Category: Construction

It Was A Disaster, I Quit!

  Some lessons can only be learned the hard way, through experience and by doing.  My son is now a sophomore in high school and is at that age where he is increasingly interested in the dating ‘experience’.   Without exaggeration I think it’s fair to say he has his eye on a new female ‘person […]

Why We Build Model Railroads

Why do we build model railroads?  Psychologically, what is at play that compels us to create something that, if viewed at face value, could be mistakenly taken for a detailed toy? Like many people, both in and out of the hobby, I’ve made the mistake of trivializing model railroading.  Over the past several years I’ve […]

Alclad II Metallic Paint

  It’s amazing how long we can put off learning to use a new material or method only to find out how easy it is and how much better the results are.  This was my case with learning to use the Alclad II line of metallic paints.  For those not familiar with it, the Alclad 2 […]

Family Friendly Layouts

Simple steps can make the layout much more palatable to the rest of the family and make them more receptive to having it in the house. A clean Pullman green fascia, absence of clutter and junk, nice shelves, and not having tools scattered about are inexpensive ways to make the model railroad more family friendly. […]

The Rule of Three Tries

There has been a good thread on the Model Railroader Forum about the use of the Alclad 2 metalizer paints.  For those that aren’t familiar with them, Alclad paints lay down a surface  that is amazingly close to true metallic.  Like everybody else, I suffer from inertia when it comes to teaching myself new skills.  […]