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About 10 years ago, because of a decision to downsize, I took down my 1,500-square-foot O scale railroad. To make that task more agreeable, I simultaneously started planning my next layout. I was a lifelong fan of the Milwaukee Road’s Beer Line. That branch was the busiest of all on a railroad that reached from […]
By Toyoji Sekine / Photos by Kaori Komatsu In the 1950s, when I was a small child, an O gauge train ran around the pond in my yard. It was a Japanese-style train made of tinplate, as nothing more realistic was available after the war. But I fell in love with American railroads, particularly the […]
For its 13th holiday season, the Eiteljorg Museum’s Jingle Rails showcased the American West in a whimsical fashion. Created by the team at Applied Imagination, the G gauge display featured miniature depictions of downtown Indianapolis along with landmarks of the western United States. Such features included Lucas Oil Stadium, Monument Circle, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone […]
Tom Barker’s S gauge layout is inspired by a vintage American Flyer dealer display. It features a lot of action and fun! It appears in the July-August issue of Classic Toy Trains. Subscribers can see how he built the circular four-tier structure that’s the centerpiece of the layout here. […]
This large scale indoor club layout started life as a custom build of a local large-scale collector. The 8-by-11-foot board had been unused for at least a decade and I immediately knew where this display would be best displayed — at the 7.5” gauge, 1.5” scale live-steam train club that I belong to. Many […]
John Cunius is truly the “Chairman of the Board” when it comes to his O gauge layout. The display, in a corner of his train room, puts the “fun” in “functional.” It has shelves underneath that hold his collection of locomotives, cars, and other equipment. See this and many other space-saving designs in Classic Toy […]
Lionel’s Phantom train is on the rails! We’ve all seen Lionel, MTH, and American Flyer model train sets running under the Christmas tree, but what about for Halloween? CTT editor Hal Miller builds a small layout he calls the Chaos, Tragedy & Terror RR. It captures the spirit of the season with accessories from Woodland […]
When I was young, I had an American Flyer train and a set of American Plastic Bricks (interlocking toy bricks made in the 1960s). I liked running the train, but I was particularly drawn to the bricks. I could easily build something, tear it down, and build something else. Years later, I built an […]
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1. With a track height of 60″ there is ample room below the layout for storage and the all important work benches, located here below the mines at Orla. Mike Garforth 3. The front of the layout at the Orla Mine area. The open-fronted boiler house offers one of several “viewing windows” into the layout. […]
A whimsical train makes its way past alarming mountains of orange, red and purple, on its way to more pleasant and soothing scenery. Bob Treat The character and colors of the scratchbuilt structures are in keeping with the overall concept. Bob Treat The engine crosses the waterfall on a rickety trestle. The rainbow marks the […]
Bridges connect different areas. A train on the high line near Ophir passes above a standard-gauge train rolling into Rockwood. The upper train is a mix of scratchbuilt and LGB equipment. Christopher Zider From the outside, Barry Bogs’ house looks similar to most others in a subdivision northwest of Houston. But as soon as you […]
