Five details you can add to transition-era cabooses

Black-and-white photo of steel caboose with rooftop antenna

We’ll take a look at five details you can add to transition-era cabooses. Some details are railroad-specific, while others apply to many railroads. When in doubt, refer to prototype photos. The steam-to-diesel transition era, roughly 1940 to 1960, is the most popular modeling era. There are several reasons for this. Many people who model this […]

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Acrylic paints for airbrushing

Two skinny paint bottles, one dark gray, the other gold, next to each other in front of white background

Acrylic paints for airbrushing While there are many different areas of the model railroading hobby that we can all explore, one common theme involved in almost all of these areas is paint. Whether you are painting entire backdrops, buildings, vehicles, or even figures, paint is a product that is necessary for model railroading. If you’re […]

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Eight Burlington Northern freight car one-offs

Black-and-white photo of boxcar in white paint with black lettering

I recently wrote “Burlington Northern locomotive one-offs”  featuring five Electro-Motive Division diesels, including unique paint schemes, rebuilds, and test subjects. This time, I dug through my negative collection and found eight Burlington Northern freight car one-offs. Most of the photos are from family travels throughout northwest Minnesota and northeast North Dakota between the early 1980s […]

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Should I use bottled gas as airbrush propellant?

Canned airbrush propellant, an airbrush, air hose, and accessories on a white background

Q: Is using bottled gas as airbrush propellant better than my Paasche air compressor? And what kind of gas should I use: CO2, nitrogen, something else? – Joseph Zawoiski A: Hi, Joseph. Since you already have an air compressor, I would keep using that. A compressor, equipped with a regulator and a moisture trap, is […]

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Five modeling ideas from a General Electric Dash 9-44CW

Photo of six-axle road locomotive on sunny day

Five modeling ideas from a General Electric Dash 9-44CW: In late June 2022, my wife, kids, and I visited my brother- and mother-in-law in Milbank, S.D. The parsonage they live in conveniently overlooks the BNSF Railway Appleton Subdivision, which runs between its namesake in Minnesota and Aberdeen, S.D. When I woke up on the morning […]

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