All Books

Model Railroad Scenery

Scenery For Modern Switching Layouts

Because of their smaller size, switching layouts afford the luxury of being able to spend a lot more time detailing scenery. This book is a dig deep dive into detailed scenery treatment along the industrial right-of-way and in industrial parks. It’s a start-to-finish, top-to-bottom, approach starting with composition and color treatment and moving on to soils, gravel lots, grass, track and ballast, underbrush, pavement, waterways, and backdrops.

Model railroad track planning book for modern switching layouts.

8 Track Plans For Modern Era Switching Layouts

Building on my popular switching layout series, 8 Modern Era Track Plans focuses on the modern era. Four of America’s great cities, Miami, Brooklyn, LA, and Baltimore serve as themes for the designs. Included are plans for: BNSF, UP, CSX, Florida East Coast, The Canton Railroad, and New York New Jersey Rail.

How to Design A Model Railroad

How To Design A Model Railroad: How much aisle space is needed? How deep can benchwork be? What’s a good minimum radius for curves? How do I best use yards and staging tracks? How to Design a Model Railroad by Lance Mindheim will get you from the daydreaming stage to designing and building a model railroad. How to Design a Model Railroad will help you transform your basic ideas of what you want in a model railroad into a workable, realistic track plan and overall layout design that you can then build. This is a hands-on guide to drawing and designing a model railroad that will fit the available space and result in a realistic layout.Avoid common pitfalls and progress from the design to construction phase with confidence!

Model Railroad Design For Switching Layouts

How to Design A Small Switching Layout: A step by step guide to designing the most versatile of all model railroad types. Learn how to: set priorities, pick the best bench work shape, design secondary track, set scenery zones, choose the best industries, and more! Two bonus track plans included. Concepts can be applied to layouts of all sizes.

How to Build A Switching Layout: A prioritized, step by step, approach to building a switching layout with a powerful focus on the steps that create maximum visual impact. No step left out. Bench work, wiring, structures, scenery, details, and more!

Model Railroad Switching Operations Book

How to Operate A Modern Era Switching Layout: The title says it all. Everything you need to know to operate a modern era switching layout. How to set up an operating session. Car movement strategies. Job strategies. Prototypical paperwork. Prototype rules and procedures and more! Bonus track plan and operations example included.

Model Railroading As Art: Model railroading offers the exciting opportunity to be approached in the same way as any other branch of the art world. As such, the same principles can be applied to elevate your modeling efforts to new levels. Follow along as we delve into scene composition, color treatment theory, weathering, backdrops, layout room preparation, photography.

Model railroad track plan book for small switching layouts

8 Track Plans For Small Switching Layouts: 8 easy to follow track plans for building small but fun model railroads that will fit in a typical spare room. Each plan is designed to be visually inspiring, easy to build, and fun to operate. Included are port railroads, modern era themes, and themes for the 1950’s.

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8 Realistic Track Plans For A Spare RoomEight creative track plan ideas for your typical spare room. Each plan is designed to be easy to build, fun to operate, and visually inspiring. Explore themes such as a Milwaukee Road branch line, a Maine shortline, an Appalachian coal branch, the fictional Tulsa Belt and more!

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Stucco and Pastels: A photographic journey through a sliver of America’s Casablanca – Miami’s western river district, produce district, and Allapattah neighborhood. Tour by faded pastel art deco structures surrounded by palms and live oaks, rail branches running through narrow, cracked streets, open air produce markets, and shipping channels reminiscent of a bygone era.