model railroading

In model railroading, a craftsman kit is a model kit consisting of wood and sometimes paper, and detail parts cast from soft metal. There is usually a fair amount of measuring, cutting, and gluing involved to build the model, and it usually requires a fair bit of patience and skill. That’s where the name craftsman kit comes from. You could get kids to build structures and even model railroad rolling stock.

Craftsman kits lost some prominence due to the widespread use of plastics, but they are starting to see something of a resurgence in modern times. Here’s why.

Read More »What a craftsman kit is in model trains

Is OO gauge the same as HO? Yes and no. How is that possible? Here’s how and why they can be the same and different.

Read More »Is OO gauge the same as HO?

Hobby shops sell silicone wiring with high strand counts for wiring train layouts. But what is silicone wiring? What does it mean? And what is special about silicone wire for model trains and do you need it?

Read More »What does silicone mean when wiring trains?

If you are into model trains, you’ve probably seen the words nickel silver on the packaging for track, or you’ve seen track advertised as being made of nickel silver. But what is nickel silver, and is it a good thing or a bad thing?

Read More »What nickel silver track is

In 1965, Linn Westcott, the longtime editor of Model Railroader magazine, wrote an article about how he never cleaned the track on his layout. His secret was a product called No Ox ID A Special. Let’s talk about No Ox ID for model railroading.

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The Dept 56 Village Express electric train set was a train set made by Bachmann for Department 56. It was available from 1998 to 2006.

A train is a natural fit for Dept 56, which is meant to evoke a romanticized past. Today’s megastores have displaced those downtown shops that Dept 56 represent, and the automobile has displaced the passenger train has a favored means of travel. A passenger train and a few recognizable cars are a good way to firmly set the time period for your Dept 56 village.

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N scale is the second most popular scale for model railroading, because it’s small enough that you can fit a big layout in a reasonable space without it taking over your basement, or build a small layout in a very small space, as small as a coffee table. But how big is N scale? How big is an N scale train?

Read More »How big is an N scale train?

Basswood is a popular hobby wood, but what else is basswood used for? Where does it grow? And where do you buy it?

If, like me, you’ve been buying basswood at hobby shops for years but have never seen a basswood tree, there’s a reason for it. The tree that basswood comes from goes by many other names, including Tilia, Linden, and Lime.

Read More »What is basswood?

I struggled for a couple of years trying to decide on a time and place for my train layout. I was afraid of locking myself into a specific time period. What if I chose the 1950s, then decided I wanted to run trains that were older than that? Fortunately, the answer for picking a setting for my model railroad came kind of out of thin air, once I thought about it some more.

Read More »Picking a setting for your model railroad