Model Railroading: The Ultimate Guide 2022

Welcome to the fourth installment of Model Railroading: The Ultimate Guide, which showcases the latest techniques to inform and improve your modeling. Even better, we’ve combined complete step-by-step instructions in print with video presentations by our team of expert modelers. That’s right – all the key articles in this publication have related online video extras that you can freely access! This special issue features 17 all-new stories, ranging from layout planning to useful projects, to inspiring model railroads. Here are a few examples you’ll find in this issue: • Steve Brown details his approach to making convincing concrete roadways quickly and easily. • Gerry Leone, who says there’s nothing like a realistic water scene to wow visitors, shows how he built the lake and railroad bridge at the heart of his…

Carl Swanson November 1978 – Clinchfield Layout “MR’s groundbreaking Clinchfield project railroad opened my eyes to the possibilities of modeling in N scale.” David Popp January 1969 – Gorre & Daphetid “It featured a trip over John Allen’s HO layout and made me realize trains could do more than just run in circles – they could go places!” Kent Johnson July 1987 – Utah Belt “Eric Brooman’s novel efforts to keep his locomotive roster on pace with modern railroading spoke to me and a generation of younger modelers. ” Donald Knapik September 1999 – 25 years on the CM&SF “David Barrow’s article on layout construction using 2 x 4-foot dominos gave me the inspiration for my current project.” Hans Schlegel November 1988 – O’Dell County cover “Even though I never…

Of all the types of scenery on a model railroad, a lake or river is always a guaranteed show-stopper. Visitors may expect grass, trees, fields, even mountains. But a body of water? That’s always a surprise. So when it was time to add the first scenery to my new Bona Vista RR, I started with what will probably be the most dramatic scene on the layout. Building a river – or in my case, a lake – takes time and effort, and combines a multitude of material types, but in the end, the visual payback is worth it. Follow along as I turn an empty space into a lazy place where any railfan would love to relax in the sun on a warm summer’s day. trains.com WATCH IT! View new…

Once your layout has reached a point where it looks like a model of a railroad instead of track nailed to a piece of wood, if you’re like me, you start thinking about taking photos of your work. This happened to me about the time I painted my hardshell terrain and added colorful ground cover. I struggled to produce quality photos. When we view settings in the real world, our eyes automatically focus on whatever subject we are observing, be it far or near. The muscles in our eyes control the shape of the lens rendering a subject in focus. This happens imperceptibly quickly as we shift our view from far to near or vice versa. Consequently, we perceive the world as in-focus with “infinite” depth of field, which is the…

Anyone building a multi-deck layout has a choice to make: build a helix, or build a nolix. (A nolix is a layout in which the lower deck rises until it’s high enough to become the upper deck. In other words, the layout is on a constant grade.) Sure, there are more exotic solutions like train elevators, but the helix/nolix solutions are the most popular. When I built my previous Bona Vista (BV) model railroad, I chose a nolix, but discovered that the length of the mainline and the distance between decks dictate the grade. In my case, that was 1.5 percent, and I found it to be next to impossible to switch cars at industries without them – or the rest of the train – running away down the grade.…

While there are many ways to build a helix, one method that seems popular is to use threaded rods with nuts holding up each turn. I considered this method but came to the conclusion that it would be more work than it was worth. If the first turn of the helix is carefully laid on its ascending risers, then uniform spacer blocks between the subsequent turns would assure a constant grade through the helix. Although rods and nuts allow for easy adjustment of each turn, once the turns are at their proper height, you’d never need to adjust them. While threaded rods may be the ideal solution for some, it just seemed like a lot of extra work and bother for me.…