Category Archives: Confessions of a HiRailer

Coming To Terms With O Scale As a model railroader for well over 50 years, it is easy to stop and reflect on the direction this hobo has chosen for his modeling. Starting out with the simple around-the-tree layout and … Continue reading →

Sticky Business As a 3-Rail operator, my model railroading was pretty basic and straightforward. I started with some sectional track, a transformer, two wires with a lock-on, an engine, some cars, and I was ready to roll. As a Hi-Railer … Continue reading →

The Top 10 Coolest O Scale Things I Saw at York “HiRailer Heaven” is probably the best way to describe the TCA Eastern Division’s York train show. Nowhere on Earth can one spend a couple of days simply seeing more … Continue reading →

The Hobo Code With the crash of the stock market in 1929, many American workers found themselves immediately unemployed. It is hard to imagine hundreds of thousands of workers with no jobs and no prospect of finding jobs. It is … Continue reading →

Autumn Leaves By now most of us have traded in our leaf rakes for snow shovels, and are anticipating the return of warmer weather. While raking leaves this past fall, I was reminded of an idea for making realistic looking … Continue reading →

Whether to Weather… As a serious modeler who is always looking for ways to make my layout more realistic, I am contemplating the issue of weathering. HiRailers operate model trains in realistic settings, so the question that faces a modeler … Continue reading →

Back On Track… In my last column this hobo mentioned his frustration with laying two-rail flex track. It was easy to decide to switch over to scale track: the tough part was actually doing it. Try as hard as I … Continue reading →

No Satisfaction… The lyrics to the Rolling Stone’s famous song, “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction”, seem to sum up my current experience as a HiRailer in transition. You see, I can’t get no satisfaction. I tried, I’ve tried and I … Continue reading →

Adapting to Change I once attended a sales meeting where the sales manager was lecturing the sales force about change and adapting to changing market conditions. While he was discussing the topic, he distributed toy dinosaurs (not 1:48 scale) to … Continue reading →

Check Your Baggage I am a baby boomer. My generation is now approaching the “middle ages” of life. We have worked hard to get where we are and we are looking forward to the “golden age”. We have come to … Continue reading →