Ask MRVP: Episode 5

David Popp in Hawaiian shirt introducing video.

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page Host David Popp and others answer viewer questions about troublesome turnout issues, the iconic Cody’s Office runaway boxcar, cleaning layout scenery, visiting the Kalmbach Publishing Co. HQ, and much more! Watch the entire episode and you’ll even see how one viewer question prompted […]

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Ask MRVP: Episode 5

David Popp in Hawaiian shirt introducing video.

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page Host David Popp and others answer viewer questions about troublesome turnout issues, the iconic Cody’s Office runaway boxcar, cleaning layout scenery, visiting the Kalmbach Publishing Co. HQ, and much more! Watch the entire episode and you’ll even see how one viewer question prompted […]

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Winston-Salem Southbound Series: Odds and ends

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page Even in the midst of the extensive tracklaying effort on MRVP’s HO scale Winston-Salem Southbound layout, David Popp continued adding various benchwork and scenery elements. In this video, David Popp brings you up to date on those projects. […]

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Winston-Salem Southbound Series: Odds and ends

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page Even in the midst of the extensive tracklaying effort on MRVP’s HO scale Winston-Salem Southbound layout, David Popp continued adding various benchwork and scenery elements. In this video, David Popp brings you up to date on those projects. […]

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HO scale Great Lakes & Western

HOscaleGreatLakesWesternthumb

Name: Great Lakes & Western Scale: HO (1:87.1) Size: 37 x 48 feet Theme: freelanced Class 1 with standard gauge logging and narrow gauge branch lines Locale: Midwest to Western United States Era: 1940s to present day (depends on operating session) Style: walk-in Mainline run: approx. 800 feet Minimum radius: 30″ (main line), 26″ (narrow […]

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N scale Manassas Junction

NscaleManassasJunctionthumb

Name: Manassas Junction, Va. Scale: N (1:160) Size: 34″ x 52.5″ Prototype: Manassas Gap RR and Orange & Alexandria RR Locale: Manassas Junction, Va. Era: July 1861 Style: diorama Mainline run: 4′-4″ Minimum radius: 19″ Minimum turnout: no. 4 Maximum grade: none Benchwork: 1 x 2 frame with 1⁄4″ plywood top Height: 47′-6″ Roadbed: built […]

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Accessible 3-D printing for model railroaders

Sketchup

Free software available online, such as Sketchup, can be used to design models that are produced by 3-D printing services like Shapeways. Alex Marchand followed this path to model a CSX class U-13 phosphate hopper in N scale. When I was in high school in the late ’90s, I saw a TV show that ran […]

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Video: Rapido Trains HO scale F40PH-2D

Rapido Trains HO scale F40PH2D

The Rapido Trains HO scale F40PH-2D features prototype specific detail and sound. The locomotive model features an ESU LokSound Select Digital Command Control (DCC) decoder. Watch two F40PH-2D locomotives haul a push-pull passenger train on the Model Railroader staff’s Milwaukee, Racine, and Troy HO scale model railroad. […]

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Model Railroad Operations: Using bell and whistle sounds

locomotive on a model railroad layout

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page The command control sound effects offered on many new locomotive models are far more than just “cool” features. As Model Railroader magazine’s contributing editor Andy Sperandeo demonstrates in this video, the bell and whistle sounds can be used in a prototypical manner to […]

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Model Railroad Operations: Using bell and whistle sounds

locomotive on a model railroad layout

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page The command control sound effects offered on many new locomotive models are far more than just “cool” features. As Model Railroader magazine’s contributing editor Andy Sperandeo demonstrates in this video, the bell and whistle sounds can be used in a prototypical manner to […]

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