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It's another trip to the "Cow Palace" keeping up to date with all the comings and goings at JL Innovative and who better to do it with than the man himself, Chris Costello. There's a great discussion about the new world of freight car manufacturing plus owning private rail cars and tearing up rail in beautiful downtown Salamanca, New York, all in one easy to open podcast. Enjoy!!

Located just 10 miles west of Horseshoe Curve the "Station Inn" is a unique bed-and-breakfast alongside the old Pennsylvania Railroad mainline. Built in 1866 only a dozen years after the completion of the "Curve," it became a sanctuary for weary travelers headed east or west and a summer retreat for many folks that lived in the Pittsburgh area. Run by Alex Lang and his wife Leah, it's become their...

N-Scale is alive and well living in North Carolina, not far from the Hickory Motor Speedway. Scott Teague's previous layout graced the pages of some of the finest model railroad publications out there, but that wasn't good enough for Scott and not long after that layout was dismantled and a new one started. Some people just have the knack for getting things done and Scott is certainly one of those...

There's plenty of action down at the old "Cow Palace" serving as the world headquarters of Costello Manufacturing and Chris Costello has stopped by to fill us in on all the excitement at the world center of model railroading just north of Bradford, Pennsylvania, and just east of Salamanca, New York. We spend some time talking about the machine that nobody talks about. Learned how 3-D printing is b...

This episode started out to check with Wallace Locomotive Works, but before we got a chance to do that, we lost a good friend and longtime supporter of the AML Nation. The one and only Ralph Renzetti a.k.a. the MudFather. Ralph was a regular on the Wednesday night chats, ready to lend a helping hand to anyone who might have questions about their modeling, especially when it came to paint and weath...

It's a return to the "Lone Star" state and a visit with locomotive engineer Emory Lehman. We haven't talked to Emory for a few years since and decided it was about time to check up on what Emory's been doing. Things have changed quite a bit with his new job at the BNSF in Temple, Texas, a model railroader living across the street and his friend Mike making major changes to his layout. We also disc...

It's part two of the Rob Bennett thirty-two-part trilogy as we try to figure out what makes this modeler tick. Is it the vast array of instructional videos he's created or his fabulous weathering or maybe it's just simply a love for the hobby that he's anxious to share with others. Rob tries to learn something everybody while not taking the hobby to seriously whilst learning the operations side of...

After years of travelling about the country working on transformers, not the plastic kind like you'd see in the movies such as "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" but actual transformers that do all sorts of cool electrical things. Our next guest finally settled in Erie, Pennsylvania because like his friend and fellow modeler Mike Hauk his love of shoveling snow seven months of the year bonds th...

There's nothing more fun than a visit down the road to Tillsonburg, Ontario with the sole purpose of a visit to the Otter Valley Railroad shop and visit with our friend Lorne James. You can always be sure that there will be lots of editing, lots of dizzying questions and answers with fun being had by all. Lorne stopped by the ModelersLife studios to bring us up to date on all the new cars that he'...

If you live in the Chicago area and a fan of railroading, you will no doubt be well aware of the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad that's been jointly owned by several railroads over the years. With over 320 miles of track in and around Chicago it's kind of hard to avoid seeing this famous railroad that began in 1896. We here at the ole' AML world headquarters wanted to find out more and it seemed like...

The Pittsburgh, Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad Company was founded in 1897 by Andrew Carnegie to haul iron ore and other products from the port at Conneaut, Ohio on the Great Lakes to Carnegie Steel Company plants in Pittsburgh and the surrounding region. At the end of 1925 B&LE operated 228 miles of road on 631 miles of track; at the end of 1970, mileages were 220 and 489. Enter our next guest who...

Have you ever wondered what happens to all those great model railroad clubs that don't own their own building or eventually the owner of a private home that houses club passes away?? The most common answer is nothing and so was the case with the Southern Pacific Model Railway club in Rocky Hill, New Jersey. Except in this case a successful TV who also happens to be a lifelong model railroader deci...

It's a return visit to White Rose Hobbies, in York, Pennsylvania. Only this time we're talking with the non-model railroad partner get Thomas who apparently is in charge of ordering paint. We still haven't gotten around to talking about some their great stories from the days of working on the Norfolk Southern but with White Rose agreeing to be the full-time sponsor of the podcast, we'll look forwa...

While it might seem to the naked eye that the preservation of America's railroads from the past is sporadic at best, we here at the AML Nation would argue that it's exactly the opposite. Recently, we had the chance to talk with Bryan Lalevee from the Norfolk and Western Business Car 300 Preservation Society an enthusiastic group of volunteers that's already completed the restoration of one beautif...

Have you ever stumbled across a website and an hour later realized you're still looking at it because of how much material was available?? That's what happened to us at the ole' AML World Headquarters in downtown Busted Knuckle, Kentucky. Surfin' the internet we stumbled across "Hawkins Rails" one of the most comprehensive railfanning websites you'll ever find. Whether it's mainline railroading or...

On this podcast, we welcome back Ralph Renzetti a.k.a. "The Mudfather." The Evel Overlord had lots of questions about paint, glues and everything else that's needed to build an award-winning model. There's plenty of discussion on the mixing of paints, which ones are best suited for each individual application and lots more. Ralph Renzetti as well-known among his peers as an expert modeler and extr...

RPM Meets have created a community for sharing information and experiences about and around the hobby of model railroading, what others are doing in the hobby, why they're doing and what each individual is trying to accomplish. There are many RPM events throughout the country. Some are national conferences like the Chicagoland or St. Louis events, while others are one or two-day local meets with a...

Details, details, details, with today's HO and N-scale locomotive manufactures delivering engines with just about every detail you can imagine, we here at the old AML headquarters have discovered someone that's producing even more details for every facet of your layout, including locomotives and rolling stock. Chris Wallace is like almost everyone else in the hobby having been a model railroader f...

One of the great things about this hobby of model railroading is that it's always there when you need it, like a faithful companion, whether you choose to work on your current project every day, once a week or just a few times a month, it's always there ready for the next adventure. Our next guest, Wally Swaitly is typical of folks who revisit the hobby after years or perhaps even decades away, wh...

Here at the ole' AML Nation's world headquarters in downtown Busted Knuckle, Kentucky… It seems increasingly evident to us that RPM meets are becoming more and more popular with each passing year. On this podcast, we talk with Jerry Britton and Matthew Hurst about the second edition of the Central Pennsylvania Short Lines RPM. There's going to be plenty to do on Friday with layout visits in States...

Imagine the excitement of having your model railroad appear on the cover of the hobby's premier magazine for the first time?? That's exactly what happened to Mike Hauk When his Susquehanna and New York, Railroad appeared on the cover of the May issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. This HO scale railroad is based on a short line located in the central Pennsylvania mountains, north of Williamsport and...

After a lifetime of serving a higher calling and a lifelong obsession with model railroading, it was time for our next guest to buy a basement with a house on top of it. Robin Montenay spent most of his life with the Lutheran Church and without a permanent site to build a model railroad. What he ended with is a spectacular shelf layout called the "Barchester" that appeared on the cover of the 2024...

Have you ever wondered what would happen if two guys with beards that worked for the Norfolk Southern joined forces to create a destination hobby shop in York, Pennsylvania?? The same question occurred to us and after an exhaustive search we stumbled across Ryan and Tom who just so happened to own White Rose Hobbies, a full-line hobby shop located at 4401 W Market St. in York, PA. Ryan has been a...

Until recently, most model railroading products were imported from countries like China, Germany, or Japan under a specific harmonized tariff schedule. The tariffs were typically low and often duty-free under most trade agreements. For many imports valued under $800 shipments could often enter the country duty-free But all that's changed so we here at the ole' AML Network decided it was time to fi...

Getting started in model railroading   can be an overwhelming experience, with questions like what scale to choose, who makes the best products, do I need to be a skilled carpenter, will there be a need for a vast knowledge in electronics?? The questions are endless and in today's world of social media the places to find answers can be almost as confusing. But being a woman in model railroading ca...