Peter's Model Railroading | My Library | Magazine Authors
Magazine Articles By Tom Troughton

A Layout Is Never Finished

The author describes various details he is now adding to his fairly complete layout, such as bottle-brush-style grass clusters, tie piles, rail pieces, pallets, tools, coal bin, tree stumps, and building foundations. He also describes how he built two spools of steel cable, one enclosed and one exposed. A sidebar covers his use of various chemicals to age and weather things on his layout. There are lots of ideas for enhancing your layout in this article.

An Auxiliary Water and Coal Car for OX

To complete his M.O.W. train, the author built a coal and water car from a brass tender. The article covers modifying the car, installing couplers, adding a realistic pile of coal (with debris), and finally painting, applying decals, and weathering the model.

Building a Yardmaster's Office

The author builds a small building to act as the yard office. He discusses how he designed it in a CAD program, and covers all the work he did to build the various parts. He also covers how to integrate the building into the surrounding scenery.

Building Cimarron Canyon Trestle

The author shows how he constructed a Howe truss bridge that spans a small canyon. Includes construction photos and design diagrams.

Building the Timberline Miner's Union Hotel

The author describes how he scratchbuilt the remote location's hotel next to his recently-completed mine. Includes lots of photos of the project.

Building the Timberline No. 1 Mine Part I

The author describes building the head house and mine building. Includes lots of construction photos of the model.

Building the Timberline No. 1 Mine Part II

The author continues with his project by construction the conveyor and ore bins. Includes lots of construction photos.

Creating a Landslide

The author described how he dealt with the dark shadows formed by the mountain on the layout's backdrop.

NNGC Preview: The Layouts of St. Louis Pt. II

This installment covers Tom Troughton's Sn3 layout, John Waite's Sn3 layout, Richard Severance's On3 layout, Mike Van Hove's HO-scale layout, Roger Duffield's layout, Hal Shaffer's On3 layout, and John Scherr's HOn3 layout.

Photographing Models for Articles

This informative article describes how photograph model railroad models, how to build a stand for creating effective backdrops, using the correct lights and lenses, taking outdoor photos, and the interesting work it takes to take photos while a model is under construction.

Scratchbuilding a Boiler Flue Storage Rack

The author details how he built this unique storage rack, with tips on how to install it and weather the pipes. Includes prototype and model photos, and detail and scaled drawings.

Swapping Rails

Sometimes the same track and buildings can be used to model in Sn3, On30, and HO.

The Upcoming 23rd Annual Sn3 Symposium

Photos of layouts open for the tour accompany the information about the Sn3 convention to be held in St. Louis, Missouri.

Through the Portals and Into the Darkness

Modeling the interior of tunnels.

Timber Trestles on the C&TT Railroad

The author revisits the various larger bridges on his layout, using better photographs, and showing the additional work he has done to improve their settings. Includes many overall and close-up photos of the bridges.

Window Glazing for a Tender's Dog House

The author shows how he installed glass (acetate) in his P-B-L K-37 tender's dog house (which is soldered in place). The special technique is how he installed the acetate without removing the dog house from the tender.