Spaces to Places VI | Fixing a wayward waterway, part 3

Gerry is back to reworking the river scene on his HO scale Bona Vista HO scale double-deck model railroad. As he heads for the homestretch, our host shares tips and tricks for making the new river bed easy to install (and remove); modifying bridge abutments; building the bridge itself; and then finally forming the river […]

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Learn the basics of 3-D printing

A model railroad structure with a blue sky background and trains protruding from the structure on the base level

When I first started at Model Railroader in February 2014, I edited a story by Alex Marchand about how he created N scale hoppers using 3-D printing. That story was where I began to learn the basics of 3-D printing. But things have come a long way in the decade since. What was once a […]

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Spaces to Places VI | Fixing a wayward waterway, part 2

Host Gerry Leone left us with a bit of a cliffhanger in his quest to remake a wider, curved river for his Bona Vista HO scale double-deck model railroad. In this episode, he shares the plan and his efforts to move forward with the required deconstruction and reconstruction (…and even re-reconstruction — don’t ask, you’ll […]

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Spuyten Duyvil panorama

New York Central Railroad at Spuyten Devil

A mid-1940s view from the Henry Hudson Parkway bridge near the north end of New York City shows the converging New York Central lines at Spuyten Duyvil. An electric multiple-unit train out of Grand Central pulls away from Spuyten Duyvil station to head up the main line along the Hudson River. The West Side freight […]

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Trains.com Insider Exclusive | To hoard, or not to hoard

Should it stay or should it go? Model Railroader magazine editors Eric White and Bryson Sleppy talk about the reasons to keep or discard rare, unique, special, irreplaceable model railroad “treasures”. From rolling stock to tools to modeling supplies, if you question whether or not you should keep something in your collection, they have answers! […]

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Spaces to Places VI | Fixing a wayward waterway, part 1

In this ongoing mini-series, host Gerry Leone works on a fixer-upper-decker! In simpler terms, he’s looking to correct a mistake he made when initially constructing the top tier of his all-new Bona Vista HO scale model railroad. There’s no doubt–Gerry has amazing vision and power to re-route a wayward river into something more impressive than […]

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How-To Library | Build a laser-cut wood structure kit, Part 3

Steve Otte finalizes work on his single rail-served factory for Model Railroader magazine’s 2024 project layout, the HO scale Free-Mo module. This structure stems from American Model Builders’ A.C. Brown Mfg. Co., a laser-cut wood kit. Follow along from the beginning, as  he works through this multi-part build! […]

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D&H PA on a swing bridge

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A PA-powered Delaware & Hudson passenger train crosses a center-bearing plate girder swing bridge on the Canadian Pacific at Lachine, Quebec, in the late 1960s or early ’70s. Tom Nelligan photo […]

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Plans for a masonry depot

Color image of weather-beaten masonry depot

Harold W. Russell’s illustrations have been appearing in Model Railroader magazine since the mid-1960s. He has more than 150 bylines to his credit. In the July 2024 issue he shared plans for a masonry depot on the Lehigh Valley in Gorham, N.Y. Click on the link below to download Harold’s plans. Use this link to […]

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Menards Sunoco Station

model Sunoco station with two vehicles

When I was a kid, we’d drive 3 ½ hours north to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to visit my grandparents a couple of times per year. Of course, that long of a drive necessitated one or two pit stops. Most were at tiny gas stations in small towns. Menards Sunoco Station  (275-9288) reminds me […]

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Why do railroads use towers?

An HO scale model of a railroad interlocking tower with boarded-up windows stands next to a track as a red-nosed Canadian National wide-nose Alco M420 approaches from the right

What are railroad tower operations? Railroad tower operations can have at least two meanings. One is what happens inside a tower, or more specifically, an interlocking tower. The other is a way of running a railroad, by using the operators in interlocking towers to control traffic through specific points of the railroad. So, why do […]

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