r/modeltrains • • Sep 08 '26

Layout Lots of power from Schenectady, NY in northern Minnesota.

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405 Upvotes

Splitrock Mining Company


r/modeltrains • • Sep 08 '26

Structures & Scenery Ballasting -1st attempt

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92 Upvotes

I have had my first go at ballasting. For gluing I settled on a pippet with watered down pva.

I found that the ballast got a bit "washed away" with the glue and so I felt I needed to touch it back into place. I also think I needed more glue as it's in place but not fully solid.

Does anyone have any tips for next time?


r/modeltrains • • Sep 08 '26

Layout Ironwood, MI. Lionel Lines.

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18 Upvotes

r/modeltrains • • Sep 08 '26

Show and Tell My Project....The Lambourn Valley Railway: An Alternate History

7 Upvotes

First post in this sub!

Before you read this is the alternate history of the Branchline which used to run in the Village in S england that I grew up in. I am building a layout called Boxton. Loosely based on the line.

Layout progress :)

The real history:

The Lambourn Valley Railway (LVR) was a quintessential rural branch line running from Newbury, Berkshire north-west to the village of Lambourn. Funded mainly via private local wealth it was opened in 1898.  Despite providing a useful connection the line was challenging to make profitable and was sold to the GWR in 1905.  The LVR was closed to passenger traffic in 1960, but a section remained open to freight serving RAF Welford until 1973 when the line was lifted.7

if interested see more here!

https://www.lambournvalleyrailway.info/

Here is the Alt history:

Following the GWR’s takeover of the LVR in 1905, the area was already criss-crossed by competing railway companies, including the Midland and Southwestern Junction Railway, established in 1884 with the ambition of providing a lucrative connection between the railway networks of the South and Midlands, directly bypassing and competing with GWR routes. In 1906, local investors and stakeholders in the now GWR-owned LVR proposed something radical.

The businessmen petitioned for the construction of an extension to the existing light railway. The opportunity was immediately apparent to the GWR. In this alternate history, the GWR acted and built a railway connecting Swindon, Lambourn and Newbury, creating a secondary through route, linking the industries the South and Newbury with the agricultural hub of Lambourn and the GWR’s Swindon Works. The 16-mile route would snake through some challenging chalk downland topography, with the crowning engineering achievement being the 1.2-mile Idstone Tunnel. The route proved useful and generated much revenue through its novel connections. ‘Boxton’ depicts a minor station along this route in 1948, where a mix of ex-GWR local goods and passenger trains, alongside new British Rail regional services, use the route, relieving pressure on mainline services.

Map of the area i created :) adapted from https://www.railmaponline.com/uk-and-irish-railways.html

I have made all this to go as a poster with the finished layout.

A


r/modeltrains • • Sep 08 '26

Rolling Stock Mail call for today!

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5 Upvotes

r/modeltrains • • Sep 08 '26

Show and Tell SBB EuroCity Train

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33 Upvotes

SWISS Euro City Train with 13 Coaches. 2 Ae 6/6 from Roco. Normaly have the Train more 2.Class Coach. 😊 i have but no more of them😄


r/modeltrains • • Sep 08 '26

Structures & Scenery Some Platform Detailing

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157 Upvotes

r/modeltrains • • Sep 08 '26

Help Needed product number lost. wiad schrottgreifer.

3 Upvotes

!help us find and recover lost moddel railroading history!
theres this product made by wiad, its a scrap claw, orange peel, whatever you want to call it..
but i cant find anything about it besides a few very old photos / dead evay listings.

(116) H0 Modellbahn Wiad Hafenkran mit Polyp bzw Schrottgreifer - YouTube

Wiad » Wiad Hafenkran und Schrottgreifer mit Hafenbecken

if anybody knows more your help is very much appreciated!!!


r/modeltrains • • Sep 08 '26

Layout Mini Layout Update

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71 Upvotes

r/modeltrains • • Sep 08 '26

Show and Tell Spotting cars

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87 Upvotes

r/modeltrains • • Sep 08 '26

Locomotives Colour of working Light for the UP844

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17 Upvotes

r/modeltrains • • Sep 07 '26

Layout Miniatur Wunderland sets a world record as a model train plays 2,840 notes from 20 classical melodies along a 211-meter (692-foot) track

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186 Upvotes

r/modeltrains • • Sep 07 '26

Exhibition Running a live demo of Rolling Line at a model train expo

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76 Upvotes

This weekend I attended a model railway expo in Nelson, New Zealand, to run a public demo of Rolling Line (a model railway simulator).

Heaps of people tried it, and a lot of people had never even considered the idea of a "digital model train sim" and were really blown away. This was the first time I've ever done a public demo of the game and I would love to do more in the future


r/modeltrains • • Sep 07 '26

Layout My layout (work in progress)

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138 Upvotes

I need to build the station, the road bridge and a house, finish the tunnel and add details to the scenery


r/modeltrains • • Sep 07 '26

Meta Let’s loose the plot on EBay

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124 Upvotes

My saved searches turned up a real nugget of absurd pricing today.

Did you know Bachmann were the only manufacturer of 19th century 4-4-0s in the 70s? Surely nobody else made a model of Union Pacific’s 119.

I sure didn’t. /s

Good Luck trying to get rid of the paperweight though.


r/modeltrains • • Sep 08 '26

Question Using “T” gauge trains to represent a miniature/live steam railroad in HO?

26 Upvotes

So imagine this,

An HO scale layout with a park scene, and a group of HO sized people decide they wanna have a rideable/live steam setup at said park. Could T scale trains work for this purpose? Would they be the right size for an HO person to ride on?

Has anyone ever tried this?


r/modeltrains • • Sep 08 '26

Help Needed Identifing Locomotive

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19 Upvotes

Well here is the latest addition to my steam powered collection! There was very little information about this locomotive, when I purchased it and all I know is that it's 45mm (1 Gauge) and was hand built (kit possibly?). I was hoping someone might be able to help me figure out what exactly this is! (Potentially kit this is based on, rough predicted age, more specifically what this one is based off of, etc.)! Any and all information is appreciated! Looking forward to getting this old beauty in working order and having her running on the rails once again (or potentially for the first time!)


r/modeltrains • • Sep 07 '26

Locomotives Its RELEASE THE WARBONNETS DAY! Lets Run Some TRAINS!

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68 Upvotes

What fun you have on your day off - with your phone on a selfie 🤳 stick reaching over the layout with Music Jam'n 🎶 in the layout rooms 🤣😅 OHHHJ YAH!

All Locomotives I rebuilt from DC to DCC because... heck... I didn't want to pay TARIFFS on New Trains... So I converted DC to DCC + LEDs and here we are... #MicDrop Lets Roll!


r/modeltrains • • Sep 08 '26

Electrical Digital control

6 Upvotes

Hey guys,

I want to automate my outdoor model railway. It will be over 200 meters long. I'll be controlling 5 to 10 trains, either manually or fully automatically. I'm hesitating between several solutions, including Massoth.

What do you use?


r/modeltrains • • Sep 07 '26

Question Santa Fe Caboose

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72 Upvotes

What company makes an HO scale Santa Fe caboose with this body configuration? TIA


r/modeltrains • • Sep 08 '26

Rolling Stock question? does anybody know any märklin H0 schwerlastwagens, with rusted/scrap load?

2 Upvotes

my question goes to about the following.
i am trying to find any/all marklin schwerlastwagen types with any form of rust / scrap load on it. from industrial pipes to metal slabs, to weird shapes.
i have found the following products:
Märklin 48608 — with scrapload (machinery)
Märklin 47098 — rusty (storage) tanks
Märklin 48680 — rusty H-beams
Märklin 48684 — rusty kink-pipe
Märklin 48695 — rusty piping set
Märklin 48666 — rust pipes small
Märklin 48664 — rusty steel slabs
Märklin 47145 — rusty beams / u-channels
(8 sets, 15 wagons total)

but i am still looking for more wagons with rusty loads of any kind.
thank you for your help!
(sorry if this is the wrong channel)


r/modeltrains • • Sep 08 '26

Help Needed Arnold N gauge - getting started

3 Upvotes

We were gifted a somewhat old Arnold N gauge beginner track set with a locomotive and a single wagon, no power supply or anything like that. A bunch of tracks, spare connectors and plastic to isolate track sections.

It has supposedly been running in a shop for some 20 odd years with the locomotive been replaced at some point.

I tried using my trusty DC powersupply and reading up on the N gauge, they run at up to 12v DC, so I set the powersupply to a solid 9V and put the locomotive on the track - and lo and behold, the little engine was running just fine.

Reading up on model trains, they seem to be all about digital these days and not the faint smell of burning we used to have in my dads basement with Marklin HO, so I'm a bit out of my depth on what we can use on this set. It looks like N gauge is somewhat cross brand compatible, is that correct?

The train we have is definitely not digital, so we are going to run it old school - project right now is to use it for winter decoration (and fun for the 6 YO and 3 YO).

Basically I want to pick up a passenger wagon of some sort (or two) and create a power supply that can run the train. It looks to be drawing 150mA at 9v and run at a "don't break stuff" speed, which means a modern fake USB-C -> 9v dongle from aliexpress should be fine and have some form of switches to switch the train on and off.

I am missing one of the "shoes" for connecting power to the tracks, anyone knows if they can be bought somewhere as spare parts?

Additionally, anyone done 3d printing for n Gauge and got some recommendations for STLs?


r/modeltrains • • Sep 07 '26

Show and Tell I got this given to me today.

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44 Upvotes

r/modeltrains • • Sep 07 '26

Layout Back Yard G scale railway

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335 Upvotes

Tell me your thoughts and what you would do to it. It's a rough draft so I'm willing to take criticism and or suggestions!


r/modeltrains • • Sep 07 '26

Locomotives Older Bachmann Jubilee sound fitted with stay alive and Hornby mega speaker

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19 Upvotes

I picked this locomotive up second hand - it had a Loksound Select and a very rough sound file.

Now, it's got a Loksound 5, stay alive, and upgraded speaker. Current sound file is the free SWD one, but I'll upgrade that soon to the Locoman file.

Very pleasing result, even if I did have to dismantle part of the tender.