Allen Keller

Riding Amtrak on the Coast Starlight

August 28, 2019 By Allen Keller & filed under Model Railroad Academy Blog.

When it’s time to leave Portland, we depart from the beautiful Union Station. There are even palm trees planted in front of this hundred plus year old building. The Coast Starlight will take us to Sacramento where we plan to catch the train back to Chicago. Inside the well-maintained station are some really great neon…

Choo Choo Cityrails Southeastern Region Convention

July 23, 2019 By Allen Keller & filed under Model Railroad Academy Blog.

The 2019 convention of the Southeastern Region National Model Railroad Association was held in Chattanooga, Tennessee in late May at the downtown DoubleTree Hotel. About 280 people attended the convention sponsored by the Region’s Cherokee Division. As usual there were many clinics on model railroading including this one presented by Pelle Seeborg from Denmark on…

A Visit to Tennessee’s Official Train Museum

July 15, 2019 By Allen Keller & filed under Model Railroad Academy Blog.

The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga is the state’s official railroad museum although it’s run by volunteers and paid staff. It was started in 1960 and now has 3 miles of track. I and a number of train fans recently had a chance to spend the morning visiting. There are a number of vintage…

Circus Passenger Cars

September 4, 2018 By Allen Keller & filed under Model Railroad Academy Blog.

After building all my circus flatcars and wagons I needed some way for the performers and workers to travel. So I’m going to tell you about the construction of 2 passenger cars for my Keljan Circus. I began with 2 AHM 10-6 sleepers then painted them red with a silver roof. I added wire grab…

Adding the Dwarf Signals to Bridge Junction

April 9, 2018 By Allen Keller with Kevin Kizer & filed under Model Railroad Academy Blog.

Here is the diagram for Bridge Junction on Allen’s Bluff City Southern. In earlier blogs Kevin Kizer and I installed the approach signals and the train order signal inside the wye. Kevin, a retired signal maintainer, determined that we needed dwarf signals at the 3 locations marked 1,2 and 3. Location 1 is the lead to Bluff City yard. Location 2 is the lead to the coach yard and location 3 is the lead to the engine service facility inside the wye itself. Kevin said the signals will tell the engineer if the switch is aligned properly to exit the location.

Installing Approach Signals for an Interlocking Plant: Part 2

July 27, 2017 By Allen Keller with Kevin Kizer & filed under Model Railroad Academy Blog.

Editor’s note: This blog is part 2 of a series on installing signals for an interlocking plant. You can read part 1 of this series here. We decided to use searchlight signals manufactured by Tomar Industries. We added a 4′ scale base made out of Plastruct tubing to help raise the approach light signal mast…

10-Minute Diesel Weathering

July 24, 2017 By Allen Keller & filed under Model Railroad Academy Blog.

This is a new HO scale E-7 diesel. It’s well detailed and runs well with sound, but it looks too toy-like to me. There are as many ways to weather a locomotive as there are model railroad track plans! I want to show you a quick way to make your engines look less toy-like. It’s…

Cleaning Up an Old Model Railroad Scene

June 15, 2017 By Allen Keller & filed under Model Railroad Academy Blog.

Perhaps you have a scene or series of scenes on your layout that have not aged well. They may be covered in dust or just generally need a little touch up. You’d be surprised how easy it is to clean up an old scene on your model railroad layout. In this post, I’m going to…

Installing Approach Signals for an Interlocking Plant: Part 1

April 21, 2017 By Allen Keller with Kevin Kizer & filed under Model Railroad Academy Blog.

On my model railroad of the Bluff City Southern there is a bottleneck, but it’s a fun bottleneck. The five railroads that I model come together at this bottleneck. It’s the wye at Bridge Junction leading from Memphis into Arkansas across the Mississippi River. When I designed the layout I knew that a busy junction…

How to Make Miniature Trees from Goldenrods

November 16, 2016 By Allen Keller & filed under Model Railroad Academy Blog.

Nature provides many great examples of miniaturized vegetation that we can use on our layouts. So I’m continuing with my series on using natural materials from your own yard or fields to make inexpensive and pretty nice trees. You might consider this a strange material for a tree because it causes some people with allergies…