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Common name: Trost’s Dwarf cutleaf birch, Dwarf European birch Latin name: Betula pendula ‘Trost’s Dwarf’, synonym: Betula platyphylla Plant type: Shrubs & small trees Plant size: 3-4′ high by 3′ wide before pruning USDA Hardiness Zones: 3-9 (10, given moisture) Cultural needs: Sun; moist, drained, slightly acidic One day a horticulturist noticed a finely divided […]
Shay No. 7 and the log operating train Name: Ray Wheeler Railroad Name: Jericho & Mt Zion Railway Location: Lynnwood, WA Scale: G scale Theme: Tourist railroad with freight operations in the modern era. Title: The E.V. Wheeler Timber Company Description: “The E.V. Wheeler Timber Company” – EVWT Shay #7 and log train operating on […]
Large-scale rolling stock decals: Unlike modeling scales with specific definitions like HO scale (1:87.1) or N scale (1:160), the term “large scale” actually encompasses a variety of modeling proportions (generally from 1:13.7 down to 1:32). This segments the market into small pieces. Because of the limited customer base, there are few commercially made decal options […]
Kitbashing a large-scale Pacific from a broken Aristo-Craft model wasn’t easy, but the result has been worth the work. My family has a history of model railroading spanning three generations. My grandfather modeled O scale as a child in the 1940s and passed that love along to my father in the 1970s, and who got […]
Sidewalks and curbs for a garden railway: My downtown area had realistic paved streets. Now it was time to add some sidewalks and curbs. I went to the local Home Depot and found inexpensive small square shower floor tiles in a natural stone color. I also found some beige plastic tile edging, which I’d use […]
The Kettle Valley Railway – Bruce Division is a coal and lumber garden railroad modeled after the Kettle Valley Railway that at one time carried freight and passengers through the Thomson/Okanagan Region of British Columbia. The garden railway was started in 2004 and covers a triangular-shaped hillside on Brian Swanton’s property. The railroad features two […]
Meet Rich Perrelli How did you get started in the hobby? I guess it was in my blood. My grandfather was a steam locomotive mechanic, and my dad encouraged my love of trains when I was a little tyke. On warm summer evenings he would drive us to a place where the highway palled the […]
Model paved brick streets: As on most of our garden railways, trains run by a model town. Mine is based on a small midwestern town I visited every summer as a boy. I hung out on Main Street lined with shops in an array of Victorian buildings with a brick paved street. In those days, […]
View from a boxcar door Name: Ray Wheeler Railroad Name: Jericho & Mt. Zion Railway Location: Lynnwood, WA Scale: G scale Theme: Tourist railroad with freight operations in the modern era Description: “From A Boxcar Door” – Safety Film – Riding in an open boxcar on a J&MtZ extra freight train. (An unsafe practice!) Music […]
Small yard garden railway: My wife wanted a big flower garden, and she had bought me a Bachmann Big Haulers Christmas train. How could she not have seen this coming? We live in a mobile home park in West Virginia and have a very small yard, but that didn’t stop us from building a railway. […]
Recreate a prototype photo: If you are a history nut like me, authenticity is important on your layout. I model the Kansas Central narrow gauge line that tried to build across Kansas in the 1870s to connect with the Denver & Rio Grande in Colorado. It met with competition from the standard gauge Kansas Pacific […]
An afternoon passenger train run on the Jericho & Mt. Zion Railway Name: Ray Wheeler Railroad Name: Jericho & Mt. Zion Railway Location: Lynnwood, WA Scale: G scale Theme: Tourist railroad with freight operations in the modern era Description: J&MtZ 4-6-0 #17 makes the run with the afternoon passenger train. Music from Epidemic Sound, “Waiting […]
