Blog

I'm going to be blunt with you: the locomotive you buy first will shape everything that comes after. Your track geometry. Your budget. Whether you stick with this hobby or abandon it in frustration within eighteen months. I've watched too many newcomers make preventable mistakes, and I'm tired of se …

I've been watching trains run since I was a kid in Cicero, watching my dad set up Lionel around the Christmas tree. After 28 years turning wrenches at the CTA's Skokie Shops, I've learned something about building things that actually work: you measure twice, you follow the specs, and you don't skip …

I get this question at least once a week in my DMs: "How much space do I need for a model train layout?" And honestly, the old answer of "just get a 4x8 sheet of plywood" is one of the biggest lies the hobby ever told itself.After spending years wiring layouts (professionally and for fun), I've watc …

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 …