First man: Wow! You finished your train layout! Second man: Yeah, at least one good thing came out of this lockdown. […]
Model railroad humor: Lockdown
Magazine: Model-Railroader
Tangent HO scale 40-foot PS-1 boxcar
Cody Grivno, group technical editor, gives Tangent’s new HO scale PS-1 boxcar the once over in this rapid review. […]
Make dirt roads using drywall mud, Episode 4
Our humble host, Steve Brown, shows how he planned and “paved” the roads to success on his N scale layout. Follow along to see why an application of drywall mud is his preferred beginning of a sensational dirt road. […]
Shaping a signature structure, Episode 3
Steve “Regular Guy” Brown focuses on a kitbashed building that represents a signature structure on his N scale depiction of the Winston-Salem Southbound Railway. Explore the various techniques he used to form and fit this key component of the layout scene. […]
Steam-powered freights, a streamlined passenger train, and more model railroad photos
Trackside Photos is a showcase for the work of Model Railroader readers. Send your photos (digital images 5 megapixels or larger) to: Model Railroader, Trackside Photos, P.O. Box 1612, Waukesha, WI 53187-1612; or upload them to http://fileupload.kalmbach.com/contribute. For our photo submission guidelines, contact associate editor Steven Otte at sotte@mrmag.com. […]
Sketching with Steve: What is a station?
If you ask a layman to define a train station, they’ll describe a big building where people buy tickets and wait to board passenger trains. A slightly more knowledgeable person might also mention the presence of freight and baggage facilities and railroad offices. But when we talk about railroad operations – whether of the full-size […]
Lee Gasparik’s O scale PRR/New York Central background images
Click the links below to download the appropriately sized image for your screen. Download the 1600 x 900 image Download the 1600 x 1000 image Download the 1600 x 1200 image […]
Check out this Rapid Review of the new Athearn Genesis GP18!
Cody Grivno, group technical editor, and Eric White, senior editor, take a close look at the Athearn Genesis HO scale GP18 in this Rapid Review video. […]
Model railroad locomotive, freight car, and detail announcements for June 10, 2021
HO scale locomotives Electro-Motive Division SD90MAC diesel locomotive. Canadian Pacific (red and black), CIT Group (blue and black), Indiana Rail Road (red and white in two road numbers, 25th anniversary scheme in one number), Norfolk Southern (Primed for Grime series Union Pacific patchouts), and Union Pacific (Armour Yellow and Harbor Mist Gray, 3470-3775 series units […]
Reader Tip: Make a simple, precise applicator tool
Recent scratchbuilding efforts prompted me to come up with a simple glue applicator that would put a small amount of adhesive precisely where I wanted it. There are many commercial products to do this, but none were exactly what I needed. I took a sewing needle, measured its diameter, and drilled a slightly smaller hole […]
Last Year’s Walthers Winners Prove That Age Is Just a Number
WAUKESHA, Wis. — Out in the quiet countryside of Arkansaw, Wisconsin, brothers Bo and Ian Afdahl wake up every morning at 5 a.m. to milk and feed the cows on their family’s small dairy farm. After school, they come back home and do it all over again, typically working late into the evening. On the […]
It’s My Railroad, Making backdrop buildings, Ep. 23
Host Steve Brown shares his “Regular Guy” techniques for making low-relief background structures. In this video, Steve points out how quick and easy it is to mount paper templates on foam core material to form realistic buildings well-suited for placement along a layout backdrop. […]
