a ModelersLife

The name Stephen Attwell probably doesn't really resonate very much with most model railroader, but it's a name in the hobby that folks should take note of because Stephen is the owner of Midwest Model Railroad one of the finest model railroad stores in the lower forty-eight. Located in Independence, Missouri it's a 15,000 square-foot store that's similar to walking into the Home Depot of model ra...

Jon Stackpole is everywhere these days promoting designing, overseeing construction of multiple products for Athearn while appearing in webcasts, manning show booths discussing upcoming projects with customers like the HO-Scale locomotive newest versions of the GE AC4400CW , EMD SW1500 , and other Genesis-series models. He's very excited about the   Athearn Genesis Series a high-end model train li...

You'd think when the gang at "a ModelersLife" got the chance to talk with the lead product manager with Athearn we'd have all sorts of questions to ask. Well, you'd be wrong, Jon has travelled such an interesting road to where he is today, Athearn barely came up. Once we discovered his Dad owned " The Hobby Depot ," a small, well-known model train shop in Monroe, Wisconsin , we wanted to know more...

Now that was the show, another year has come and gone at the Springfield train show and this one will be remembered as the great snowstorm of 2026. It was so anxiously anticipated that several vendors never even bothered to show up but those of us who did, had a great time in spite of all the problems created by the weather. It was truly historic, bringing widespread snow across the northern Plain...

Well, the show is over, the vendors are gone, there's no more tickets to be sold and the planning for next year's Springfield show is already underway!! As always there was lots to see and do, from checking out different manufacturer's new releases, fabulous layouts, renewing friendships and looking for deals on that one particular piece of rolling stock you need!! Our favorite magazine editor Ott...

It's one of those great opportunities where we have the p rivilege of meeting a valued friend of a podcast regular. Believe it or not, our very own Chris Wehman, (videographer extraordinaire) does indeed have many friends and in this case, we get to meet one of his valuable operators and someone that's become a big help operating the Norfolk Southern Heartland Division in N-Scale.   Nick Kolankiew...

Blair Kooistra is a well-known railfan and railroad photographer whose work and life revolve around trains and railroading — not just as a hobby but also professionally and creatively and documenting rail operations through images. He's shared thousands of train photos online, especially on Flickr where his photostream includes rail action from classic lines like the Fort Worth & Western. Recently...

Central Georgia RPM is an annual gathering where model railroad enthusiasts of all ability levels (from beginners to seasoned builders) come together to display their scale models, share skills, and learn from one another. For those who don't know. RPM stands for Railroad Prototype Modelers and is organized as a friendly, community-focused event where modelers exhibit their work, talk techniques,...

Another year has come and gone since we last talked to hero Smokin' Joe D'Amato. For those of you who don't know Joe's been a true friend of the podcast since before dinosaurs were born, along with his trusty sidekick, the modeller simply known as "Kelly," he's regaled with all sorts of interesting stories and never been afraid to share his knowledge of the hobby. But's there's been some pretty bi...

Once again, it's time to chat with John Sacerdote the long time show director of the Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show featuring many of today's most popular manufacturers, fabulous layouts, railroad history, photography, art, books, videos, vendors and a whole bunch more stuff for everyone to see and enjoy!! John has been overseeing the show for almost twenty-five years and still enjoys...

Springfield is just days away which means it's time for our favorite hobby shop owners, Ryan and Tom to load up the trailer, gas up the truck and head north from York, Pennsylvania to the biggest model railroad show of the year!! This year they've got six tables some really cool estate stuff, a whole lot of paint to sell and very little help. It's gonna be a challenging year for the boys because t...

It's another first-time guest and this time it's a Norfolk Southern modeler with lots of talent and ambition, two qualities the crew here at the ole' AML Headquarters in downtown Busted Knuckle are desperately lacking. Baxter Barnes could be referred to as the new generation of model railroader armed with plenty of knowledge and the skill required to build a model railroad anyone could be proud of...

Based on this our latest cover photo, you may think were concentrating on the lovely little town of Ellicottville, New York, a village in Cattaraugus County about fifty miles south of Buffalo in the Allegheny mountains region. It's a pretty little town, right out of a Norman Rockwell painting and well known for its festivals, skiing and fall foliage. But as we close the year of 2025, we've also di...

Once again, it's time for our first annual "Christmas Quiz," which, based on the response from the listeners could also be called our last annual "Christmas Quiz." We gathered together a crack staff, the best of the best, from the AML Nation's, vast and sometimes suspect, talent pool. We even brought in a special mystery guest who lives just twenty miles from the picturesque town of Ellicottville,...

It's part two of a vision for the new world with John Doehring and Riley Triggs. In its continuing quest to continue the NMRA's standing as the largest and best organization in model railroading, we invited two of it loveliest, handsomest and finest volunteers to help us understand what's in store for the future of the NMRA. Rebranding is at the forefront and some of the goals include, appealing t...

The Sipping & Switching Society is a modular-railroading group associated with HO-scale railroading and our next guest has a lot of knowledge about the society and we decided he was the one to talk with. The Society is originally based in North Carolina but there also versions in the Ohio Valley and Cincinnati areas. With a well-defined "module standard," distinguishing it from other modular appro...

The National Model Railroad Association has been working on a new branding strategy and long-term vision for the future of model railroading, particularly through their Vision 2035 initiative and we here at the ole' ModelersLife world headquarters thought this topic required a more intense investigation and flew in the NMRA's Publications Manager Riley Triggs and Eastern Director John Doehring. Th...

The fun part of any hobby is meeting interesting folks with a variety of different talents and Wayman Humphrey is no different. An American artist known for his unique, vibrant approach to many different forms of art, blending geometric shapes, bold colors, and dynamic compositions, that explore both structure and spontaneity. While not as widely known in mainstream art circles as some of his cont...

It's a return visit to Mine Mount Models and our friend Ron Klaiss who's always sure to remind his name sounds like "nice." Things are really humming along and there's lots of new items on the website. Ron has been producing excellent craftsman structure kits for your railroad or diorama that create unique scenes on any layout for over seven years.  One of the best things about these kits from are...

It doesn't matter who they are or what they've done, or what they model, whether they have a big layout, a small layout, or no layout at all. First time guests are always interesting regardless of the topic or any of the other usual interests that we've come to expect from our fellow model railroaders. Scott Smith fills the bill, he's lived a very interesting life with an interesting vocation, as...

There's a new look on the horizon for the National Model Railroad Association, which was unveiled at Milwaukee's TrainFest. The new artwork is inspired by locomotives and rail cars symbolizing that the NMRA is on the move and propelling the hobby of model railroading forward into the future. We here at the old AML Nation wanted to find out as much as we could about this new logo and the plan going...

We often say that this hobby encompasses so many different aspects that there's always something for everybody to enjoy. Our next guest is all the way from New Mexico and is    excellent example someone who enjoys many different aspects of the hobby including operations, building steam pro throttles, rebuilding brass engines working with Arduino's and building his own CTC machines, as well as seve...

If your current day to day life is getting you down and you were hoping that ViewerMail would never make a comeback, we can promise you this day is not going to get any better, but we can assure that listening to this latest version of ViewerMail will surely make even the biggest problems seem small. After dealing with catastrophic climate change,   flooded roadbed, improper routing through the tr...

For those of you that don't know our very own Marcus Neubacher is the Director of Administration for the North Carolina Transportation Museum and every few years or so he'll get the chance to attend a convention for the Heritage Rail Alliance where the free exchange of information among members and working industry professionals is available. This year the convention was held in Durango Colorado a...

Old friends can be the best kind of friends, those folks you haven't talked to for several years and then strike up a conversation as if you'd seen them yesterday. That's what this podcast is about, catching up with our old friend Serge Lebel from Sept-Iles Quebec on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River. We first met Serge several years ago when we discovered his O-Scale two rail layout known...