NMRA logo Clinics
LIRR
Home
- About Port Jefferson - Huntington - Greenlawn - Farmingdale - Waterfront
- About City Terminal - Sunnyside Yard - Holban Yard - Car Float Yard - Jamaica - Long Island City - New York City
- About Atlantic Branch - Flatbush Avenue
- Clinics - Articles - About the LIRR

Hint: use the find function in your browser (control+F in Windows, Command+F on the Mac) to look for specific topics.
The descriptions of the clinics should help you find what you're looking for.

My Clinics

These clinics grew out of experience in working on my layout and collection of rolling stock. I have presented them at various NMRA meets and conventions. Feel free to send me email with questions and comments.


Installing Decoders in Steam Engines

  Many models of steam Locomotives are not available with factory-installed DCC and sound, particularly older brass or die cast models. This clinic shows you how you can install sound decoders in older steam locomotives relatively easy. I explain why the motor must be electrically isolated from the rails, and show you ways isolate it. I also show you how to get good electrical pickup from the rails for no-stall operation, and how to hook up and install a sound decoder (with or without a Current Keeper) and speaker in the tender.
View Article View Clinic
^Top

Details can make the Difference — Adding Details to Your Layout

The clinic will focus on the details that exist in real life, and how modeling them can add realism and bring your layout to life. View Clinic
^Top

Electroluminescent Signs For Your Layout

This clinic describes what electroluminescent (EL) signs are and how they work. It then explains how to connect and install commercially available signs, and finally shows how custom signs can be created from EL kits that are commercially available.View Clinic
^Top

Expanding the Long Island Railroad

In 2015, I expanded his Long Island Railroad. Like most modelers, I was faced with questions such as "what to model." and "how to design the expansion." This clinic explains how I made these decisions, which resulted in modeling Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, and the Long Island Rail Road's car float yard in Long Island City. In this clinic, I explains car float operations, benchwork construction, including simple construction of curved backdrops, and installing a Faller Car System. The presentation walks you through the process with many photos and diagrams. View Clinic

Backdrops

Model train layouts are mainly constrained by two factors, limited available space, and accessibility. Both of these factors will inhibit the viewer's perception of depth when viewing a model railroading scene, unless we can add backdrops to our layouts that will impart the feeling of depth. I describe various techniques that a modeler can use to achieve the perception of depth on their layout. This clinic presentation includes many photos that show these techniques. View Clinic

Modeling Urban Scenes

My HO scale Long Island Rail Road primarily models many urban and suburban scenes found on Long Island, including Brooklyn, Queens, and Penn Station in Manhattan, and the town of Huntington further out in Suffolk County. This clinic focuses on how to plan an urban scene for your layout, identifying the key elements that make up urban scenes, then explaining what the key modeling components are for each element, and how they all can be combined to produce realistic scale model urban scenes. Brian I discuss how to create realistic backdrops for urban scenes. I also discusses using techniques, such as cutaways, to model underground stations, and also modeling overhead (elevated) subways, or Els. The clinic presentation contains many photos that illustrate the techniques described. View Clinic^Top

 

Last modified: May 13 2020 09:41:57. Site designed and implemented by Marshall Abrams