Model Railroader May 2019

Down by the seaI've lived all my life in beautiful western Massachusetts. My house is less than a miles form the Housatonic branch of the New York, New Haven & Hartford. While I was growing up, I could hear the train whistles blowing for the crossing. When I was young, my family vacationed along the New England coastline. These trips, especially or visit to Mystic, Conn., influenced my model railroad. My stint in the U.S. Navy and my love for the water has also been a major influence for the many waterfront scenes incorporated into my layout.Subscriber bonus: Belfast and Vinehaven track planModel a modern tilt-slab buildingby Thomas KlimoskiFrom shopping centers and big-box stores to warehouses and numerous other large facilities, tilt-slab buildings have become one of the fastest growing methods of building in the modern area. Some of the benefits of this type of building are reasonable cost, durability, and speed of construction. The same benefits can be applied to modeling one of these structures.Big city scenes in the 1950sby Lou SassiIt's easy to see the influence of George Sellios in Howard Clark's 10'-8" x 20'-0" HO scale model railroad. He began his current layout in the early 1990s after reading The Fabulous Franklin & South Manchester (Fine Scale Miniatures 1991), a book about George's famous model railroad. Although Howard had been an active model railroader since the 1970s, learning about the F&SM changed the way he looked at the hobby. "After reading George's book I realized that a model railroad could really be a beautiful work of art," Howard said.Subscriber bonus: Howard Clark's HO scale model railroad track plan2019 Model Railroader Readers Choice AwardsYou voted. Here are the winners!Build the N scale Canadian Canyonsby Eric WhiteWhen Charlie Conway, Drew Halverson, and Kent Johnson visited and documented the Fraser and Thompson River canyons in "Drew's Trackside Adventures," they saw lots of mountain scenery. The series on Model Railroader Video Plus featured cliffs, forests, swift-moving rivers, and large lakes, inspiring us to build the N scale Canadian Canyons project layout.The remote area didn't feature much in the way of buildings and structures, but there were a few. The Koppers tie plant in Ashcroft is one of the busier industries on Canadian Pacific's Thompson Subdivision, and its location between the mountains and the Thompson River was perfect for modeling. Associate editor Steven Otte scratchbuilt the structure from styrene. Savona Specialty Plywood is likewise squeezed between rocks and a wet place, in this case Kamloops Lake. It's the other industry on the Thompson River side of the layout. I built the model using Pikestuff metal building kits.Modeling modern storageby M.R. SnellOver the last four decades, the face of railroading has changed dramatically in every facet from the names on the property to the property itself. With a few exceptions, the scenes of obsolete cabooses-turned-yard-offices and grounded storage boxcars are now memories, replaced by the next generation – retired trailers and containers.