Sitting with Ben. What i am dreaming about is going to the trains, watering the moss. checking the switches AND JUST SITTING THERE LOOKING AT IT and connecting what we’ve done to see what we do next. My friend Jimmy…

This shows a lot of Three Rail World under construction- a lot of unfinished scenery. lots to do as time passes. Part of the evolution of Three Rail World. Soon I will dive into it again with Ben Young. RAIL…

My trip with Ben Young to the TrainShack was a wonderful happy day. We got on the freeway in his van and headed towards 1030 Hollywood Way in Burbank. There the TrainShack has existed since 1985, a family business, the…

Let me tell you about the swinging bell on my Lionel Legacy NYC 222 switcher. The bell swings while it rings. Astonishingly, the bell gets louder when you see the bell swinging farther back and forth on a larger arc.…

In praise of lifelong joy Listen to this story TWO SUITED men cheer the cars racing around a table-top track at the Nuremberg toy fair. Close by, a woman holds a vinyl figurine of Will Byers from “Stranger Things”, a…

It’s beautiful sunny day today in Three Rail World. Ben Young is coming and we will soon be having train time together! We will report in.

We found Clyde Coil and his friends. Clyde is ready to go back to work in Three Rail World, doing coverage of the track cleaning train and interviewing the crew. Clyde has been our on the spot reporter for decades.…

Image Credit: Jimmy Moore Every RR needs a yard, a place where the trains are assembled by switchers and engines are added to the trains to pull them through the world. That too, is the case with this yard, which…

There are two crossovers between the main lines. This is Zeus Crossover, shown here in the distance, with the scenery still under construction. The crossovers allow reversing directions for trains on the main lines. They also can be set so…

Image Credit: Jimmy Moore This part of Three Rail World goes under Black Mountain, with its old metal bridge and Mazzeo Memorial Tunnel, seen in the video. A lot of fun work with Jimmy Moore has happened in the last…

Achilles crossover is seen here in early construction. Working with Zeus crossover, direction changes are easily accomplished on the main lines. Scenery detail has not yet begun in this area.

reverse loop 1 Well folks, It’s been a long time since I have written to you about Three Rail World and a great deal has happened. Three Rail World is a place where I love to meet with my kids…

Echo Canyon runs right down the middle of 3 RAIL WORLD, splitting the layout into two parts. In the foreground is our area of concentration at the moment. Within a few weeks the first tracks will be laid!! Here’s a…

In our latest generation of pictures, Three Rail World is evolving. Here, in one of the earliest images after the rivers began to flow, we see Echo Canyon with Love bridge in the distance. Many more images to come…The foliage…

Photos: Jimmy Moore Many of you may know that I have been a train nerd for years. I even worked with Lionel in the 1990’s to create a control and sound system called TrainMaster and RailSounds. It’s still in use…

For the water to leave the lake, as you can see in the picture below, it rolls down the river to the waterfall to the canyon below. Here above we see the view of the spillway from the lake down…

Historic Black Mountain is seen here in all its majesty, the center of the old Three Rail World. When you watch the films in the our collection in the left column here, made 30 years ago, you will see many…

As the river flows through natural landscape and future farms, it will be a living thing. What we see here is just the basic landscape, before the fields and foliage, before the farm animals and barns. Some areas will be…

In the beginning we laid out a table that rolled with the topography of the land it was built on. If you look at the layout here you can see that it is not flat; it rolls just like the…

The Winding River, slowly making its way through the landscape, will flow through beautiful country to a deep lake. Here we see the river under construction. Made of copper, the riverbed has been colored and molded to contain the flowing…

After running slowly down river, water arrives in the lake where it will be aerated in a deep hidden section. This will help provide a lot of oxygen for the fish population while lending the effect of an underwater flow…

By Roger Carp A landmark three-rail display built with state-of-the-art electronics Among the most important and memorable layouts ever presented in Classic Toy Trains magazine was the O gauge railroad built by singer-songwriter Neil Young with natural landscaping, amazing trains…

Directed by Bernard Shakey In the 90’s we created a couple of videos of the train layout Ben Young, Zeke Young, and I enjoyed so many great days playing in. Three Rail World is a place where the metal people…

Directed by Bernard Shakey This is not a fast moving railroad adventure. It is a slow moving drama about the system that controls the three rail world. Stay with it and you will be rewarded if you like that sort…