Category: Model Railroad Design

Petroleum

Although these tank cars look identical, they are not, and therein lies a lot of operational potential. Looking up the placards, I could see that as a minimum, we have diesel fuel, ethanol, and carbon disulfide. The cars need to be blocked in the yard and spotted at specific locations within the Exxon Mobil complex. […]

Lost Civilizations

A duo of Geep 15’s rolls through the Philadelphia suburbs on the proto-freelance Chester Valley Railroad. Now a Genesee and Wyoming shortline, the line was originally conceived by modeler Hardold Geisell in the 1930s. Last fall, I was streaming one of these quasi-conspiracy series on Netflix. The premise of this particular show was that the […]

A Two Turnout Layout

LAJ Alco S-2 #1 basks in the sun awaiting its next assignment. 1964. ebay slide scan. Photographer unknown. It’s interesting how a little information, often innocuous on the surface, can totally change our perspective and make us realize that our layout offers opportunities we hadn’t considered before. Even better, this expanded view can be realized […]