Your Model and Railroad blog by the folk at SMARTT
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Lighting Structures on Your Model Railroad Layout – Part 1: Prepping a Structure for LightMay 3, 2012 Well made model buildings add interest to any layout. Without structures, it’s all just countryside, isn’t it? But once you’ve got detailed structures, the next logical step is to bring them to life by lighting them. The array of lighting products avai… |
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Tutorial – Rust in Peace: Adding Realistic Weathering to your Model RailroadApril 18, 2012 As much as we’d wish it were otherwise, the world is seldom shiny and new as a toy on a shelf. If you want your train layout or diorama to look realistic, you have to find a way to represent the wear and tear of the real world, showing what depredation… |
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Railroad Legends – The Wreck of Old 97April 12, 2012 They handed Joseph A (Steve) Broady his orders in Monroe, Virginia. Train number 97 or the Fast Mail was Southern Railways’ crack mail and express train between Washington, DC and Atlanta, GA. Traveling over the Southern’s famed Piedmont Division, the… |
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Railroad Legends – John HenryApril 6, 2012 John Henry was about three days old, sittin’ on his papa’s knee. He picked up a hammer and a little piece of steel; said, “Hammer’s gonna be the death of me, Lord, Lord. Hammer’s gonna be the death of me.” There are many legendary figures in America, b… |
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Railroad Legends – Casey JonesMarch 29, 2012 How many of us remember the songs we sang during our youth in school. Among the musical scores that we learned were three songs about railroaders: Casey Jones, John Henry, and The Wreck of Old 97. What we probably did not know at the time was that thes… |
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NIGHT TRAINS – Model Railroading In the DarkMarch 16, 2012 How many of us remember how much fun it was to run our American Flyer and Lionel passenger trains with the lights turned off. All the locomotives and most of the passenger cars were illuminated, with the passenger cars having silhouetted figures in th… |
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Model Railroad Nautical Suppliers – A Great Way to Detail Your Layout’s Water AreasMarch 8, 2012 Adding a waterfront to your model railroad layout can be challenging and frustrating, however, if you get familiar with what detail parts are available and from whom, it will make it a lot easier. There are a fair amount of suppliers out there. Some h… |
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Building the Edith Keeler House, Part II – Model Railroad as an Art FormFebruary 29, 2012 My Skid Row Mission incorporates all three previous mentioned themes of such a facility, filling food, lodging, and spiritual needs. I started with the Bar Mills kit, The Gravely Building. I first made some structural changes by adding extensions to t… |
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The Edith Keeler House – My Model Railroad has a MissionFebruary 23, 2012 Part I – The Story behind the BuildingRecently I wrote a story about Betty’s Diner, based on the Bar Mills kit, “Sweaty Betty’s.” The article not only told the story of how and why I built it, I also added a fictitious back-story to justify its locatio… |
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When a Train Became a Jet – The World’s Fastest Trains!January 25, 2012 “Pan Am 52, you’re clear on runway two-zero-niner, excuse me, track 1; excuse me again NYC M-497 you are clear on track 1.”The first part of the above quote is from our January 2012 newsletter. It was in reference to the Pan Am Railroad’s (formerly Gil… |