The largest fleet of named streamliners in the United States were the Burlington's Zephyrs. Competing in markets against the famed Eagles, Chiefs, 400's, Cities and Hiawathas on almost every route, the polished Zephyrs covered almost every route on the mainline of the Burlington and f...

Ways to use your computer to enhance your model railroading....

Just remove the dynamic brake section on the top of the engine to expose the decoder. The engine is delivered set for analog (conventional DC) operation. Move the jumper plug over to configure for DCC operation. The decoder’s address is factory preconfigured to the last two digi...

What are my Decoder Options? Current production Atlas and Kato HO scale engines have the standard 8-pin NMRA medium DCC plug. However, space is sometimes very tight inside these engines, limiting the decoders that will fit or requiring removal of weights (see our pages showing install...

Part I: The details by Phil Sheahan photos by Gary Hoover The place for a highly detailed structure is the foreground of your layout. There it can be best seen and appreciated. Keeping this in mind, you want to keep thinking “this is my masterpiece, the best I can do.” A h...

Illustrated tips, techniques and hints on assembling inexpensive plastic structures for model railroads using the Design Preservation Models (DPM) Kelly's Saloon kit as an example....

Designing a freelance model railroad with heavy Rock Island influence....

2001 contest results. NMRA conventions and train show events feature a model and photo contest where entries are displayed to be viewed and enjoyed by other model railroaders and the general public. Any NMRA member may enter models and photos into these contests....

The Gateway 2001 national convention and train show was the culmination of five years of planning and preparation involving not only our local members, but volunteers across the country and abroad. The event was a great success....

2000 contest results. NMRA conventions and train show events feature a model and photo contest where entries are displayed to be viewed and enjoyed by other model railroaders and the general public. Any NMRA member may enter models and photos into these contests....

As my layout moves from concept to design, one of the major hurdles is the creation of the main yard. An important part of the plan is creating a yard environment that looks real....

This article focuses on the task of the yard crews in getting each type of freight train ready to depart....