When I started building my Downtown Spur layout, I temporarily laid Atlas flex track and placed some cardboard mock ups in place to see...

BNSF's Malabar Yard in LA. The basic act of drawing a track plan is relatively simple. Coming up with a theme, scope, and strategic plan...

Just because a track plan illustration is pleasing to look at from an artistic standpoint doesn't mean that it's a viable design. Read...

Washington D.C.'s Georgetown waterfront, shown above, makes for a compelling modeling theme if there ever was one. Library of Congress...

At almost thirty feet in length, the above design isn't small. Even so, it's an example of managing scope and complexity so a modeler,...

I only had my East Rail switching layout for about five years before selling it. Even though I didn't keep it, it provided me with a...

Rather than filling this spare room in my house with one medium sized layout, I built several smaller ones creating a "layout gallery"....

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...

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

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

Acceptance. Acceptance of the reality of our situation. Acceptance of constraints. Acceptance of the fact that the subject we are...

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

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

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

Before we draw the first line of a layout design, before we lay the first stick of bench work, the most important decisions present...