This category includes posts on prototype topics, railfanning, and railroad museums in North America and Europe. The primary focus of this category is supposed to be how study of the prototype relates to accurate prototype modeling.
Last Saturday I gave an online presentation on the Southern Iowa Railway to The Branchline Bunch, an online group of about 35 RPMers from around the US, Canada and of course Germany. I know the name Branchline Bunch sounds like … Continue reading No. 214: The Southern Iowa Rwy, and Finishing Freight Car Builds
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
This is Part 2 of my trip to Minneapolis back in August 2024. Part 1 can be found here: https://railroadprototypemodeler.com/2024/09/19/no-200-visit-to-minneapolis/ After spending a fun Thursday with my buddy Clark Propst in Mason City, I drove north on Highway 65, which parallels the old Rock Island, to Northwood, Iowa, to try and find some inspiration on the railroad. I wanted to go to Manly but there was practically nothing left of the big yards, enginehouse and junction there. Then I drove north to Albert Lea, Minnesota to photograph the ruins of the old Milwaukee Road and M&StL there. The Rock Island, … Continue reading No. 201: Visit to Minneapolis, Part 2
What a fitting subject for my 200th post–a visit to Minneapolis, my home away from home during my youth. Above: A westbound Milwaukee Road freight train at Chanhassen, Minnesota in August, 1980. This is the first train picture I ever took. I was 16 years old. My mother was from Chanhassen. Her father–my grandfather–owned a large dairy farm just west of town and we visited the farm every summer. Minnesota is where I started railfanning, and Chanhassen is where I learned to admire The Milwaukee Road. Above. I broke the trip into two days so I could visit Jason Klocke … Continue reading No. 200: Visit to Minneapolis, Part 1
On the way back from the O Scale National in Lombard, Illinois I stopped in Atlanta, Illinois to visit the J.H. Hawes Grain Elevator museum. The J.H. Hawes Grain Elevator was built in 1904 on the former in Atlanta. The east-west crossed the busy, double-track Chicago & Alton RR a block east from the elevator. According to town’s website, found at https://atlantaillinoistourism.com/grain-elevator-museum/, The historic J.H. Hawes Grain Elevator Museum was in operation for 75 years and is one of the few all-wooden grain elevators in America — and it still runs! A unique piece of American farming history, this museum … Continue reading No. 195: Atlanta, Illinois Grain Elevator Walk-Around
My wife and I went to Brugge, Belgium over Thanksgiving to celebrate my 60th birthday. Two of our three children were able to join us. We’ve been to Brugge many times and we love life there. It was a wonderful week and being there made us feel ready to live in Europe again. For the railfan in me, a highlight of the trip was taking a train to Ghent for a day of sightseeing and waffle-eating. The ride was fast, clean, efficient, and of course electric. The train below was photographed at Ghent on our way back. This wasn’t our … Continue reading No. 190: Track Scenery on Hermitage Road
With track laid, wired and tested on the new layout, it was time to paint the track. Painting track is a big step, as all the trackwork should be operational and perfect before painting. Painting usually introduces a few other problems, such as problems at switch points and so forth, so the more work done prior to painting, the better. Hermitage Road is supposed to be an urban industrial layout, so weathering track appropriately is important. Here are a few motivational examples from around the U.S. that helped guide my painting. Below. This view is in Kansas, on a Union … Continue reading No. 186: Hermitage Road 2: Painting Track
I went to Paducah, Kentucky last weekend–about a two-and-a-half-hour drive–to attend my daughter’s swim meet. Between the morning and afternoon races I took an hour to drive around the old Illinois Central locomotive shops, now run by NRE, and I also railfanned some old factories downtown. Downtown by the Ohio River is a nice display of railroad equipment, including this IC 2-8-2 and a rebuilt caboose. The last time I was at Paducah was in 1988 when I stopped for an evening on a family trip–35 years ago. I wasn’t able to get into the NRE facility last weekend but … Continue reading No 180: Rebuilding Hermitage Road, Pt. 1
Above. This former PRR Express X29 greets you at the gate of the Age of Steam Museum in Sugarcreek, Ohio. Unfortunately for me, this was as far as I got into the museum, as they were closed the day I got there. In September I flew to Baltimore to pick up a car at the port and drive it to St. Louis. I flew to Baltimore the morning of Sept 20th, picked up the car, and drove all the way to Sugarcreek, Ohio. On the way I stopped in Blue Ridge Summit, PA to visit Mainline Hobby Supply—that was cool—and … Continue reading No. 178: Freight Car Modeling, November 2022
About a month before leaving Germany I took the family on a week-long vacation to Oslo, Norway. On the way we stopped for a few days in Riga, the capital of Latvia, and we absolutely loved it. Imagine my surprise when–riding a trolley from the airport to our center-city Airbnb–we passed right by something that looked a whole lot like a railroad museum. Sure enough, it was the Latvia Railway History Museum and it was about a mile from our apartment. I went to the museum the next day. The museum is small, with collection with small locomotives, a model … Continue reading No. 177: The Latvia Railway History Museum
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