Reimagining a freelanced narrow gauge shelf layout

A long view of a narrow shelf model railroad

I’ve had a fondness for narrow gauge modeling since I was a teenager reading Model Railroader stories by John Olsen and Malcolm Furlow in the early 1980s. So when it came time to build my first real layout, it’s no surprise that I chose HOn3 scale. It’s also no surprise I chose a freelanced route, […]

Read More…

Greg Bird O gauge layout

still from layout video with locomotive

I decided that the three-rail layout was going to have an industrial theme. I wanted lots of smokestacks, guys in hard hats and safety vests, and tall cranes. Because my full-time job takes me into many facilities associated with a wide variety of industries, I already had good ideas and firm plans for how the […]

Read More…

Neal Mayer O gauge layout

locomotive on toy train layout

In the attic of Neal Mayer’s home, he has assembled a group of vignettes, each using trains and structures, vehicles and figures, and signs and lights to suggest life in his native New England during the postwar era. Visitors stroll from one scene to another and then to another, never in a rush, as they […]

Read More…

Jack Hedge O gauge layout

model train with smoke on layout

Jack Hedge, a lifelong O gauge enthusiast and talented layout builder, created the fictitious city of Hedgerton for his three-rail display. His layout features four loops and includes contemporary steamers and diesels from just about everybody, including Atlas O, K-Line, Lionel, Right-of-Way Industries, 3rd Rail, Weaver, and Williams. Jack outlines what he installed, beginning with […]

Read More…

David Parks’ Cumberland West in HO scale

David Parks’ Cumberland West in HO scale | In this Trains.com Video exclusive, modeler David Parks shares his large HO (1:87) scale layout built in Northern California. David has deftly combined elements of the Baltimore & Ohio and Western Maryland railroads as they operated in 1953 in and around Cumberland, Maryland. As narrated by 0ur […]

Read More…

David Parks’ Cumberland West in HO scale

David Parks’ Cumberland West in HO scale | In this Trains.com Video exclusive, modeler David Parks shares his large HO (1:87) scale layout built in Northern California. David has deftly combined elements of the Baltimore & Ohio and Western Maryland railroads as they operated in 1953 in and around Cumberland, Maryland. As narrated by 0ur […]

Read More…

Jerry Strangarity’s Reading Co. in HO scale

Title screen from Jerry Strangarity's HO scale Reading Co. layout visit video.

Jerry Strangarity’s Reading Co. in HO scale last appeared in the November 2010 issue of Model Railroader magazine. Since our last visit, he’s completed three more scenes on the layout: West Philadelphia, Reading/Hamburg, and Birdsboro. Enjoy this video showing a mix of steam and diesel locomotives running through eastern Pennsylvania in the 1930s and 1940s. […]

Read More…

Jerry Strangarity’s Reading Co. in HO scale

Title screen from Jerry Strangarity's HO scale Reading Co. layout visit video.

Jerry Strangarity’s Reading Co. in HO scale last appeared in the November 2010 issue of Model Railroader magazine. Since our last visit, he’s completed three more scenes on the layout: West Philadelphia, Reading/Hamburg, and Birdsboro. Enjoy this video showing a mix of steam and diesel locomotives running through eastern Pennsylvania in the 1930s and 1940s. […]

Read More…

Central Vermont Rwy. Southern Division in HO scale

Central Vermont Railway Southern Division in HO scale | In Northern California’s San Francisco Bay Area, a dedicated group led by Paul Weiss is passionately re-creating the Central Vermont Railway’s Southern Division as it existed in May 1956. This historically accurate project showcases meticulously replicated scenes from New London, Conn., to Palmer, Mass., portraying the […]

Read More…

Central Vermont Rwy. Southern Division in HO scale

Central Vermont Railway Southern Division in HO scale | In Northern California’s San Francisco Bay Area, a dedicated group led by Paul Weiss is passionately re-creating the Central Vermont Railway’s Southern Division as it existed in May 1956. This historically accurate project showcases meticulously replicated scenes from New London, Conn., to Palmer, Mass., portraying the […]

Read More…