Category: History & Background

I recently saw that Athearn is coming out with a new run of SD40-2s in Chessie paint. Granted, they won’t be out until next year at this time, but they’re still coming. Now, there are a lot of pros to having a layout with one set railroad (or three… c’mon! …

In my last post, I mentioned I was excited to get a number of items back into my track plan. One of those was Wicomico St. It was important to me to include some version of Wicomico in the plan, and the thought of having to lose it really bugged …

If you do any reading in the modeling press, you’re probably aware that many, if not most, larger layouts are not built by a single person. Let’s face it, building even a medium-sized layout is not something the a working individual is likely to complete on their own. At least …

I’m a Chessie and Conrail guy at heart. But you can’t really talk about the Penn Mary area without bringing the Canton Railroad into the conversation. The Canton RR was started in 1906 as a way to bring customers into the then-undeveloped area. Neither the B&O nor the Pennsy wanted …

As we covered in a previous post, (and, if you’re reading regularly, are probably sick of seeing,) I decided to start with the area of the layout that included the GM assembly plant, Penn Mary Yard, the Canton RR interchange, and the line to Bethlehem Steel. The photo at the …

* Let’s be honest. No one would know this unless: you’re from the Baltimore area and paid close attention you worked there or you’re a weirdo like me Based on a previous post, you may have known that, for many years, General Motors had a large assembly plant in Baltimore. …

I’ve never understood the layout builders who just… start. They start building without really knowing where they’ll end up. I mean, I get it. You’re excited and want to just go, but the idea of having no track plan and just building whatever comes to mind seems… wrong. I believe in …