James Hefner
Worlds Largest Layout at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair
updated
Shop: survivingworldsteam.etsy.com
Back in February 2026, I tried to use @MeshyAI to make a model of the Soviet Railways AA20-1 4-14-4. At that time, the AI engine could not model the locomotive correctly and added details that were not in the original photographs or drawings.
After making some very successful automobile models in August 2026, I tried to make the AA-20 again. I used the multi-view feature and three different sets of drawings and photographs and regenerated it more than once. But, as this video shows, it came out amazing close.
Timeline:
00:00 Attempts at 3D printing it
00:58 Origin of the AA20
01:23 Constructing the AA-20
02:00 Completed 3D print model
03:25 Comparing it to a Union Pacific Challenger
04:00 Completed model on the Cleburne and Johnson County Layout
04:50 Old Soviet film of the AA20-1
06:57 Fate of the AA20-1
Shop: survivingworldsteam.etsy.com
Here we take a look at the 1958 Ford Nucleon design project; whose goal was to develop a nuclear powered car. We look at the history of the project, then use @MeshyAI and a 3D printer to print a 1/64 scale model for my Ford diecast collection and an HO (1/87) scale model to place on a model railroad layout.
Filmed in part at:
Cleburne Railroad Museum
206 Main St.
Cleburne, TX 76033
Both organizations have to leave the building. Here is a virtual tour of the museum; if you are a museum or 501c3 organization and would like to obtain some of the items in the museum, please contact the museum at waynelud@sbcglobal.net. As the deadline approaches, they may also be entertaining requests from private collections as well.
The Cowtown Model Railroad Club is/was located on the second floor of the Handley Development Center in Handley, an unincorporated community in East Fort Worth. Both the club and the Historic Handley Railroad Museum have to vacate the Handley Development Center by September 30. Due to it's membership aging out, the club has decided to dismantle both the club and the layout rather than move it to another facility. So, here we take a final look at the club layout before it is taken apart.
Scale: HO
2nd Floor The Historic Handley Development Center
3024 Forest Avenue
Fort Worth, Texas 76112
EMail: cmrrc2013@gmail.com
Phone: (817) 715-7999
Website: http://cmrrc.net
#modelrailroad #modelrailwaylayout #modelrailway
This layout was located in the middle of the children's section of the Mayborn Museum. It looks like after a busy summer of being ran that it could use TLC, as some of the trains were not running.
HO and G Scales
Mayborn Museum
1300 S University Parks Dr,
Waco, TX 76706
Phone: +1(254)710-1110
Website: https://www.baylor.edu/mayborn/
Cleburne Railroad Museum
206 S. Main Street
Cleburne, TX 76039
#modelrailroad #hoscale #modeltrains
Shop: survivingworldsteam.etsy.com
Here, we introduce Version 2.0 of the "Blue Goose" my 1995 Ford Taurus wagon, along with a 2014 NASCAR Fusion painted to look like the families' 2014 Ford Fusion. Both are running on the AFX Mega G+ chassis, which runs much slower and more reliably than the old Tyco chassis I used for the first version.
I kept the Santa Fe and Union Pacific trains on the layout because both of our family cars were around the BNSF and Union Pacific all their lives.
#slotcar #hoscale #modelrailroad #modelrailway #slotcartrack
If you see a train related incident, such as a bridge strike, a vehicle stuck on the tracks, broken rails, or a derailment; try to find a nearby crossing, call the number on the sign, and give them the crossing number along with the details of the incident. You could prevent an accident, and even injury or death. If there is no nearby crossing, then call 911.
More Toy Train videos: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjLFuzoXHfyLzLLSvEHKFQF_pnFnXJ8Ap
Shop: survivingworldsteam.etsy.com
I found this "Toy Train in Tin" called "Toy Train in Box" at Mardell's Christian and Education Store for just $6.99. It was originally made for Hobby Lobby in 2018.
More Toy Train videos: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjLFuzoXHfyLzLLSvEHKFQF_pnFnXJ8Ap
Shop: survivingworldsteam.etsy.com
Today we take a look at Santa Fe Mini Train Set. This set looks like a Durham Industries product, but the box says "Made in China", and distributed by Midwest Home Products Inc. of Wilmington, Delaware. The engine itself has no markings at all, suggesting this was a product made shortly after Durham Industries got out of the toy train business and production was moved to China.
When I opened this set, it appeared to be broken in several ways. Will this be the first set I was unable to get going? Watch and see!
Timeline:
00:00 Introduction to the set itself
00:52 Looks like a Durham Industries product, but made in China
01:36 What makes the cars in this set different from the others
05:30 A closer look at the locomotive itself
07:00 Restoring the locomotive
08:46 Repairing the tender
08:49 Test running the repaired train
Other Museum Layout videos: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjLFuzoXHfyJ8CVAyMxgcOtxmbE9VbERw
The World's Largest Toy Museum is located in Branson, MO. In its basement is the Roark Valley Model Rail Club, which is open, and the trains are running during the Toy Museum's visitor hours. In this video, we are looking at toy and model trains found among the museum's own vast collection; there are some that I probably missed here and there.
N, HO, O, G, and Buddy L Scales
World's Largest Toy Museum
3609 W 76 Country Blvd
Branson, MO 65616
More Toy Train videos: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjLFuzoXHfyLzLLSvEHKFQF_pnFnXJ8Ap
Shop: survivingworldsteam.etsy.com
Buddy Corporation has had a reputation for study pressed steel toys that dates back to the 1920s. But in the 1960s they started to offer smaller toys that contained more plastic. While under Japanese ownership in the 1970s, they released this Buddy L Battery Powered Tap Top Railroad. They had probably seen the success toy train manufacturers like Lionel, Marx, and Tyco were having with selling toy train sets, and decided to try to capitalize on it and offer their own set. It must not have had much success, by 1983, they were being offered by Lido instead, and production probably ended with the end of production of these toy trains in Hong Kong in 1986.
They are very similar to the ones offered by Durham Industries, but apparently Buddy L made changes to bring it to their "specifications." We take a look at this set, and the differences with the Durham Industries sets.
In this video, we take a look at a private garden railway that features amazing animations throughout, including:
* DCC Control
* Doppler Radar used throughout for detecting surrounding objects
* Working streetlights, lighthouses, railroad crossings, lightning, buoys
* Working busses, cyclists, and tugboat (which also works on the water.)
Timeline
00:00 Introduction
00:26 Owl that uses Doppler radar to watch for people and trains
02:07 Why Doppler radar, and how it works
03:42 Typical station platform with announcements and working signs
04:22 Working tugboat
05:08 Working busses, crossing gates
09:45 Working cyclists
12:22 Clouds with lightning
14:50 A look inside the train room
16:06 "Roscoe and Roy"
19:29 Scratchbuilt Amtrak Superliner coaches
21:52 How the station announcements work
#gscale #gardenrailroad #modelrailroad #modelrailway #modeltrains
America 250 at the Cleburne Railroad Museum
Cleburne Railroad Museum
206 N. Main St.
Cleburne, TX 76033
#modeltrainlayout #modelrailway #railroad #modelrailroad #modeltrains #hoscale #cleburne
Shop: survivingworldsteam.etsy.com
In the comments to one of my recent videos, several individuals in the comment section suggested that I should use dental brace bands for traction tires. I took their suggestion, and used them on several locomotives in my fleet, and was pleased with the results.
Thank you @Shawn12thman and @darrenrawlinson6344 for the suggestion.
Rosie first appeared on Thomas and Friends in 2006, and is based on a U.S. Army Transportation Corp (USATC) S-100 tank engine that was built by Davenport, H.K. Porter, and Vulcan Iron Works for use in the U.K. and Europe during World War II. She did not last for long, but appears to be playing a major role in the upcoming season for the show. Happy Birthday Rosie!
Each year, I replace the plastic bodies of 50' boxcars with cardstock ones, and glue them together. The campers then decorate them, and we run them for them on the museum layout. Here are the art car for the 2026 Boxcar Camp.
Cleburne Railroad Museum
206 S. Main Street
Cleburne, TX 76039
#modelrailroad #modelrailwaylayouts #hoscale #modelrailway
More Toy Train videos: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjLFuzoXHfyLzLLSvEHKFQF_pnFnXJ8Ap
Shop: survivingworldsteam.etsy.com
Today, we are taking a look at a New Bright G Scale Railking Electric Train Set that was made in June of 1996. We look at what makes it different from the New Bright battery powered sets, and see if we can make it run.
This is a beautiful OO Scale model of the "Flying Scotsman" that was released by Hornsby. The level of detail, including the gold steam distribution lines on top of the cylinders and the "hot" warning stickers on the boiler, are extremely impressive. There is a speed recorder driven off of the back wheel.
The "Flying Scotsman" was originally built as a London and Northeastern A1 class Pacific locomotive. Later on, the double Kylchap exhaust and "banjo" steam dome were added.
I thought it would be interesting to compare it to "Gordon" of Thomas the Tank Engine, in this case with a model by Bachmann. According to the author, the Reverend Wilbert Awdry, Gordon was a prototype of the A1 class, or "A0" class. Once LNER had worked out the kinks, they sold the engine to Sir Topham Hatt, who named it "Gordon." The A1 and A3 class engines were originally built as three cylinder engines, with two higher pressure cylinders on the outside, and a low pressure cylinder between the frames and wheels. The Reverend Awdry says that Gordon was later rebuilt with two Stanley type cylinders, making him something of a hybrid.
Gordon also had his Great Northern type of tender replaced with a Fowler type tender; this video shows it with a more scale model of a Fowler tender. It was not unusual for new owners to change out tenders; perhaps because the old one was too long for the turntable at Tidmouth Shed, or because he ran shorter routes on the Island of Sodor compared to the mainland.
More Toy Train videos: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjLFuzoXHfyLzLLSvEHKFQF_pnFnXJ8Ap
Shop: survivingworldsteam.etsy.com
By the 1980s, toy trains and model trains were in a decline. The launching of the Space Shuttle, video games, and personal computers had people looking to the future, while the general decline of the railroads prior to the Staggers Act had people losing interest in toy and model trains, which were considered "old fashioned" and obsolete.
To counter this trend and to boost sales, many of the toy train builders launched train sets that were based on popular TV shows. (We already looked at the Tyco Transformers set from 1985.) These sets did little to stop the slide, and Durham Industries of New York closed out their inventory with the $5.00 1986 GFX TransAmerica Golden Eagle Train Set (which we also looked at in a previous video) and got out of the toy train business. The tooling was then moved from Hong Kong to China and were re-released with a series of offerings from the Run Dream Super Limited Express in Japan in the 1980s or 1990s to the "Toy Train in a Tin" sets we have today.
With so many of these sets and videos on my channel, I have also taken to calling them "M Gauge", since they were referred to as Mini Train Sets, and the letter "M" has not been used to a gauge that I am aware of.
Throwback Tuesday, this is my Bachmann Thomas the Tank engine running on my first layout when I got back into model railroading. There were still Christmas village buildings on the layout, and my son's LEGO layout was next to it.
Shop: survivingworldsteam.etsy.com
I have a hole with a light in my graveyard that I use to light up the manger scene during the holiday season, but it leaves a hole in the ground with a light in it the rest of the year.
I watched @WindsorValleyRailroad's wonderful Memorial Day videos and realized what I need was an angel sculpture to fill in the hole. I remembered the chrome angel sculpture that resides in Land of Memory Cemetery, on US 287 a few miles north of Palestine, Texas. I uploaded a photograph I found on the web to Meshy.ai to create the 3D model for me, which I then printed and painted.
00:00 My manger scene
00:02 The web page for the sculpture on roadsideamerica.com
00:08 The model on Meshy.ai
00:17 The completed model on my layout
00:35 The old part of Plasticville
01:00 Another look at the old part of Plasticville and the Island of Sodor
02:02 A closeup look at the slot cars and trains
02:20 Looking down Main Street
02:35 A view of the entire layout.
More Cleburne Railroad Museum and Attractions videos: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjLFuzoXHfyJgWSZWEsQAwoJ_FftzXZJn
We have all of our Choo Choo Vision cameras working great on the layout now. So we take a look around the layout using just the Choo Choo Vision cameras.
Cleburne Railroad Museum
206 S. Main Street
Cleburne, TX 76039
#modelrailroad #modelrailwaylayouts #hoscale #modelrailway
Shop: survivingworldsteam.etsy.com
I use them in the display case at the Cleburne Railroad Museum, and everyone from toddlers to adults love them.
Shop: survivingworldsteam.etsy.com
We continue our dive into the world of Mini Express Trains (aka "Toy Train in a Tin' or "Toy Train in a Box") with this look at a version made for Japan. #toytrains
Cleburne Railroad Museum
206 S. Main Street
Cleburne, TX 76039
#modelrailroad #hoscale #modeltrains #
The highlights and trains running during National Train Day 2026 at the Cleburne Railroad Museum
Cleburne Railroad Museum
206 N. Main St.
Cleburne, TX 76033
#modeltrainlayout #modelrailway #railroad #modelrailroad #modeltrains #hoscale #cleburne
This railroad themed home cooking restaurant has been a Sherman landmark since 1988. The foodies in my group found the food to be very good, just a bit bland in terms of spices.
#gardenrailroad #gscale #modelrailroad
For more layout videos, click here: youtube.com/watch?v=S_qIj2UFby8&list=PLjLFuzoXHfyI4Z_CX3o-79r8sneO02mZg
Shop: survivingworldsteam.etsy.com
#modelrailroad #toytrains #märklin #modelrailwaylayouts #modeltrains
I have been working at the Cleburne Railroad Museum for close to three months now. I have noticed that while I enjoyed watching the layout run in times past, it has become work lately.
So, when I had sometime at the end of Saturday, I spent time just "railfanning" and enjoying watching the layout run. I invite you to enjoy watching it with me.
Cleburne Railroad Museum
206 S. Main Street
Cleburne, TX 76039
#modelrailroad #modelrailwaylayouts #hoscale #modelrailway
Shop: survivingworldsteam.etsy.com
We continue our exploration into the world of these miniature battery powered train sets. We look at a set that likely set the border between when manufacturing moved from Hong Kong to China, and sales branched out around the world.
Get your @ChooChooVision Cameras here: choochoovision.com
Get your "World's Smallest Target and Buchee's here: survivingworldsteam.etsy.com/listing/1211203723
See how you can use a Choo Choo Vision Camera, an old Tyco Microwave tower, and a microwave equipment shack disguised as a "Target" or Buckee's to hide a camera on your layout.
In my studies of steam cotton compresses, I have only found one video of these huge machines in action. It can be seen here:
criticalpast.com/video/65675067371_activities-of-people_ship-at-dock_bales-moved-on-dollies_freighter?fbclid=IwY2xjawQn6YBleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETE4NU0xQkhSalNHaUNJQ3JZc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHtaO3S4HnKbAOnfcS8nL1TPFxNR8WZdQjBk4WIoEj0wBOLTvLd_KUax9sW9y_aem_TtHNM0UXQTKi9QvNthnW3g
My Facebook album of additional cotton compresses and details:
facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10208948693909088
This is the second train that has a ran at 7A Ranch. The original train and track was purchased in 1971, and sold in the early 1990s when ridership declined. The new owners are restoring the Pioneer town that was a stape at the ranch, and installed this train in 2021.
206 S. Main Street
Cleburne, TX 76039
Shop: survivingworldsteam.etsy.com
This video was made possible using the chassis and track from a "Toy Train in a Tin," and the 3D prints from "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood of Make-Believe Trolley" at thingiverse.com/thing:5320659.
Fred Rogers (March 20, 1928 -- February 27, 2003) was an American television personality, Presbyterian minister, and author. He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 to 2001.
The Neighborhood of Make-Believe is a puppet kingdom ruled by King Friday XIII. It’s a fantasy area where children can see puppet characters and friendly humans grow and learn as they help each other with their problems and concerns.
This make-believe neighborhood is a place that’s clearly and intentionally separate from Mister Rogers’ “real” neighborhood. That separation serves two purposes. On one hand, that was Fred Rogers’ way of helping young children who are typically just beginning to understand what’s real and what’s just make-believe. On the other hand, he wanted to show children that it can help to use their imagination to play and pretend about situations and feelings in their own lives.


