Peter's Model Railroading | My Library | Model Railroader 1994-12
Articles Listing

The Rio Grande's Hart Lake Division

This bedroom-sized layout packs a lot of railroading at 10' x 12'. Article includes trackplan (island-style) and layout photos. The whole family works on the layout.

Dearborn Station

With the right backdrop, lighting, and photography equipment this small diorama looks like photos taken of the real world. Includes a sidebar on how the photos were taken.

Questions and Answers for Beginners

This article poses and answers a lot of the questions beginners have about model railroading.

The Soo's Red Wing Division

The author covers building a 4' x 8' layout from benchwork design through scenery. Includes parts list, trackplan, and layout photos. Steps covered are: benchwork, tracklaying, adding turnouts, painting track, constructing scenic ridge, adding scenery, rock casting, streets and roads, and details. Includes a sidebar on flextrack.

Some Tips for Detailing Structures

Not really a separate article as such, but it deserves attention. This article gives lots of tips and techniques about detailing, painting, and weathering DMP structures.

My Son's First Train Layout

This one-page article describes how the author build a 24" x 40" table for his son's Brio (wooden trains) layout.

Canadian National Point St. Charles Van

Article includes a description, scale drawings, and prototype photos of a wide-cupola steel caboose rebuilts from a boxcar.

Still Snowing at Summit

The author presents a switching puzzle on his layout.

The Silver City Central

Jim focuses on building the cookie-cutter benchwork for this 3.5' x 8' layout. Includes benchwork diagrams and trackplan. Looks like a nice design that can later be integrated into a larger layout.

Finishing Touches for the Pioneer Valley

The author covers adding automobiles, figures, utility poles, detail castings, chain link fences, junk, scratchbuilt details, signs, and signals to his layout. A sidebar article talks about the cabinets the author built for the layout, including parts list and diagram. There is another sidebar on the signals and signal driving circuit he added to his layout.

Using Your Computer to Select Layout Grades

This month's installment has a QBASIC programming listing for calculating how grades affect train performance. The article concludes with a review of new software programs useful to the model railroader.