The above image was taken on my N scale switching layout using an iPhone and the room’s overhead Halogen track lighting. The depth of field was made possible...

Modeler’s typically enter the hobby at two points in their lives, either during the teen years or at retirement. Those coming into model railroading later i...

When it comes to model railroad operations, I’ve noticed what I call the “thirty minute/three hour rule” or, as Captain Jack Sparrow would say, “guideline”. ...

Acceptance. Acceptance of the reality of our situation. Acceptance of constraints. Acceptance of the fact that the subject we are trying to represent typi...

The man made world we model tends to be built on engineering order. In other words, ninety degree angles, perpendicular orientations, and parallel lines are ...

Model railroaders are an optimistic bunch, particularly when it comes to layout design! To be more specific, overly optimistic when it comes to sketching in...

The timeless 80/20 rule, model railroad planning is not immune. All too often we have our 80/20 priorities backwards. We spend eighty per cent of our time w...

I get lots of questions from my model railroad design clients, many new to layout construction, as to how to handle rail gaps and rail joiners. Here are a f...

Trains in motion, that’s what we ultimately want. Without it we essentially have a static diorama. But what is your operational style? Rail fan? Branch lin...

Rickety logging lines are a popular theme. The design shown above is a free lanced West Virginia logging branch set in the 1930’s or 1940’s. It’s an ideal ...

Early in the planning process, it’s common for clients to tell me that they have a specific number of towns they’d like to have on their future layout but ar...

Model Railroad Structure Building Practice The clients that I see generally have many things in common. Typically they’ve been waiting decades to have a lay...