Blog

I bought my first N scale locomotive in 1989, and I chose poorly. The thing stuttered at slow speeds, stalled on every turnout, and eventually developed that dreaded "clicking" noise that signals a cracked gear. Three months of frustration later, it sat in a box while I questioned whether this hobby …

I'll be honest with you: when I made the jump into model railroading, I spent way too much time reading forum arguments about whether N scale or HO scale was "better." Six years and one completed layout later, I can tell you that question misses the point entirely. The real question is what you want …

I spent 35 years working the real iron for Burlington Northern Santa Fe before hanging up my lantern in 2019. My basement workshop in Duluth is dedicated to HO scale recreations of Great Northern and Northern Pacific operations from the transition era. But here's the thing: if I were starting fresh …

I've watched this debate rage in hobby shops and online forums for forty years, and I'm going to tell you something that might tick off the purists: there's no wrong answer here. HO scale and N scale are both legitimate choices, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.But that doesn' …