Mike Farrow’s N scale Norfolk & Western

Title screen from video showing train on bridge passing over train below.

Mike Farrow’s N scale Norfolk & Western Pocahontas Division layout is set in southern West Virginia during the 1970s and early 1980s. The 36 x 36-foot walk-in model railroad features a 290-foot mainline run, 18” minimum radius curves, and No. 6 turnouts. Among the items used to re-create the authentic Appalachian scenery were ground foam, […]

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Doug Dederick’s N scale Great Northern

Title screen from video showing N scale model railroad.

Doug Dederick’s N scale Great Northern Kalispell Division is set in Montana in the late 1950s. The 29 x 36-foot walk-in layout, featured in the April 2024 issue of Model Railroader, is set between Whitefish, Mont., and Shelby, Mont. The model railroad features several of GN’s name passenger and freight trains, including the Empire Builder, […]

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ScaleTrains HO General Electric ES44AC

Title screen of Product Review video with HO scale locomotive painted dark red.

The ScaleTrains HO General Electric ES44AC diesel locomotive is the subject of our latest Product Review video. Join Model Railroader Senior Editor Cody Grivno as he shares a brief history of Norfolk Southern 8104, points out the details on the Rivet Counter line model, demonstrates the sound and light functions, and uses the contemporary six-axle […]

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Repairing water-damaged locomotives

Model trains are often kept in spaces below grade, which are subject to dampness or worse, flood water! Fortunately, if your locomotives are left damaged from such flooding, it doesn’t necessarily equate to total loss. In this video, David Popp walks through the process of evaluating the damage through the steps required to get your […]

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Reimagining a freelanced narrow gauge shelf layout

A long view of a narrow shelf model railroad

I’ve had a fondness for narrow gauge modeling since I was a teenager reading Model Railroader stories by John Olsen and Malcolm Furlow in the early 1980s. So when it came time to build my first real layout, it’s no surprise that I chose HOn3 scale. It’s also no surprise I chose a freelanced route, […]

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Olympia & Sand Creek, Sidetrack Ep. 1 | Horse Drawn Wagons

Host David Popp departs from the On30 layout construction to tackle something he’s never done before. In the railroad town of Sand Creek, David works to build, paint, and install proper horses and horse drawn wagons that folks use to haul goods to and fro. Saddle up for the ride through the entire process…and Trains.com […]

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Greg Bird O gauge layout

still from layout video with locomotive

I decided that the three-rail layout was going to have an industrial theme. I wanted lots of smokestacks, guys in hard hats and safety vests, and tall cranes. Because my full-time job takes me into many facilities associated with a wide variety of industries, I already had good ideas and firm plans for how the […]

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Broadway Limited Imports HO EMD GP30

Title screen of Product Review video featuring Broadway Limited Imports HO scale GP30 diesel locomotive.

In our latest Product Review video, we’ll head down to the quarry on our Milwaukee, Racine & Troy staff layout to see the Broadway Limited Imports HO EMD GP30 in action. Join Model Railroader Senior Editor Cody Grivno as he shares a brief history of Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe No. 2710; points out the […]

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Spaces to Places V | A new path to the underpass, part 2

Spaces to Places V: A new path to the underpass In the previous episode of Spaces to Places, host Gerry Leone got sidetracked from his efforts to build out a highway underpass. But his attention to accommodating a yard ladder will pay off when it comes to shaping up a more desired space for the […]

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