Category Archives: Magazine

Information, Layout Design, Magazine, Publishing, Web

Site Seeing – December 2025

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It has been a while, I know. I promise you, it’s me, and not you. However, there are some really neat free (as in beer) e-zines that I’ve found over the last couple of days that I just had to share with you. Let’s get into them.

Free E-Zines

Free, yes, you guessed it, free as in air, electrons and radicals.

  1. Produced by the “Toowoomba Model Railway Club Inc.” in Queensland, Australia (that’s the pointy bit of our country on the right-hand side), Train Talk is a monthly publication. Certainly club-based, but plenty of modelling information inside too. You can read online or download it here: Train Talk
  2. Railway Modeller Australia, another E-zine in Australia, is a reincarnation of Rail Modeller Australia magazine, which was started in June 2020 by Robyn Taylor. I could not find any mention of the original in my searching, though. Lots of modelling content and well worth the read. You can read online or download it here: Railway Modeller Australia
  3. This last one you may already know about, but super worth mentioning. Ian Holmes has been producing the Micro Model Railway Dispatch for nearly 5 years now. For those of you looking into small layouts (and I know you are), this is a great read. Produced quarterly, get on Ian’s mailing list to get a reminder when the newest E-zine is available for download. Head over to the website here: The Micro Model Railway Dispatch

Finally, Ian Holmes has a new E-book available for download. A Journey into Micro  Layouts. I’ve just bought the book, and as soon as this is published, I’m off to read it. Available from Ian’s Buy me a Coffee page. Not free, but more than well worth the low cost (I only paid A$15.53 in Australian Pesos for what I think is a US$10.00 book).

And that is all for this Site-Seeing adventure.

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Staying in Contact

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Magazine, Prototype, Site seeing, Sites of interest, Switching, Web

Site Seeing – 29 June – A new series from Model Railroader – Taking Care of Business

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I’ve been quite hard on model railroader over the years. They’ve been very predatory in their behaviour over the years. I even got a cease and desist letter from them at one point because they thought I’d copied part of their intellectual property when I published a corner layout of my design. After to-ing and fro-ing and a level of “kiss my A##” from me since I was in the right, we’ve gotten along well ever since.

However, I may, and I stress only may, change my point of view if they keep up their new free to watch video venture – Taking Care of business. The basis of the idea is to ride along with a crew (in this video SMS Lines switching the Pureland Industrial Park in Bridgeport, New Jersey) as they go about their day-to-day work. The video was entertaining and informative. My concern is that if it doesn’t stay free I certainly won’t be putting up my money to pay for it. Lots of content providers share similar videos on YouTube and other sharing sites that help me understand as much.

Free is good as in beer, and speech. Hopefully MR keeps this series going as free to watch. There is some really interesting content, good production values and I enjoyed the narrative of the story showing the crew going about all of their tasks during their day.

Resources:

  • Video: To watch the video (while it is still free) head over to Taking Care of Business: SMS Rail Lines | ModelRailroaderVideoPlus.com
  • SMS Rail Lines: SMS Rail Lines restores, maintains and operates many historic Baldwin diesel locomotives (in fact I believe they have the largest fleet of Classic Baldwin’s in North America). It’s a labor of love to keep these rare and historic units in-service for future generations to witness. For more just search “SMS Baldwin” on YouTube.

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E-Book, Magazine, Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web

Site seeing – March 5

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It’s O scale day! And today there are resources everywhere.

One of the best modellers out there today, in O scale, is Mike Cougill. Mike’s been a railroad modeller for over 40 years and been actively involved in the hobby press for a long time. Mike’s written magazine articles, a regular column and been the editor of O Scale Trains Magazine before starting a new company, OST Publications. Mike’s partner in the new business  passed away in 2013 and he’s run the company since.

Site 1: OST Publications

The aspect of OST Publications (link here) approach that I like most is a focus on doing great work, and thinking things through to yourself as a modeller. I have no interest in any of the sites that I bring up while ‘Site seeing’ except as a participant, or satisfied customer.

Among the best areas of the site are the free downloads. I’ve since bought a couple of his ‘Missing conversation’ series e-books and I just saw another one on scratchbuilding that I’m going to buy tonight once I’ve finished writing this post.

Site 2: Proto48 Modeller

More of a resource centre for those modelling in Proto48 (finescale 1/48th O Scale) I like the site’s approach to sharing information on manufacturers and, suppliers and publishers that are specific to Proto48. I am simply too lazy to model to this level, however, I do like to see the skills of others and to gain ideas from them about how to make my modelling more acceptable to me.

There are a lot of resources here, along with articles and lots of links. Enjoy

Resources:

OST Publications

  • Detailing Track – Techniques For Modeling Prototypical Looking Track (Link)
  • The free guides – special editions of ‘The Missing Conversation’ eBooks (Link)

Proto48 Modeler

  • Articles and Tips (Link)
  • A condensed eBook by Mike Cougill (PDF for download) (link)
Information, Magazine, Publishing, Site seeing, Web

Site seeing – 22 February

The Internet has changed the way we model. No longer do we have the tyranny of distance – where what we model is simply too far away. Over the last few years a modellers ability (in my case from Ballarat Australia) to model US prototype no longer relies on the US model magazines to show me the areas I can model. And this does not apply only to the US. If you want to model Romanian railways, French, Lithuanian, Scottish, Welsh, South African or Chinese railways the resources are out there for you.

Modelling magazines have changed what they present too. There are the old school magazines, like Model Railroader, and the new magazines like Model Railroad Hobbyist, S Scale Resource and O Scale resource among others.

Site 1: The O Scale Resource

Another of the new style magazines, with no upfront costs and advertiser supported. The new March – April edition of the magazine was just released.

  • There’s a review of the O Scale West (USA) show
  • A feature on Battery power, and
  • Making retaining walls from castings

Check the website for more and note that you can also download previous issues for free.

Resources

The O Scale Resource Magazine (Offsite Link)