we see a BNSF Coal Train arriving at Cowboy Coal in Campbell County, Wyoming, then departing for Power Plants to the south. Video by Brian Olson. […]

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CSW CSX Rail Train

CSW CSX Rail Train

A loaded CSX ribbon rail train traverses the, in-progress, Chesapeake, Susquehanna and Western RR on HARM night. HARM (Harford Association of Railroad Modelers) is a round robin group celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Located in northeast Maryland, members meet every Tuesday evening. This train is based on the CSX prototype often seen on the […]

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Video 101: Talking pictures

filming an outdoor model railroad with a phone

We can do something with our videos that frontier photographers could not. We can make our pictures talk and make the trains rumble. With sounds, our videos can have mood and a speaking voice. We can make “talkies.” Learning how to add sound to video can be done in under an hour using basic consumer-level […]

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Video Step by Step: Weathering metal siding

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page After assembling several plastic structures for an HO scale layout, MR associate editor Eric White aims to make the corrugated metal (simulated) exterior look authentic. Follow along, as he demonstrates steps for applying realistic weathering effects using an airbrush. […]

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