LaVerne F. (Vern) Bleifuss, former art director for Model Railroader magazine, died on March 1, 2023. He was 87 years old. LaVerne was born April 30, 1935 in the village of Summit, Wis. After graduation from Oconomowoc High School, he attended the Layton School of Art, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree. Following his honorable […]
If you’re like me, you love riding Amtrak and modeling the trains you have ridden. But scale passenger equipment can get expensive, especially if you add lights and figures. The first two Amtrak cars that I got were Superliner coach and diner cars; I thought I needed to save up for a whole train. This […]
Growing up in northwestern Minnesota, the two railroads I was most familiar with were Burlington Northern and Soo Line. Sure, I would see Conrail freight cars now and then. Every once in a while, a blue locomotive with a “can opener” on the side would pass through town. But as I was going through my […]
In this week’s Midday Modeler, David talks about people building project layouts that have appeared in previous issues of MR magazine. Bryson shows off a cool Lego Maersk engine. Steve demo’s a “shack pack”. More viewer questions are answered. […]
News & Products for the week of March 20th 2023 Model railroad operators and builders can get the latest information about locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, tools, track, and more by reading Model Railroader’s frequent product updates. The following are the products Model Railroader editors have news on for the week of March 20th 2023. […]
Malcolm Furlow photo tribute. Noted model railroader and artist Malcolm Furlow passed away in March 2023. You can read his obituary here. In this photo gallery, we’ll look at the variety of contributions he made to Model Railroader magazine and Kalmbach Publishing (now Kalmbach Media) during the 1980s. The staff at Model Railroader extends its […]
Malcolm Furlow, noted model railroader and artist, died in early March from the effects of long COVID. He was 77 years old. Though Malcolm had an American Flyer train set as a child, he didn’t become interested in model railroading until later in life. Malcolm attended the University of Texas to pursue an art degree. […]
On today’s Midday Modeler, work briefly shifts over to the MR&T from the project layout. David and Eric discuss the steps trying to get the MR&T closer to operation. Eric shows off his handrail progress. Steve provides an update on the structure he’s working on for the project layout. David dives in to a Mercantile […]
Preview Model Railroader March and April content We’ve added lots of great content to Trains.com. Here are recent highlights, and get a preview of some of the projects coming in April. Become a member today so you don’t miss any of these items! Five finds from model railroad swap meets Swap meets are a […]
Model Railroader magazine’s associate editor Bryson Sleppy shares his technique for installing an LED kit into a modern, HO scale passenger car that did not come factory-equipped with lights. Even better, Bryson adds an NCE Light-it DCC decoder he’ll use to toggle the interior illumination on/off. Be sure to follow the exclusive In The Workshop […]
N scale trains on HO curves: In 1968 Aurora and Revell gambled that N scale train sets would be a big hit in the toy market. Aurora struck a deal with Minitrix, a German company, to produce its Postage Stamp line, and Revell turned to Rapido (also German) to manufacture its offerings. I have no […]
Better track, wheels, and couplers: Several years ago Atlas introduced its code 55 N scale track, and soon a great wail rose up from some in the N scale community. Beautiful as the track was, the wheels that came standard with Micro-Trains cars bumped against the track’s molded spike heads as the cars rolled along. The […]
