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1996 seems to have been a special year for model trains, at least going by this old copy of Railroad Model Craftsman I got at an open house. Actually both big clubs around here give these away, so check them out before you buy mags.

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 02/10/2026

If you ever wondered what the deal is on these accounts that have train or travel updates, you can subscribe to APIs or feeds that publish the information and you can read them and post them with your own program. I usually write from scratch, but there are services to help make it easier as well.

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 02/10/2026

This search answer covers some of the options. A larger Arduino can even have DCC-EX installed to act as a true command station, but that's only one way.

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 02/10/2026

People put a lot of time and effort into things they love, and you can tell with JMRI the Java Model Raiload Interface program which has been written by volunteers over decades. It has everything you could imagine from dispatcher to lighting controls and sound. updates.jmri.org/help/en/html...

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 26/09/2026

I hope we see the whole Nickel Plate Road consist b/c it's the loco, coach cars, a mail car, and what else?

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 26/09/2026

Thoughtful scifi as always, Lorinda sets a standard we envy. Sometimes I wish she'd reply-chain the 1/x's together, but since I view Bluesky mostly through feeds I see them all anyhow (as long she posts them in order).

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 26/09/2026

Here's a snail-shaped model train layout with the layout lore of testing experimental railcars so people can say "look at that X-car go"

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 23/09/2026

I was trying to figure out wth a "belt steam locomotive" was but I think it's the "Indiana Harbor Belt" and then the locomotives that worked there.😅 dhke.com/ihbarchive/i...

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 21/09/2026

A search for Krauss-Maffei ML 4000 quickly shows you how different the hood units (left) look vs. the cab units (middle and right). What are some other locos known for their cab and hood units (F7 > CF7 comes to mind)?

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 18/09/2026

Aha, so in a video www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMw_... we can see it actually *is* yellow and the dark looking section is actually the inside of the compartment. Try painting the inside of the model? Light coat of powder on the grill, maybe?

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 18/09/2026

In the "what are we actually seeing?" department, pics of UP SD40T-2's and especially the see-through grill at the back. In most photos, it looks like the grill is black but what are we seeing? Should the grill get painted/panel lined? Paint the inside black maybe?

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UP_8635_EMD_SD40T-2.jpg half of a locomotive, union pacific, in yellow with red lettering and a black top, showing the long-hood half of an SD40 so we can see the grill towards the front, which looks black but may be painted yellow but the black is showing through

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 17/09/2026

Way, way down on the model train project list is whether to weather this RC SD with the see-through radiator. I feel like panel lining there would probably not look right at all since where the dark ink would go is what's cut out for it to be see-through. How have you seen this approached?

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 14/09/2026

Here is a really nice look for a Budd RDC4, with a boxcar converted into a baggage car. When did I start liking these? It's basically a steel brick but there's something about them. www.trains.com/ctr/railroad...

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 14/09/2026

Then there was that time the New York Central railroad asked "what happens if you mix those two colors?"

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 12/09/2026

I'm not saying that model train prices are all over the place in some places, but they're all over the place in some places.

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 11/09/2026

Shunters aside, the layout is running really well where it's running and that's nice. I cannot emphasize enough to leave yourself some "running room" when working on your layout, so you always have at least some place to operate. Don't break your whole layout if you can help it.

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 11/09/2026

Here's one solution to my model train yard limitations: fix up this little DB shunter that's shorter than anything else, modify the couplers to be match or maybe be magnetic, then at least I can move the bigger passenger cars around without "cheating" (pick up a car and move it)

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 10/09/2026

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 09/09/2026

People *plan* these? There's an idea. 🤔 The proper siding at the bottom of the layout here makes it a lot easier than working exclusively in the yard.

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 09/09/2026

What do you use for the surface of trestle bridges? I guess there have been different things over we expect to see the rail itself and supports to hold the rail and not much more. This textured styrene (now cleaned) seems more for rock walls... paint rock colors then drybrush white. Tough to cut.

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 06/09/2026

I see gorgeous rolling stock like this at a small model train club open house and sometimes wonder about HO scale, but they're so huge compared to Z! That detail, though, and the solid way the locomotives and cars negotiate the track makes it look "easier" than Z scale (is it?)

model train layout with long freight car in near track and brochure for the module crew on display

HO scale rolling stock on a 10 track layout yard area

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 06/09/2026

Is there even a real restoration, of an Amtrak EMD F40PH? Now I see they're finding them on the ocean floor and in the woods and they're popping up everywhere!!! 😅

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 04/09/2026

Finally using the matt on the desk, looking at the next N and Z items on the list. Note the N scale US cars about the same length as the Z scale Japanese locomotive and container car, due to the difference in era.

z and n scale model railroad rolling stock on a blue working matt: a Japanese Z scale DD51 loco about the same size as the N scale US gondola or box cars in the center, with a z scale JNR container car below is also the same length.

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 04/09/2026

I heard Prince Royce's version of "I want it that way" which led me to finally look up the meaning of those lyrics and realized there was a lot of quandarying over the meaning over the years until finally the BSB explained what they meant. y/w

Screenshot of part of wiki page for the song "I want it that way" by the Back Street Boys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Want_It_That_Way

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 02/09/2026

I think I used to wrong stock pic but yeah, if I was into HO scale I would be tempted. From what I've read, the Virginian had some of the biggest locomotives around for all the coal hauling and steep grades.

"EL2B locomotive of the Virginian Railway" black and white photo of a large locomoitve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginian_EL-2B#/media/File:Virginian_Railway_Electric_Locomotive_EL2B.gif

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 01/09/2026

This guy right?... so even nicer than the pic I found? What's the difference other than the special box and papers? Forgive me I'm N and Z so don't know these giant ones as well. 😅

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 01/09/2026

Perhaps this seriously nice like-new steam locomotive with tender, DCC + sound ebay.io/m/xVHpVA (pic from walthers)

very large steam locomotive with Virginian on the tender from https://walthers.com/pages/archive/proto-2000-heritage-series-steam-y-3-2-8-8-2-powered-standard-dc-no-sound-virginian-740?srsltid=AfmBOophn-j4pBHO9tS1zy0-3vXSoSsjotAmKnqpNGCQVBvw06xH1Ab_

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 30/08/2026

I was hoping to find an old boxcar (pic of) that actually had Singer printed on the side, but I don't know if they existed here or there. My search results keep finding that Singer locomotive which is interesting but not the same thing.

From a forum article at https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=307000 , a pic of a very box shaped early electric locomotive with a boxccar, the locomotive being half the length of the boxccar

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 30/08/2026

Did you know Virgin named their BR Class 57 locomotives after characters from the TV show "Thunderbirds"?

class 57 locomotive in virgin silver yellow and red livery

snippet of wiki article showing the numbers and names of the character trains from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_57#Virgin_Trains_West_Coast

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 29/08/2026

The passengers didn't realize they'd have to bucket-line the slurpee concentrate into the underground slurpee concentrate tanks. Those glass-lined tanks were an idea researched right here on Big Reverser Key that didn't catch on (fiction/layout lore). Always read the fine print on free RR tickets.

dimly lit model train layout pics with a yellow locomotive pulling two green tank cars and a blue passenger car

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 28/08/2026

agreed. model trains are just so cool.

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 24/08/2026

Unfortuntately with the two new tank cars I'm a couple millimeters away from being able throw this switch to move the cars up the ladder. #modelTrains... plan, plan, plan.

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 16/08/2026

Rookie tip: get fake model train locomotives for a few dollars to practice painting and weathering. If they come out well enough, you could use them on a layout in maintenance scenes or just to add more static rolling stock. Left pic orig right pic panel lined. Silicone earplugs clean up stray ink.

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 12/08/2026

Tonight's shunting puzzle: refill the slurpee machines Using the easy button and put one car on either end, since the layout has a proper siding now. Here we refill the grape & cola slurpee concentrates so take the trainset across the yard... it's a two-day job for all 4 flavors. #modeltrains

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 06/08/2026

The wistful E235 electrical multiple unit looks across the water. What is it wondering, I wonder? #modelTrains

#modelTrains a model train EMU is perched on a track with cliff in front of it and an unfinished water feature with a railyard on the other side

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 29/07/2026

Step 1 is always figure which direction you're going and get out of your own way, though it often resembles two-steps. #modelTrain #safetyVIdeos

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 27/07/2026

Let the first layers sit while i think about paint & next rock and support. It was daunting me at first then I simply thought "could you walk across there?" and "would you need to?" or "is there a pathway or bldg there" and questions answer themselves. Ah, booo! i think i covered my walking tunnels.

model railroad underconstruction pale rock rather large under foreground track (bedded) while another track is behind, smaller rounded more colorful stone. all need more paint and more layers of rock, sand, gravel, or concrete to look less like a fishtank.

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 26/07/2026

They came up with some cool aircraft in the postwar "stick a turboprop on it" era of aviation design. I've always thought the Fairey Gannet was one of the most interesting. It has the look of an airplane that would try its best to get you home. Pic of a pair of gannets so we know what a gannet is.

Picture of a pair of gannets, white ocean birds with black trim, perched on a rock

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 26/07/2026

dlurp... dlurp... dlurp... a few drops at a time. putting a dark wash on the model railroading layout's north-side area in the forground

model railroad layout with small glass cup of gray "wash" paint-mix and an eyedropper in the cup. Gravel is above and below a beat-up patch of static grass the cup is sitting on. A small squeeze bottle is about to plop a couple drops of bronze-colored paint into the gray mix

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 20/07/2026

I think there were tanks and a small engine on the "ascent stage" of the lunar lander which blasted them off the moon... it didn't need to be very powerful with so much less gravity to overcome.

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 19/07/2026

Also, in big model railroading news... I got some eyedroppers! Time for ballasting and all kinds of one-drop-at-a-time gluing and painting. Dlurp. Dlurp. Dlurp.

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 19/07/2026

Somehow today's model train shunting puzzle pics got out of order, but basically it was moving two tank cars through a space only big enough for one. It worked, as shunting does.

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 19/07/2026

Japanese Z scale model train car usability: there are short cars like Tora 45000 or Wamu 70000 nice for fitting places. Huge container cars and passenger cars are at the other end of the spectrum, often longer than locomotives but surprisingly nimble. Tanker cars fit right in between.

Under construction model train layout with a few different types of freight and one type of passenger car

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 17/07/2026

Every new type of rolling stock turns into a favorite, but the Taki-1000's are a joy to operate as long as the speed is reasonable. Nice size between long passenger and con-cars and short freight cars. The RR may need to appoint an imaginary safety officer... who's putting together these consists?

under construction model railroad layout with a red then blue locomotive pulling a passenger car and two tank cars

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 17/07/2026

When life gives you a broken english muffin, make a muffinrito.

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 16/07/2026

Well it finally happened. I used to think RS15 "low noses" were too low but now I don't. www.american-rails.com/rsd15.html

A blue and yellow Sante Fe RS15 locomotive from https://www.american-rails.com/rsd15.html

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 11/07/2026

I probably picked the wrong locomotive to demonstrate the usefulness of a classic double-ended siding in model train layouts.

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 06/07/2026

Model trains means modelling everything. This poor water feature is being re-done yet again. Hopefully third time's a charm!

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Tachyon Eddy @tachyoneddies.com · 06/07/2026

Starting on the weathering of the mountain/tunnel/waterfall feature. Dry brushing means dry, so you don't lose all that work on the base coat and have to start over. So far so good I think. A tiny bit of green under where the water will flow but now 10 shades of different browns and grays.

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