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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've killed exactly three decoders. The first two were my fault. Bad wiring, motor not isolated, the usual rookie mistakes. The third? That one still stings because I thought I knew what I was doing. Turns out, "DCC-Ready" on the box doesn't mean what you think it means. This HO scale decoder insta …

I spend most of my modeling time in N scale, which means I watch the HO world with a mix of envy and bewilderment. You folks get everything. Every road number. Every phase variation. Sound decoders that could pass for recordings from the cab. And yet, with all those choices, the question I hear most …

I run N scale. There, I said it. But if you're asking what HO scale means in model trains, you've landed in good hands because I've spent more hours than I'd like to admit helping friends troubleshoot their HO layouts, and I've got strong opinions about why this scale dominates two-thirds of the mar …

Tamara Brooks came to model railroading through the back door-she bought a 3D printer to prototype parts for her engineering work at an automotive supplier, and somewhere along the way she started printing freight car details for fun. Now she runs an N scale layout modeling modern intermodal operati …