When it comes to planning a layout, a drawing will only take you so far. Fortunately, with a smaller project a lot can be accomplished in 1:1 scale simply by mocking things up full scale with boxes and loose pieces of track. The elements can be re-sized and moved around until you get the look that […]
I first became aware of the Los Angeles Junction while in high school and instantly became mesmerized by it. As the decades slipped by the thought of eventually modeling it was always in the back of my mind. I always thought that when the day came, power would be in the form of a CF-7. […]
Reality based layout design? By that I mean let’s design for what our lifestyles are ‘actually’ like not what we hope or think they will be. For any of us that have even a passing interest in operations, the driving factor in layout design comes down to the length of an operating session. How […]
When I work with a design client, one question I always ask is why previous layouts didn’t get off the ground and gain critical mass. After almost fifteen years the answers haven’t changed. The three reasons layouts fail, the three headed monster if you will are: the layout dimensions were too large, the design was […]
Which DCC system is best? What is the best aisle width? What era should I model? What radius should I make my curves? Ultimately questions such as these end being no more than minutiae, generally irrelevant. There are two primary reasons we engage in model railroading. First is the satisfaction of assembly and as […]