Earlier this year I wrote a layout planning article about my NS&T car barn – my first, 2’x8′ chunk of the Niagara St. Catharines & Toronto Railway in 1:64. That article has now been published in the April, 2023 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman magazine.
In eight pages, I tell the story of why I find the NS&T such a compelling, meaningful subject and how I’m finally able to pursue this prototype, which I’ve wanted to model since the 1980s.
I’m grateful to RMC editor Otto Vondrak for publishing this piece. I know he’s a traction fan so in that sense, it was an easy sell. But still: It’s a pretty niche subject – traction in any scale is already out on the margins, but in S it’s barely on the map. I appreciate that Otto is committed to covering as broad as possible a swath of modelling.
As the cover notes, my article begins on page 76. Also: 116 pages. Wow!
With that in mind, I did try to make the article scale- and subject-agnostic. Planning is planning – so I included lessons and strategies from this exercise that should be useful for anybody looking to model something that isn’t mainstream. I hope my approach gives others some ideas about how to decide whether they can bring their own favourite-yet-weird prototype to life in their layout space.
I’ve had a lot of articles published over the past two decades. Even so, this one is special. It’s nice to see the NS&T in print: It makes the prospect of a layout “more real” to me, somehow.
I’m already thinking about the follow-up articles – from a progress report, to construction pieces, to “What’s next?”.
If you’ve found this website because you read the article and went searching for more online, then welcome aboard!
The Model Railway Show 