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When I inherited my father's incomplete N scale layout back in 2011, I remember staring at boxes of track, half-finished scenery, and a locomotive that hadn't run in years. I had no idea where to start. The hobby felt like it had a thousand unwritten rules, and every forum post I read seemed to cont …

I've watched it happen a dozen times. A new modeler walks into our operating sessions with that familiar look of regret, explaining how they just sold off their entire HO collection because it "didn't fit" their apartment. Or worse, they're sitting on three half-finished layouts in storage because t …

I got into model railroading because I thought running miniature trains would be relaxing. Then I discovered operations, and now I spend Friday nights yelling about train orders while my teenagers pretend not to know me. But here's the thing: those first twelve months building a layout? They don't h …

I spent 35 years working for Burlington Northern Santa Fe before I retired in 2019, and I've been building model railroads almost as long as I worked on the real ones. After watching countless friends and acquaintances try to get into this hobby only to give up in frustration, I wanted to put togeth …

I bought my first Broadway Limited locomotive in 1989, set it on a borrowed loop of track, and immediately realized I had no idea what I was doing. The locomotive ran beautifully. The track? A disaster of wobbly joints and dead spots. Thirty-five years later, I've learned a few things about what sep …

My first layout was a disaster. I know that now. At the time, I thought I was building my dream railroad in my basement. What I actually built was a 12x14-foot monument to every rookie error in the hobby. The track buckled in summer. Half my turnouts sat in unreachable corners. My wiring was so unde …