This category includes posts on my two HO scale layouts of the M&StL RR in Ackley, Iowa, set in 1950.
I built the first Ackley, Iowa layout when I lived in O’Fallon, Illinois from 2011 to 2015–before I started the blog. That layout was featured in Model Railroad Planning 2015.
I dismantled that layout when I moved to Germany in November, 2015 and built a small version of the layout in Germany. Once I figure out how to upload trackplans I’ll post them here.
Before getting to modeling, here’s some railway preservation news from the Southwest Germany that you never knew you cared about. Back in August my wife noticed on the front page of our local newspaper, Die Wochenblatt, that a German steam … Continue reading No. 211: Structures for the Milwaukee Road H&D Line
It has been another very busy summer as my wife and I adjust to life in Germany and adjust to life as empty-nesters. Happily, time for model building is starting to pick up, although progress has been slowed somewhat by … Continue reading No. 210: Milwaukee Road H&D Layout Planning, Sep 2025
My wife and I moved back to Germany for work in January 2025. With all three kids in college in the US we thought this would be our last chance to live overseas prior to my formal retirement. I must tell you truly that it was terribly hard for me to move overseas again. I had to pull up roots again, leave my train buddies again, leave my weekend soccer crew again, and leave my old crew at work that I’ve known for decades–again. I left three kids in college out in the Mountain West, and some darn good health … Continue reading No. 209: Clear Track in Eulenbis
By Tom Holley, with Alex Bogaski This is all Alex Bogaski’s fault. Alex is a native Oklahoman and dyed in the wool FarmRail modeler. However, being stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., and associating with the wrong crowd, he became interested in the Southern Railway. He acquired a few Southern locomotive models and some rolling stock and naturally needed a place to run them. So, he built the Somewhere Down South layout, a small, Inglenook-style switching layout–generic in nature–typical of a small, Deep South branch line. Being a third generation Central of Georgia district employee, the plan naturally appealed to me. … Continue reading No. 208: Somewhere on The Southern
In October, 2019 my family and I moved from my house in Albersbach, Germany to a much more modern and efficient house closer to work. Doing so meant I had to dismantle my point-to-point M&StL Ackley, Iowa layout and move it to the new place. That wasn’t a big deal as I built the layout to move. Above. The Ackley, Iowa layout nearly complete in 2017. As I related in an earlier post, moving the layout did go so well. Most importantly, Ackley did not quite fit in the new layout space so I carefully stored it in the garage. … Continue reading No. 150: Hermitage Road
I was on the way back from a work trip to the U.S. Embassy in Rabat, Morocco a few weeks ago when I wrote this post. The travel day back home to Germany was an epic adventure and not in a good way. I expected a 10-hour travel day but got a 22-hour travel ordeal instead. Lufthansa gave me an extra present at the end of it all by losing my luggage. Anyway the extra nine hours I spent in the airport in Rabat, sitting and waiting for a flight, were used to write this post and a couple more. … Continue reading No. 135: Almost Perfect – Modeling the Milwaukee Road in Albert Lea
In October I moved from our big, old house in Albersbach to a smaller, newer, more efficient house in Ramstein-Miesenbach. I took an entire week off from work, rented a large moving van and moved almost everything myself. I hired a moving company to move the big stuff. Then I had to completely clean the old house, to include patching holes, painting, and doing other routine maintenance I had put off over the years The process took 12-14 hours a day for nine straight days, but I got it done. Whew! Here’s the crew from the moving company, having a … Continue reading No. 132: Ackley Layout – Last M&StL Ops Session
With our upcoming move to a smaller house in Ramstein village, which includes a much smaller train room, I’m considering options for a new, smaller layout. The Ackley layout will be stored in the garage and hopefully survive the move … Continue reading No. 131: New Layout Considerations – SAL’s South Richmond Industrial Line
Labor Day In my last post I whined about how hard my summer has been. It was, but today I’m happy to report I’ve still got all my fingers and toes, and the rebuilt shoulder is better than ever. I played soccer the other day for the first time in 5-6 months and came away unscathed. The family is doing great. What is there to complain about! Trip to Dwingeloo To accelerate some relaxing, last month, over Labor Day weekend, I got away with my kids to the northwest corner of the Netherlands near a place called Dwingeloo National Park. … Continue reading No. 130: Moving to Ramstein, and Maybe to a New Layout Too…
I had an unusually tough summer, but despite all the challenges I managed to get some good modeling done. At the end of March I had some unexpected trouble with St. Louis RPM planning, and after a lot of praying I resigned from that whole thing. That hurt, and I was bitter for a while, but it was the right thing to do for a lot of reasons. In April I broke my shoulder playing soccer, and that caused a whole basket-full of problems. The worst problem was that I couldn’t sleep, so I walked around like a zombie for … Continue reading No. 129: Three New Engines for the Fleet
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