HO · 1:87 & N · 1:160

MODEL RR

Small trains. Big country. A working railroad on the bench —
from warbonnets to wet noodles, steam to second-generation diesel.

Tour the Layouts See the Roster

▚ Roads We Run ▞

Nine railroads share the mainline here — modeled in HO and N scale.

BNSF Railway Merger era · 1995–today
Burlington Northern Cascade green · 1970–95
Santa Fe Warbonnet · super fleet
Great Northern Empire Builder · Rocky
Baltimore & Ohio America’s first railroad
Chesapeake & Ohio Chessie the kitten
CSX Transportation B&O + C&O successor
Norfolk Southern The Thoroughbred
Canadian National The wet noodle
British Columbia Railway Ol’ BC Rail · dogwood

▚ Two Scales, One Railroad ▞

HO Scale

The workhorse. Room for detail — full brake rigging, cab interiors, sound decoders you can feel. Where the big power lives: articulated steam and six-axle diesels.

N Scale

The empire builder. Twice the railroad in the same room — long unit trains, sweeping curves, whole subdivisions. Scenery first, mainline running forever.

▚ Forty Years on the Bench ▞

This isn’t a display case — it’s a working railroad, built on a lifetime of study.

Taught at Five

My grandfather put my hands on a throttle at five years old and taught me the hobby from the rails up — track, wiring, patience. Everything here runs on what he started.

Student of the Craft

Decades of books, magazines, and online training — trackwork, benchwork, scenery, DCC. The library never stops growing, and neither does the skill set.

Railfan Field Work

Railfanning trips are research: trackside hours watching real consists, yard moves, and lineside details — then bringing those notes back to the layout.

Signals & Silicon

Now automating the railroad: Arduino and Raspberry Pi signaling, with IoT sensors identifying locomotives and freight cars on the fly for real-time operations.

Open Source Throttle

Running JMRI and DCC++ / DCC-EX open source projects for command and control — and using AI to level up my railroad education to industry-job standard.

Prototype Accurate

I studied how real trains work — air brakes, tonnage, train handling, signals, operations — so the modeling is right. If the prototype wouldn’t do it, neither does the layout.