Paw-sitive Progress

The sheer amount of structures on The Hills Line built from or including Rix Products components continues to climb. It's almost as if the zoning board of eastern Iowa thumbed through a Pikestuff catalog when laying out the industrial areas around the railroad. My latest project involved the immensely simple Veterinary Associates structure on East … Continue reading Paw-sitive Progress

Building The Backsides

If there's an advantage to modeling a prototype that only features two online industries, it's that the offline industries tend to be rather simple in execution. Generally that's due to having their backsides visible to the railroad, which lack any loading docks or rolling doors, since they aren't rail served. It becomes a rather straightforward … Continue reading Building The Backsides

Up On The Roof

"And there the world below can't bother me" -The Drifters- In the inaugural edition of Model Railroad Planning, Bill Darnaby mentioned that he was going to have to spend more time on the underbody detailing of his freight cars, since the design of the Maumee Route put the cars right at eye level where anybody … Continue reading Up On The Roof

Tagged

Graffiti is an unfortunate but absolutely necessary aspect of modeling today's railroads. Since The Hills Line is firmly set in the modern era, tags are ever present on buildings, bridges, and rolling stock. Fortunately the process is made easier thanks to some readily available commercial products. Blair Line's laser-cut decals come in a wide variety … Continue reading Tagged