Five modeling ideas from a General Electric Dash 9-44CW

Photo of six-axle road locomotive on sunny day

Five modeling ideas from a General Electric Dash 9-44CW: In late June 2022, my wife, kids, and I visited my brother- and mother-in-law in Milbank, S.D. The parsonage they live in conveniently overlooks the BNSF Railway Appleton Subdivision, which runs between its namesake in Minnesota and Aberdeen, S.D. When I woke up on the morning […]

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How to re-stencil reporting marks

hopper car with re-stenciled reporting marks

How to re-stencil reporting marks: If you’ve waited at a grade crossing recently, you’ve probably noticed many freight cars with their original reporting marks painted out and new ones applied. This is done because the car’s ownership has changed. Since repainting an entire freight car is costly, patching over old reporting marks is an accepted […]

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Burlington Northern locomotive one-offs

Black-and-white photo of end-cab switcher at diesel servicing track

Burlington Northern locomotive one-offs. Burlington Northern (BN) had more than 2,000 diesel locomotives on its roster. With a fleet of that size, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there were more than a few Burlington Northern locomotive one-offs. Paint scheme variations, wreck rebuilds, and test subjects were among the examples I found when searching […]

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Final details for Star Industries | It’s My Railroad, Ep. 31

Final details for Star Industries – Host Steve Brown concludes construction of his N scale rail-served industry, by adding scenery and details to the structure and right-of-way, including a proper perimeter fence. Of course, it’s all prepared using Steve’s simple, but effective “regular guy” techniques! It’s My Railroad host Steve Brown states he’s a “regular-guy” […]

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A citrus train for the garden railroad

Front of grover’s caboose citrus train model

I thought it would be fun to make a citrus train for the garden railroad. I like to reuse broken hobby items from my junk box, and I had several pieces to build my train inexpensively. Certain livestock trains had a car — usually a converted long caboose — called a drover’s caboose for the drovers (cowboys) to […]

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Elevate buildings to track height | It’s My Railroad, Ep. 30

Elevate buildings to track height! Work continues on the Star Industries project, a mid-sized industry modeled on Steve Brown’s N scale layout. In this episode, Steve shares how he raises his rail-served buildings to the appropriate track height, simply by adding a foundation. You’ll also see his techniques for making paved roads featuring proper curbing […]

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Preparing an N scale locomotive for repainting | Cody’s Workshop, Ep. 48

Preparing an N scale locomotive for repainting. That’s what expert modeler Cody Grivno highlights in his latest Cody’s Workshop series video. From his workbench and vented spray booth, our host will lead you through the necessary steps for disassembling an Atlas EMD GP38-2 diesel locomotive model, stripping off the factory paint job and decoration, and then applying an […]

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