Video Step by Step: Weathering hoppers

Cody Grivno in the studio.

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page Our Winter Hill project railroad needed a lot of rock hoppers, and Cody Grivno shows you how he restenciled and weathered various Walthers models to fill out the fleet on the HO scale MR&T. […]

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Video Step by Step: River canyon scenery part 2

Cody painting scenery.

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page Water, rocks, trees, and more, this installment of Video Step by Step has it all. In part 2, Cody builds the riverbed and then pours the resin for the water. He also includes tips for making realistic ripples on the water’s surface. […]

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Video Step by Step: River scenery part 1

Cody Grivno with his model scene.

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page Water, rocks, trees, and more, this installment of Video Step by Step has it all. In part 1, Cody shows you how he renovated an existing scene on the MR&T with new ground cover, trees, and freshly painted rocks. […]

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Video Step by Step: Building foam hills

Cody Grivno standing in front of tracks.

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page Video Step by Step takes you start to finish through a modeling project. In this installment, associate editor Cody Grivno shows you how to build easy tree-covered hills to fit between the tracks and your backdrop. […]

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Two more ways to wye

Louisville Nashville freight 864 from Norton Va to Corbin Ky meets Southern First 88

Louisville & Nashville freight 864 from Norton, Va., to Corbin, Ky., meets Southern First 88, a coal turn from Andover to Yuma, Va., on the wye at Appalachia on May 23, 1969. Although wyes are commonplace on prototype railroads, they can be challenging to model. Ron Flanary A “wye” describes an area where three turnouts […]

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Build a quarry branch

Winter Hill 1

Model Railroader’s HO scale Winter Hill project layout Model Railroader‘s 2013 project layout is located on our HO scale club layout, the Milwaukee, Racine & Troy. It’s a 2 x 12-foot scene with many interesting aspects including making the quarry pit for Larson Stone Co. extend into the aisle. Registered users can click the following […]

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Scratchbuild wooden hoppers in 1:20.3 scale

Scratchbuild wooden hoppers in 1:20.3 scale

In the December 2012 and February 2013 issues of Garden Railways, Bruce Chandler describes in detail how to scratchbuild an ET&WNC wooden hopper car. As a bonus, we have scanned in prototype drawings and a prototype photo from the July 1981 issue of Model Railroader. Download the PDF of this project here. This PDF is […]

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Build a compact coal trestle

The drawing of this coal trestle is based on a prototype located on the Norfolk & Western Ry. in Montpelier, Va. Coal from this terminal was loaded onto trucks with a conveyor and delivered to the nearby DuPont estate. Since the terminal was for private, exclusive use, there was no weigh scale or office house. […]

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Build an 1880s oil refinery

Pioneer Refinery

Refineries are a fascinating industry to model, and they can add considerable switching activity to a model railroad operating session. Kits for contemporary refineries are available, but they weren’t much help on my 1895-era railroad where the principal retail petroleum product is kerosene instead of gasoline. Some time ago, I became aware of the remains […]

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Bath & Hammondsport RR enginehouse plans

MRR-C0612_A enginehouse

This enginehouse would fit on many model railroads set in the modern era The prototype structure is found along the Bath & Hammondsport Rail Corp., a shortline subsidiary of the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville RR, operates on the former Erie Lackawanna line between Wayland and Painted Post, N.Y. In addition, it also serves customers along […]

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