Eric White couldn’t find a Northeastern style caboose painted for the Lehigh Valley, but a vendor at a train show had several models in another paint scheme. In less than an hour, Eric had a model that was ready for new paint. Watch this video to see how he stripped the original paint. VIDEO TRANSCRIPT […]
In this quick how-to video, Eric White shows you how a little bit of filing can go a long way when trying to fix the pesky wobble on a boxcar. VIDEO TRANSCRIPT BELOW: Ready to run models can be great, but sometimes you need to do a little tuning. Take a look at this. You […]
In this quick how-to video, Eric White shows you how a little bit of filing can go a long way when trying to fix the pesky wobble on a boxcar. VIDEO TRANSCRIPT BELOW: Ready to run models can be great, but sometimes you need to do a little tuning. Take a look at this. You […]
Welcome to Cody’s Trackside Finds, a new series on Trains.com, where we’ll look at interesting locomotives, freight cars, structures, or details that I’ve come across while railfanning. In these entries, I’ll provide some background information on the subject, give you some modeling tips, and most importantly, encourage comments from the Trains.com community. Do you have […]
Why do you stage a model train layout? Let’s be clear about the need for staging. Unless you’re modeling a very small railroad or perhaps a branch line, you’re faced with the need to simulate the connections that the part of the railroad you’ve opted to model makes with the rest of that same railroad […]
Classic Toy Trains Editor Hal Miller prowls the dollar store aisles in search of inexpensive items that are useful on the workbench or layout. […]
Sketching with Steve The good old 4 x 8 train table is a tradition – if not a cliché – for a reason: plywood comes in 4 x 8-foot sheets. When our dads or grandpas bought us our first train sets for Christmas, they often nailed that simple oval or figure-8 onto a table made […]
The stainless steel finish for passenger cars made of plastic is typically silver paint that lacks the mirror sheen of real stainless. Even the plated finishes of the brass models don’t have a realistic stainless look, and plated cars from different makers don’t match. I hadn’t found a finish I really liked, though, until I […]
Sketching with Steve How you arrange the turnouts in your yards may be dictated by the prototype yard you might be modeling and at least in part by the shape of the benchwork at that location. But if you’re designing a yard that isn’t constrained by those factors – say, a staging yard on a […]
One of the issues that comes up in almost every 3D print is the finished product. Like most plastic models, there can be plastic strings, places that did not get enough material, holes, sharp edges, and the like. I am constantly reading about different techniques of finishing 3D parts. Some of them work quite well, […]
Diaphragms are bellows-like connections that enclose the space between cars for safe passage through the train. Passenger cars look naked without them, but they can be a pain in the neck if they don’t let cars negotiate all kinds of trackwork, or if they keep cars from coupling and uncoupling. I took my cue from […]
Good rolling stock plays a major role in the operating quality of any layout. On most model railroads, the car fleet represents more potential problems than any other single element, so here’s how I check every car before it goes on my Ohio Southern Railroad, using just a few handy tools, 1. Trucks and wheels […]
