Grades on your railroad

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These simple calculations will make it easy and safe to take your trains to new heights on an O or S gauge model railroad. John Rusterholz The Lionel no. 110 trestle set from the postwar era brings additional operating enjoyment to any O gauge layout. Almost every layout featured in Classic Toy Trains has track […]

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Build a layout that highlights 1950 Lionel

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Collectors concentrating on the outfits, locomotives, and accessories offered by Lionel during a single year in the post-World War II era will find inspiration in the compact O gauge layout developed by Robert Banks. He has designed an 11 x 11-foot three-rail display capable of letting three trains operate simultaneously. Build a layout that highlights […]

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HO Train Layout Ideas

This booklet contains five National Train Show track plans, along with a bill of materials for constructing each one and some operational possibilities. The 4 x 8 dimensions are time-tested – that’s the size of a sheet of plywood, plenty of track and broad-enough curves can fit on it, and, most important, filling those 32 square […]

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10 Proven Lionel FasTrack Plans

10 Proven Lionel FasTrack Plans

Nearly all of us have dreamt of building a large toy train layout. The stark reality is that many of us lack the real estate, resources, or time for such an endeavor. But there’s no reason to be disappointed. This free guide from the experts at Classic Toy Trains includes a salute to the small layout, with […]

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Make-A-Wish Railway Project

Make-A-Wish Railway Project

Make-A-Wish Northeastern California and Northern Nevada is one of 62 chapters nationwide. Since the foundation began in 1980, more than 250,000 wishes have been granted to children ages 2½ to 18 with life threatening medical conditions. This particular chapter began in 1983 and has granted more than 4,700 wishes. Make-A-Wish organized volunteers from 4 organizations […]

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5 compact track plans

You can pack a lot of model railroading fun into a small space, and in this booklet we’ll show you five ways to do it. The HO and N scale plans featured here have all appeared in Model Railroader magazine. Each one has a unique theme, and all contain a key element of modern model railroad design […]

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The Salt Lake Route, Part 3: Laying realistic sectional track

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A pair of Union Pacific freights bank into the superelevated curves on the N scale Salt Lake Route. Dick Christianson explains how he installed Kato Unitrack, including the firm’s new double-track sections with superelevated curves (inset), on our project layout. One of the parameters Model Railroader gave me regarding the N scale project layout was […]

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Model railroad track manufacturers

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Looking for model railroad track-related products? Here’s a partial list of suppliers. Track manufacturers Here is a partial list of suppliers of track and related products. Atlas Model RR Co. www.atlasrr.com Z, N, HO, and O scale sectional and flextrack Bachmann Trains www.bachmanntrains.com N and HO sectional track BK Enterprises (Trout Creek Engineering) www.troutcreekeng.com N, […]

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Easy easements for model train track

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Laying tangent (straight) track is pretty straightforward but those curves can, well, throw you a curve. Equipment that enters a sudden curve is more likely to derail. And even if wheels stay on the rails the sight of a train jolting into a sudden curve can make even the most realistic layout look like a […]

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