Easy easements for model train track

easementthisone

Laying tangent (straight) track is pretty straightforward but those curves can, well, throw you a curve. Equipment that enters a sudden curve is more likely to derail. And even if wheels stay on the rails the sight of a train jolting into a sudden curve can make even the most realistic layout look like a […]

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Olympia 2, The Log Blog: Part 5 – Wide open spaces

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page David is back to the basement for more work on the Olympia Logging Co. On30 layout. In this blog entry, he first joins the two layout sections, and then makes changes to the hardboard fascia and styrene backdrop, giving the display an amazing […]

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Growing up along the Burlington

CBQEunit

An E unit leads a train through Berwyn, Ill., on a lazy day in August 1963. Such scenes were part of daily life along the Burlington’s triple-track main west of Chicago. Larry Kostka It didn’t matter how often you rode the trains, or even if you did at all. Growing up in the postwar era […]

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Templates for an HO scale log grasping lift

loggraspinglift

Click on the link to download the part templates for the log-grasping lift. In the June 2017 Model Railroader, Andrew Taylor describes how he kitbashed an HO scale container loader into a log-grasping lift. Andrew scratchbuilt the claw-like lift from styrene. Click on the link below to download the templates for cutting out the parts. […]

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Video 101: Shooting on location

Today we hit the road. Our goal will be to make an interesting 3 minute, home video using a readily available action camera, still cameras and homemade accessories. Our raw video will be edited on consumer level software; we will add sound effects, and zippy music. We will make a gift copy for the owner, […]

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Olympia 2, The Log Blog: Part 4 – Punching holes in things

David Popp building Olympia layout

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page Yes, David punches through the backdrop of the original Olympia Logging Co. On30 display-style layout. But first, he talks through many of the modifications he made to his design for the new extension. More proof that even the best-laid plans are subject to […]

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W. A. Eby, PRR engineman and foster dad

WAEby

Like many old steam men, PRR engineman W. A. Eby disliked diesels, but he manages a smile in the cab of S12 No. 8734 working the Bellefonte local in 1957. Michael Hauk collection I never knew Walter A. Eby, my dad’s foster father. He passed away in 1963, when I was two years old. I […]

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Chariots of fire on the Erie

HotmetalERIE

A hot-metal “bottle car,” one of three in an Erie train that included eight hopper cars as spacers, passes DeForest Junction, between Youngstown and Warren, Ohio, in 1966. Clifford A. Redanz One of the more interesting aspects of steel-mill railroading were the “hot-metal runs” that moved molten iron from the blast furnaces to the open […]

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Video 101: Movies tell stories

Santa Rosa & Pacific Railroad

Some of my first video clips were simply attempts to show the sheer joy of watching the movement of trains along routes that connect cities, towns, and countryside panoramas. But when we want to create train movies, such as those we make for the Children’s Museum, we need to remember that movies tell stories. Our […]

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Olympia 2, The Log Blog: Part 3 – Layout legs and groundhogs

In this episode, David Popp attaches legs to the extension of our Olympia Logging Co. On30 display-style layout. Follow David as he shares a few helpful construction tips and tricks he’s learned along the way. Plus, you’ll also get a weather prediction from Ginger the “Groundhog”! […]

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Olympia 2, The Log Blog: Part 2 – All cards on the table

Having trouble viewing this video?   Please visit our Video FAQ page MRVP’s David Popp keeps the banter rolling as he plans the next phase of the Olympia Logging Co. On30 display-style layout. Follow David as he plots out the design on an old farmhouse kitchen table. […]

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