Summer Camp 2023 | Day 7

Last Day of Summer Camp 2023 on Trains.com Video! Camp Director David Popp has been been working really hard all week to get his locomotive weathered, boxcar decaled, bridge constructed, detailed parts assembled and painted, as well as the truck project completed too. Although camp closes after this session, we’ll see you back on the regularly programmed Olympia […]

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Summer Camp 2023 | Day 6

Summer Camp 2023 | Day Six. The “extra” days on the weekend have allowed Camp Director David Popp to tackle all of those little projects that he hasn’t had time to do while working on bigger efforts for the On30 scale Olympia Logging Co. railroad. Hard to label these “little” projects as chicken scratch…but one of […]

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HO scale locomotives with smoke units

Color photo of HO scale steam locomotive on scenic base with black background.

To our younger readers, HO scale locomotives with smoke units may seem like a recent development. In reality, the feature dates back to the end of World War II when American Flyer began producing 1:87.1 steam locomotives with smoke. Since that time, companies have continued to offer HO locomotives with smoke units. Admittedly, some manufacturers […]

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To upgrade to DCC, or not to upgrade, that is the question

A man holds a model train throttle in front of two blue model locomotives.

Digital Command Control, or DCC, is one of two ways most modelers control their trains. Instead of sending current directly to the rails, and making any train that’s receiving that current move, DCC sends packets of information through the rails and to individual locomotives to tell them what to do. For a DCC system to […]

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Summer Camp 2023 | Day 5

Summer Camp 2023 | Day Five. Camp Director David Popp is wearing a hard hat because that means we’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of us. It’s clear that it won’t all be completed in five days this week… But no worries — We’ll extend our sessions into the weekend! Looking to keep up […]

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Summer Camp 2023 | Day 4

Welcome to Summer Camp 2023 Day Four. Today is an odds and ends kind of day, because we have all sorts of things to advance to the next level. Campers will get involved in detailing work, constructing part of the truck before painting the subassemblies, plus starting to paint the Sculptamold once that’s dry. Looking to […]

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Summer Camp 2023 | Day 3

It’s Day Three of Summer Camp, and David already has a bridge to show he’s having fun modeling while hidden away from the heat of the sun! Abutments await, as well as a truck building project to start this session. Plus, a few more surprises to keep things exciting! Looking to keep up with the […]

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Summer Camp 2023 | Day 2

Good morning, summer campers! It is time for Day Two of summer camp. Camp Director David has a couple of different little projects to do today, but then he’ll turn to one really big project — building a bridge. If you’re just arriving, then be sure to catch up by reviewing the Day One (1 […]

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News & Products for the week of August 28th 2023

News & Products for the week of August 28th 2023   Model railroad operators and builders can get the latest information about locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, tools, track, and more by reading Model Railroader’s frequent product updates. The following are the products Model Railroader editors have news on for the week of August 28th […]

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Summer Camp 2023 | Day 1

Alright, campers! Go grab your gear, because Trains.com Summer Camp 2030 is finally here. Yup! The weather has turned warm enough that we’re in the basement doing some model railroading work. So unlike your other camps where you’re out canoeing and hiking and bug collecting, Camp Director David Popp is going to tackle model railroad […]

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News & Products for the week of August 21st 2023

A blue model locomotive against a white background

News & Products for the week of August 21st 2023   Model railroad operators and builders can get the latest information about locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, tools, track, and more by reading Model Railroader’s frequent product updates. The following are the products Model Railroader editors have news on for the week of August 21st […]

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Meet Jerry Dziedzic

man holding model while sitting at workbench

Meet Jerry Dziedzic What was your first train set (or locomotive)? How about three, in different scales? Like so many youngsters, a Lionel circle around the tree greeted me one Christmas morning. I suppose this was in 1956 or 1957. My dad had fun, too. He used two sheets of plywood to build an 8 […]

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