This large scale indoor club layout started life as a custom build of a local large-scale collector. The 8-by-11-foot board had been unused for at least a decade and I immediately knew where this display would be best displayed — at the 7.5” gauge, 1.5” scale live-steam train club that I belong to. Many […]
John Cunius is truly the “Chairman of the Board” when it comes to his O gauge layout. The display, in a corner of his train room, puts the “fun” in “functional.” It has shelves underneath that hold his collection of locomotives, cars, and other equipment. See this and many other space-saving designs in Classic Toy […]
Watch trains running on Marshall Sommer’s HO scale Rhode Haven model railroad, which is featured in the January 2022 issue of Model Railroader magazine. […]
A California-inspired garden railroad is what you can see in our Morning Glow Railroad. It was developed after watching numerous videos, reading many Garden Railways magazines, then determining the type of garden railroad I wanted to construct. Its theme is based on the type of natural setting that I enjoyed the most, namely a vacation […]
I’ve wired a number of control panels for clubs. Control panels stick out into aisles and therefore need to be rugged. Control panels also take a good amount of time to wire. If you make a change in your track, modifying the panel to reflect the change can be difficult. I’ve always liked being able […]
There is probably no other aspect of our hobby that creates more anxiety and confusion for newcomers than wiring. When you’re starting at absolute ground zero on the learning curve it can be daunting at times. However, at the most basic level, what we’re trying to do is get electricity from a power source to […]
Track wiring your model railroad layout can be daunting, especially for beginners to the hobby. In order to help those looking to start, here’s a review of the bare-bones basics of wiring your layout that will help you get your trains up and running as quickly as possible. Run the wire bus roughly beneath the […]
Lionel’s Phantom train is on the rails! We’ve all seen Lionel, MTH, and American Flyer model train sets running under the Christmas tree, but what about for Halloween? CTT editor Hal Miller builds a small layout he calls the Chaos, Tragedy & Terror RR. It captures the spirit of the season with accessories from Woodland […]
I love collecting and displaying large-scale trains. I also love showing off my 1956 GMC pick up at car shows, or even at the front of my driveway at home. I decided to combine the two and make a mobile display layout! The layout is an easy build. My truck has slots on the truck […]
Good news! If your lifeless locomotive has ever run under Digital Command Control (DCC), chances are good that you can get it running again without having to send it off for repair. The solution is easy, too! More good news! If you have a new steam locomotive that doesn’t run or only partially works, maybe […]
When I built my outdoor railway – on three sides of my house – I never intended to sell it. I thought I’d be teetering behind a walker at 90, running my live-steam engines over rails I had built to last a lifetime. I like building strong, “permanent” track, which gives me a feeling of […]
My little shelf layout is made from track and lumber salvaged from a small model railroad I was building in my apartment living room back in Pennsylvania before I moved to Wisconsin to work for Model Railroader. In my current living room, I only have room for a shelf layout, which is built into an […]
