It’s a cliché to refer to a decade as a “decade of change.” In the summation of our nation’s history, what decade wasn’t a decade of change? Change is perhaps the great constant of American history, and in many ways it is that forward-looking dynamism that keeps America at the vanguard of the international community. […]
If we are fortunate enough to have good genes, avoid fatal accidents, and escape catastrophic illness, it will come to all of us: old age. Model railroaders with huge layouts face a unique set of problems as the years pass by. There are several signs that may tell you it’s time to downsize: Half of […]
Painting is one of my favorite aspects of the hobby, though I guess that shouldn’t come as a big surprise. My father and grandfather were auto body repairmen, so painting (albeit on vehicles, not model trains) has been a part of my life from an early age. I started airbrushing model trains in my early […]
Facts and features Name: Green Mountain Division of the Boston & MaineScale: HO (1:87.1)Size: 12′-8″ x 20′-0″ plus 12′-0″ x 30′-0″ additionPrototype: Boston & Maine, Central Vermont, and RutlandLocale: VermontEra: 1950 to 1958Style: Around the wallsMainline run: 120 feet (original), 70 feet (extension)Minimum radius: 28″Minimum turnout: Hand built to fit, most no. 6 with no.4 […]
Facts and features Name: Chesapeake & Ohio New River Subdivision Scale: HO (1:87.1) Size: 19 x 24 feet Prototype: C&O New River Gorge and coal mine area Locale: Thurmond, W.Va. Era: 1957 Style: walk-in Mainline run: 102 feet Minimum radius: 30″ (24″ in Waynes-burg Mine wye) Minimum turnout: No. 6 Maximum grade: 1∕8″ per foot […]
Christmas is just around the corner so it’s time to make sure seasonal train displays are ready to deliver holiday fun – toy train style! Let’s start with locomotives and rolling stock. Inspection, oil, and grease Before trying to run anything, I recommend doing a preliminary inspection. Now is the time to replace broken […]
Recently, CTT received a box of rolling stock review samples from Ready Made Toys (RMT). Though, there was something about the ore car that caught my attention. The color of the simulated ore reminded me of the glow-in-the-dark acrylic paint you can purchase in craft stores. Wouldn’t it be neat to have a string of […]
This article will help you build a simple Arduino-based DCC system. Growing up in the 1980s I was living the dream. I had an HO layout on a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood in my parents’ basement in Reading, Pa., a soldering iron, a nearby RadioShack, and a subscription to Model Railroader. My favorite […]
Q: I’ve been trying to find the video Cody Grivno hosted a few years ago where he showed how to make a low-profile forest background using, I think, a furnace filter. I’m not talking about making furnace filter pine trees. This was more like cutting a continuous row of tree tops out of filter material […]
You never know where change will lead you. What started out as an attempt to fine-tune my existing HO scale layout ended with a new house and a 2,600 square-foot, four-deck model railroad – the Sunset Valley Oregon System (SVOS). I started my previous Sunset Valley (SV) layout in 1959 and worked on it for […]
The Burlington Northern RR began operations in March 1970, the product of a merger between the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; Great Northern; Northern Pacific; and Spokane, Portland & Seattle. It was also the railroad I grew up with in Crookston, Minn., my hometown in northwest Minnesota. For many years, I’ve been researching the early years […]
When I first started work on my layout, I built wood and plastic structure kits. I quickly grew frustrated with these buildings as few of them represented those found in Appalachia and along the Chesapeake & Ohio. Considering the lack of accurate building available on the marktet, I began scratchbuilding my own structures from wood […]
