All Content

Here you will find all of the articles I have on this site, Models, Layout & other Articles. If you would like to see just one of those categories, just click on their links.

Gallery of Potential Urban Industries A collection of some modelable and inspirational urban industries. Read On »
Lowering Fox Valley Models 50 Foot Boxcars Fox Valley Models 50' Boxcars are a welcome addition to the marketplace, but their ride height leaves quite a bit to be desired. It's quick and easy to fix that. Read On »
Baltimore Railfan Locations Get a quick glimpse at the interesting railfan locations around Charm City. Read On »
How to setup JMRI, a PR3, a Digitrax Zephyr Xtra and a Mac How I setup my Mac, and my Droid, to run my trains. Read On »
Canton Layout Narrative Track Planning A narrative walkthrough through some of the Canton layout's current plan. Read On »
Conrail C30-7 6602 A Kato C30-7 modernized with some details and decals. Read On »
Baltimore Styrofoam Source I've found a source for 2" styrofoam in the Baltimore area. Read On »
The Shelf Layout: Introduction Learn about one of the two layouts I'm building in my basement: a simple shelf style layout patterned after the Northern Central, in the Conrail era. Read On »
I Have a Home for the Layout Terri and I just bought a house, with a nice basement, which means, it's finally time for the real layout building to begin. Read On »
What is the Northern Central? What is this Northern Central that I'm so fired up about? Read On »
Beginning Layout Planning The planning for the new layout begins in Baltimore. Read On »
Delivering a Caboose: Some New Pics Doing a favor for two friends, I was the go-between for returning a South Branch Valley caboose fresh from a custom paint job. When the car's owner requested some "delivery" photos, I couldn't refuse. Read On »
Conrail U23B #2735 A few detail parts and some weathering put this Atlas U boat into service. Read On »
Its a Door, Not a Domino I recognized that my current layout was not going to be part of something bigger and was able to get to work much quicker. Read On »
Running Repairs on a Kato SD45 Put a Kato SD45 back out on the rails with a few little bits of maintenance. Read On »
Winter Trees in N Scale I tackled the biggest challenge of winter modeling head on: bare trees. Read On »
Conrail MP15 9624 The second in my collection of Conrail MP15s. This one wears a coat of blue (that Atlas gave it). Now with video! Read On »
OneTRAK Modules: The City Module Learn about my urban themed OneTRAK Module built to BANTRAK's OneTRAK specs. Read On »
GP30 2236 An Atlas Classic GP30 comes to life with some CR specific details and weathering. Read On »
Conrail GP38 7894 The GP38 lent itself to many jobs system wide. Read On »
Conrail GP38 7883 One of Conrail's jack of all trade locomotives. Read On »
Conrail MP15 9627 A painted out ex-Reading workhorse. Read On »
All about N Scale Railboxes Railbox's 50' box cars were ubiquitous from the late 1970s through today. With so many high quality N scale models available, I decided to get serious about them. Read On »
Max Magliaro Visit The fall Great Scale Show was over the weekend of October 13th & 14th, and Max Magliaro came from Pennsylvania for the show and a photo session. Read On »
Conrail GP10 5863 A new lease on life for a classic EMD roadswitcher. Read On »
Conrail SD40 6303 Inherited from the PC and CNJ, Conrail used its SD40s in heavy road service and as helpers. 6303 came from Kato wearing primery gray and was modified to match an ex-Penn Central prototype. Read On »
Conrail Terminal Information Publications: Bayview Terminal Information Publications contain all sorts of detailed information about various "jobs" based out of a yard. This set covers Bayview Yard in Baltimore. Read On »
Conrail GP40 3259 Another GP40 survivor. Read On »
The CRHS BBQ with Pictures On Saturday August 4th, The Conrail Historical Society had a Rail-B-Q in Marysville PA. Read all about it, and see pictures of models taken for it, as well as some fun prototype action here. Read On »
Thinking about the next layout So now that the first apartment layout is nearing completion, I'm thinking about what's next. Read On »
New Photos of the Layout A few trees, some ground foam, and look, no more bare styrofoam. Read On »
Map of the Northern Central I've drawn up a location map to show exactly where all this Northern Central stuff is. Read On »
On-Line Industry List (So far) Progress on a list of on-line industries based on a real ZTS map. Read On »
I'm a Youtube star So I bail on one major event and look what happens. Read On »
Bethlehem Steel - Bethlehem PA I took a trip to Bethlehem PA over Memorial Day weekend, and while it's slightly outside the scope of the site, I wanted to draw some attention to the galleries. Read On »
Ongoing Tree Progress I've decided that every night after work I'm going to work on making another batch of trees. Follow my progress here. Read On »
NCR Research Photo Gallery I've uploaded some photos of the NCR as it is now to my Picasa Album. Read On »
The Apartment Layout Gallery See progress photos of the layout, from the trunk of my old 240 to today. Read On »
Another photo of the layout Just another photo of the layout. Read On »
Conrail1285 is back online! After being gone for a while (thanks 1and1), I've got the site back up and running. Read On »
Model Scenery Using Extruded Styrofoam A helpful Styrofoam how-to on youtube.com. Read On »
Hiding Caboose Industries Groundthrows Camoflage and recess your groundthrows for a better looking layout. Read On »
Model Photography for the Masses Learn how to take decent model photographs with a run of the mill digital camera. Read On »
Track Techniques I discuss some of my techniques for getting model track to look less obnoxious. Read On »
Photoshopping Smoke & Steam Phil Brooks talks about his great techniques for adding smoke and steam to a photo. Read On »
Conrail GP40-2 3385 Mid 80s top of the line road power. Read On »
The Launch of the site A little behind why I launched the site Read On »
Why model winter? I discuss the reasons I have decided to model December instead of the fall, summer or spring. Read On »
Conrail GP9 7182 One of Conrail's "Paint Out" GP9s. Read On »
Conrail SD40 6287 A custom painted & detailed Kato model. Read On »
Conrail SD35 6032 Conrails SD35s were on the way out in 85, but this beast holds on. Read On »
Conrail GP40 3217 Only some of CR's GP40s were still serving faithfully in 1985. Mine is a custom painted Atlas model. Read On »
Conrail GP30 2235 Conrail's GP30s were in and out of service. 2235 found itself in service in 12/85. Read On »
Conrail B23-7 1913 The B23 was GE's unnsuccessful answer to the GP38-2. Read On »
A Few Photos of the layout I've taken a few too many photos to fit into the status update article, so here they are. Read On »
Late July Apartment Layout Progress I've added a farmhouse and some more trees to the forest side of the layout. Read On »