A (sort of) successful move

A successful move sort of

A (sort of) successful move: Back in 1995, I wrote a story for the first issue of Model Railroad Planning about Tehachapi III, the N scale Southern Pacific and Santa Fe layout I was building. In that story I told how I built the layout in 13 bolted-together sections supported by easy-to-disassemble ­L-girder benchwork. The […]

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News & Products for the week of March 6th 2023

News & Products for the week of March 6th 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 March 6th 2023. […]

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Improve ready-to-run freight cars with a little paint

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Improve ready-to-run freight cars: A few weeks ago I bought an N scale freight car at my local hobby shop. The car was a bright yellow Milwaukee Road covered hopper by Trainworx, and besides the marvelous detail, it had two other features I’ve come to look for on cars: metal wheels and body-mounted Magne-Matic couplers. […]

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A signature N scale truck for Tehachapi

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A signature N scale truck for Tehachapi: This photo of a cattle truck at Caliente, Calif., existed in my mind for perhaps 10 years before it finally came to fruition, and it was spurred by buying a Road Apples N scale stock trailer kit. The kit had two things going for it. First, I thought […]

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N scale by the numbers

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N scale by the numbers: Scale model railroading couldn’t exist without numbers, some that are very important and some that are not important at all, but fun to play around with. This article is for those who model in N scale, so let’s look at N scale numbers, starting with the two most critical, 9mm […]

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Improving N scale engine performance

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Improving N scale engine performance: One of the most puzzling N scale locomotive performance problems I’ve encountered came with the two Atlas Electro-Motive Division (EMD) SD60s I purchased in 2014. The prototype locomotives were lease units from Oakway (an EMD subsidiary), and they were painted in the gorgeous blue-and-white scheme EMD had used for years […]

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Choosing model rail sizes for your HO and N scale layout

Image showing profiles of model train rail

  Choosing model rail sizes is one of the things modelers often spend time on when building their second layout. We often start with whatever came in the train set we began with, but then we start to hear about rail “codes,” and how they can differ. Regardless of scale, model rail sizes are specified […]

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Conrail models you can buy

Model of blue diesel locomotive

Whether you need more blue on your locomotive roster or want to add Conrail units in other paint schemes to your layout, this is a comprehensive list of Conrail models you can buy. This list just focuses on locomotives and cabooses. Mixing Conrail freight cars into your rolling stock roster will also add some colorful […]

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News & Products for the week of February 27th 2023

An image of a model locomotive

News & Products for the week of February 27th 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 February 27th 2023. […]

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News & Products for the week of February 20th 2023

News & Products for the week of February 20th 2023: an image of a model flat car with mystery balloon load

News & Products for the week of February 20th 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 February 20th 2023. […]

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Model train packaging: So it arrives in one piece

Two blue boxes, one with a clear window and the other with a locomotive blueprint on it, on white table

On October 10, 2022, at approximately 12:36 p.m. local time, a pallet carrying 846 LNER Dynamometer Cars fell off of a delivery truck at Rapido’s UK headquarters. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly, as you’ll find out), none of the models were destroyed. In a time where more and more of what we purchase arrives in a cardboard […]

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