News

We now offer the 24x48 'old style' depot in both left handed and right handed versions. Right handed means that the passenger waiting room is on the right end of the building as viewed from the track side. Left handed means that the waiting room is on the left. The Great Northern selected 'handedness' based on which side it expected people to approach the depot from, placing the waiting room on that side of the structure. 

If you model the steam era, you need one of these water tanks, with pumphouse. This design was built all over the Great Northern from 1915 to the end of steam. This is a model of a common part of the railroad scene in the steam era and it takes very little room. This model includes the pumphouse that protected the gasoline powered water pump that was typically used to keep the tank full. Because of its height, keep it away from edges and aisles to reduce the chance of inadvertently snagging it.

New to the store November 20, 2020 is our HO model of the 24x48 foot Standard Combination Depot built in Kandiohi MN in 1900 to plans dated 1899. This is an 'old style' depot built all over the system between 1889 and 1909. Two thirds of them were in Minnesota and North Dakota. This small model requires very little room and can fit on almost any layout. A tip of the hat to member Sean Murphy who ramrodded this project with a new vendor, Hidden River Manufacturing.

Today, November 13 we added custom painted USRA 40 foot HO boxcars in the store. These cars are historically significant in that they were the GN's first steel underframe box cars. We have one car number in each of two paint schemes. One is the front facing goat car number 24539 introduced in 1926, and the other is the side facing goat car number 24856 introduced for repaints circa 1939-40. Next in line, and probably in the store by the end of next week, is our new Standard Combination Depot 24x48 foot, to plans dated 1899 in HO. This is...

The Board of Directors recently decided to hold US Membership rates at $30 per year, and to keep the GN/BN veterans rate at $20 per year. The prices of second and third year US Memberships were simplified so that a two year membership is now $60 and the three year is now $85. Another way to look at this is that we offer a $5 discount for the three year membership. As a result of investigating our real extra costs of mailing to the US and Canada, Canadian rates are now $45 per year, and International beyond the US and...