The General Code of Operating Rules (GCOR)

By the 1850s, railroad operating rules, often printed as pamphlets or on the back of a time card, had evolved to near universal application on all/most railroads. On April 14, 1887 representatives of 48 railroads voted for the adoption of what is now known as the Standard Code of Operating Rules (SCOR), published by the […]

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Model Railroader June 2018 desktop wallpaper

June2018ModelRailroaderwallpaper_thumb

Click on the links at left to download the image sized for your computer screen. It’s early June in Washington, and the Great Northern’s Fast Mail is running late on Lee Marsh’s HO scale layout. Click on the links below to download the image sized appropriately for your computer screen. Download the 1600 x 900 […]

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Build a better layout

Build a better layout

A decade ago, Dick Christianson, the founding editor of Classic Toy Trains, and I began work on what became the O gauge Lionel Lines/Santa Fe layout. With help from CTT staff members, who dutifully ventured to Dick’s suburban basement every Tuesday night, we spent countless hours planning, thinking, changing our minds, and making false starts […]

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HO Train Layout Ideas

This booklet contains five National Train Show track plans, along with a bill of materials for constructing each one and some operational possibilities. The 4 x 8 dimensions are time-tested – that’s the size of a sheet of plywood, plenty of track and broad-enough curves can fit on it, and, most important, filling those 32 square […]

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