I recently made an inspiring trip to the Twin Cities Model Railroad Museum in St. Paul, Minnesota, that I would like to tell you about. The Twin Cities Model Railroad Museum is an organization that’s been in existence since 1934. At its inception it was housed in the St. Paul Union Depot which hosted the…
I’m going to diverge a bit from my ongoing series of blogs to talk about something that’s vital to the pursuit of our hobby. Glue! We all seem to find our own favorites, and using a glue that doesn’t work for a particular application can be really aggravating. My previous blog about the 1/64 scale…
What about basic detailing? We’ve come a good distance in our blog series, so I think that we’re ready for the really rewarding part! If you’ve read my series (find the links to at the end of this blog), you should get my thought process for building a layout that you’ll enjoy for many years.…
Photo by Doug Hodgdon Model railroad structures are important in many ways, and by “structures” I’m including bridges and other man-made, primarily fixed elements that we include in our layouts. Structures can be assembled from combinations of wood, stone, concrete, or steel. They can be loading docks, a wooden pony truss bridge, a stone retaining…
I’m digressing a bit for this installment. I’ve had many great experiences designing and building model railroads for over fifty years now and met rail modelers from many avocations. For me the most inspiring part of that experience has to be the emotional connection that develops while working and sharing creative ideas with fellow modelers.…
Wiring for a model railroad layout can be easy or complicated. I like to manage my wiring so that later on, I’ll be able to trace each wire back to its source. Years ago, I developed my own personal wiring color codes along with standardized schematics for repetitious situations that I keep in a notebook…
How about trackwork? The trains we love can’t do much without track. In the next installment of our series, I’ll present some track and track laying options to think about when planning your model railroad layout. Here’s a fun fact to get us started: The famous “Big 10” curve west of Denver on what used…
In this installment, I’d like to suggest various types of railroad layouts (in no particular order) from which you can derive inspiration for your concept: Club layout: I’ve visited some really great clubs – they generally can allow HUGE spaces beyond the range of the typical model railroader. Think long trains, wide curves, and plenty…
The next installment in our ongoing series on planning and building a model railroad layout is all about layout themes. In case you missed our previous installment on track configurations, make sure to go back and check out that post for handy diagrams of common configurations. In this post, we’ll talk about establishing a theme…
Model Railroad Academy sent me to Indianapolis this year to take in the 2016 NMRA National Convention and Train Show July 8th through the 10th. My primary interest in attending the show was to check out all the vendors and see what is new and exciting in the hobby this year. If you didn’t get…