Vic Worthington built an impressive HO scale model of the Clay Spur bentonite plant that’s featured in the July 2015 Model Railroader. Bentonite is an absorbent clay that’s used in many industrial and consumer products and is often transported by rail. […]
Southern SD45 3134 leaves a pall of smoke over the depot area at Salisbury, N.C., July 17, 1977. Mike Small Growing up in close proximity to a main line, I’ve always valued speed and power in railroading. We lived about a mile south of Jamestown, N.C., where Southern Railway’s Washington, D.C., to Atlanta, Ga., route […]
Download plans to build this impressive arch through-truss bridge for a model railroad. Jim Richards Learn how author Jim Richards “scratchbashed” this arch through-truss bridge in the June Model Railroader. Click on the link below to download the assembly diagram that Jim used for the project. Arch through-truss bridge model assembly diagram […]
Download signs for Keller Bier and Keller Beverage Co. to use on your model train layout. In the June 2015 Step by Step column, associate editor Cody Grivno shows how to model signs on large model railroad industries. He uses the Keller Beverage Co. on the Model Railroader staff’s club model train layout, the Milwaukee, […]
This PBS Tracks Ahead segment visits The O. Winston Link Museum in Roanoke, Va., which maintains a collection of the nighttime railroad photographs captured by the late O. Winston Link. […]
Three NP F units lead a 12-car train 2, the Mainstreeter, through Plains, Mont., in summer 1964. The depot’s train-order signal projects above the third unit, while a mail pouch is ready to be snagged by No. 2’s RPO. Bruce Butler In the summer of 1964 I had just about the best summer job that […]
Railroad MOW sheds make easy scratchbuilding projects for a model railroad. In the article “A tale of two sheds” author Harold W. Russell describes two prototype railroad maintenance-of-way (MOW) sheds and includes scale drawings. Use the drawings and the article as a basis for a scratchbuilding project on your model railroad. Prototype drawings: Railroad MOW […]
A Santa Fe RSD15, SD24, and two SD45s curve toward Summit with an eastbound freight on November 14, 1970. Jay Potter People used to say that railroads held the country together. They were the proverbial ribbons of steel that kept commerce and people moving and made a lot of things possible. Today — as I […]
Having trouble viewing this video? Please visit our Video FAQ page In this MRVP exclusive video, Contributing Editor Andy Sperandeo uses MR magazine’s HO scale layout to demonstrate six helpful tips aimed at making you a better crew member during your next layout operating session. Coming from an “old head” like Andy, who’s operated […]
Having trouble viewing this video? Please visit our Video FAQ page In this MRVP exclusive video, Contributing Editor Andy Sperandeo uses MR magazine’s HO scale layout to demonstrate six helpful tips aimed at making you a better crew member during your next layout operating session. Coming from an “old head” like Andy, who’s operated […]
Watch excerpts from F Units in Action, a VHS program released by Kalmbach Publishing Co. in 2000. […]
Rare CPA-24-5 4500 (partially hidden by a signal box) and an F3B lead NYC’s James Whitcomb Riley north at Illinois Central’s 115th Street station; second car is a C&O Newport News–Chicago sleeper. Gordon E. Lloyd What makes a perfect photo? Perhaps first and foremost, “perfect” is an abstraction, perfection being generally defined in the mind […]
