How to model realistic track and trackside scenes

In this special supplement to Model Railroader, you’ll get expert advice on and photos of lineside details for: Roadway, ballast, rails and ties Terrain and features alongside your track Signals, signs, and grade crossings Trackside communication, safety, and maintenance equipment Enter your email below to sign up for our weekly newsletter and get your free download! […]

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A Special Wish garden railway project

A Special Wish garden railway project

Special note: All photos courtesy of Aileen Elizabeth Photography For many, garden railways are a unique hobby, but for Jack, a garden railway was a “special wish.” A Special Wish Foundation, North Central Ohio Chapter (“Special Wish”), is a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to granting the wishes of children under the age of twenty-one who […]

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5 compact track plans

You can pack a lot of model railroading fun into a small space, and in this booklet we’ll show you five ways to do it. The HO and N scale plans featured here have all appeared in Model Railroader magazine. Each one has a unique theme, and all contain a key element of modern model railroad design […]

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How to repair and maintain Lionel postwar locomotives

How to repair and maintain Lionel postwar locomotives

  “I once found a 60-year-old train in the loft of a farmer’s barn, where it had spent more cold northern winters and hot summers than anyone could remember. A family of mice had even made a nest in the box and left behind over a pound of petrified ‘evidence.’ “I thought the engine was […]

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The Best Scenery Tips and Instructions for your Layout

The Best Scenery Tips and Instructions for your Layout

  Inside this exclusive 30-page supplement from Classic Toy Trains you will find tips and instructions on everything you need to know about building scenery. Build a hidden corner Add a gorge to your layout Construct customized elevated bridges Build a mountain and tunnel Use ceiling tile for scenery Enter your email address below to download […]

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The Salt Lake Route, Part 6 – Industry and yard scenery

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In the final installment of our N scale project layout series, Dick Christianson explains how he modeled the industries and yard in Caliente, Nev. Fig. 1 Backdrop. Lacking enough sky to cover the tempered hardboard, Dick cut the sky and clouds from the photo and let the blue backdrop suffice. Fig. 2 Protective covering. Dick […]

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The Salt Lake Route, Part 4 – Wiring a small layout for DCC

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Dick Christianson explains how to wire the Salt Lake Route for Digital Command Control. He concealed the system’s command station in a drawer built beneath the layout’s intermodal yard. Bill Zuback photo Fig. 1 Power feeders. Last month Dick explained how to install Kato Unitrack power feeders during tracklaying. He used plug-in sections on the […]

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The Salt Lake Route, Part 3: Laying realistic sectional track

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A pair of Union Pacific freights bank into the superelevated curves on the N scale Salt Lake Route. Dick Christianson explains how he installed Kato Unitrack, including the firm’s new double-track sections with superelevated curves (inset), on our project layout. One of the parameters Model Railroader gave me regarding the N scale project layout was […]

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