Allen Keller | Page 2 | Model Railroad Academy

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. There are many natural materials from your own yard or fields you can use to make nice, inexpensive, and realistic looking trees. Goldenrods might be considered a strange material as they can cause some people with allergies to suffer, but…

Making Scale Trees from Hydrangea Blooms

October 19, 2016 By Allen Keller & filed under Model Railroad Academy Blog.

The best material for modeling trees that look like trees is natural vegetation… nothing beats it. For years I’ve used various kinds of natural materials from the yard, my wife’s gardens, and fields near my house. One of the easiest pieces of vegetation to use is a bloom from the Oak Leaf Hydrangea. Note that…

A New Way to Attend a Train Event

October 4, 2016 By Allen Keller & filed under Model Railroad Academy Blog.

For some time now modelers have discussed the costs of going to model railroad conventions and meets. Often the cost has been too much for some people, but the Southeastern Region of the National Model Railroad Association has come up with a solution… the Mini-Meet. Other regions have sponsored Mini-Meets in the past, particularly the…

Allen Keller Builds Circus Flatcars

August 24, 2016 By Allen Keller & filed under Model Railroad Academy Blog.

With spring approaching, the management of the Keljan Circus realized they needed more flatcars to get ready for the new season of performances. In winter quarters the circus crew had built several new wagons, but didn’t find a place for them on the existing flatcars. The engineering crew decided to make the new Mt. Vernon…

Allen Keller’s Scratchbuilt B&O Depot

May 26, 2016 By Allen Keller & filed under Model Railroad Academy Blog.

Back in January I got a request from Henry Freeman to build an HO scale depot for his 1957-era Baltimore & Ohio layout featuring the Chicago switching district. The 63rd Street Depot was owned by the B&O but built for an earlier railroad. In this blog I’ll share my process for creating what turned out…