Model Railroading on the Cheap

       Maybe I should have entitled this chapter “99 ways to have fun on your room sized model RR layout without running a train”.  Imagination is a wonderful thing; hopefully my writings can help to stimulate yours. I like to support my writings with photos. This photo has been modified with graphic software to re-proportion…

      About the modified cabooses in the photo below: The top one was built by joining two Mantua bobbers, the center one has a semi-streamline cupola, and the bottom one has an enlarged cupola.  This photo resulted because the management of the Yardley and Hillton Railroad and the management of the Western Railway Equipment Experimenters…

    I was remembering an interesting story found in a major train magazine in the early 1990s, very elegantly written describing the happenings of a young engine hostler on the last day of his employment with the B&O. The story probably took place in the 1930s or before.  I felt inspired to set-up scenes on…

   I remember a household moving company in my home town in the 1950s. They had a big box truck designed for high volume light weight loads with a low floor and an extension above the cab for extra light weight hauling space and hinged doors on the right side (See page 107) as well…

   Thomas the Tank Engine visited the Yardley and Hillton Railroad and brought two small coaches along with him. Are these coaches Annie and Clarabel? The photographer was able to get some pictures of the event, here are few to enjoy.    The Thomas train from the Island of Sodor toured several stops on the…

              I thought I would try opening the door of a pickup truck for another scene of action on the layout. I had a few LifeLike pickup trucks that look good enough for arm’s length observation so I tackled the job of opening the driver’s side door, planning to glue the door back on…

   A scrap iron drive reminds me of what was done at home on the farm during the Second World War. I recall grandpa donating an old horse drawn mowing machine to the effort.  This was probably a couple-hundred pounds of cast iron. Things like this were done all across America in the early 1940s.…

    I have always liked the colorful private owner ice cooled refrigerator cars of the 1920s. In the late 1980s I had acquired several plastic Varney bodies and upgraded them with paint and better decals. But I never invested in better wheels and couplers for most of them and they seem to have fallen into…

     Modernizations at Yardley mean removal of the coal dock and water tank used for steam engines. The absence of those giant space hogging structures will mean a better view of classification operations. And of course I should also remove the round house as they don’t seem to last long now days. I had to…