How Model Trains Are Made

welcome to the mountains of southeast tennessee we're here in etowah which is just north of our headquarters in benton and you know we're going to talk about how model trains are made my name's shane and i'm blessed to lead a truly talented team who love to make model trains you might think it's a really simple process in fact we've even had people say you know all you do is say we want to make this locomotive or this freight car we send it to our factory and sometimes later it magically comes out exactly like we wanted well that's the furthest thing from the truth it's a really complicated process we spend a ton of time in the research phase getting everything right from the dimensions to the colors you know it's tough to make railroad road number and era specific so you know what why don't you grab some popcorn your favorite beverage sit back relax and let's enjoy together how model trains are made [Music] the first step in the product development process is deciding what we're going to create each year we have a strategic planning meeting to chart our company's future direction during this time we review the current all-new product plan next we review suggestions gathered from emails we receive at ideas scaletrains.com as well as social media trade shows and more utilizing our decades of industry experience we select new projects and add them to the development schedule usually several months pass before we're ready to prepare the research package in the interim we're gathering prototype documentation including builders drawings general overview drawings or gods roster information paint and lettering diagrams photos and much more during the research phase of the big blow turbine founders mike hopkins and paul ellis sat down with our friends from train masters tv to describe this process in the video documentary series scale trains big dreams the plan we're looking at is a god that's a general overall dimensional drawing and that's something that that ge would have used for the basic construction uh it gives all of the major dimensions and it's a great place to start if you've actually got to go out and measure a real locomotive or a freight car if you're looking at something that's 40 50 60 feet long it's awfully hard to pull a tape measure out that far and keep it tight and straight and get an accurate measurement so those drawings are are really a great help to get the major dimensions it's great for the factory and the engineering team to be able to lay out the basic footprint for this model turbine tenders got swapped around so you got various variations there and even the amb units even those got swapped around occasionally when an area got swapped it would be renumbered to match the beat it was now mated to and so that way you get mismatches between the dynamic brake equipment which is another detail that changed between the two orders that they got i am executive product development manager that involves doing the research whether it means like researching books magazines photographs actual field research measurements some people consider me a rivet counter because i really like to focus on the fine details of different locomotives and freight cars and i just try to bring that knowledge and that passion and desire of accuracy to our endeavor here with scale trains a matrix is basically an excel spreadsheet that i put together with multiple columns and rows covering all the basic differences between the different locomotives in that group a row will cover you know a block of units like okay here's the first order units number one through 15 or so forth and then the different columns would highlight different details like this unit was equipped with this style of radiator this unit was equipped with this type of tender when it was built we use that for both production to help make sure that the factory gets the details correct and as well as for artwork to help the artists understand okay this road number that he's doing they should have this type of horn or this horn should be in this location or it should have this type of radiator and so on and so forth we basically put together a specification package for the the engineering team over in china the variations that we're going to want to build then the engineering team starts and they'll work on the first original drawings obviously the tooling for projects like these is very expensive and so we're looking for as many road names and paint schemes and variations that we can use that tooling for roster shots are great but you know most uh rail fans or enthusiasts that are out trackside taking pictures don't take the kind of pictures that a manufacturer needs to be able to build a model and so what we found is that we've actually got to get out there and document it measure it whenever possible we've got to have that kind of detail typically those of us on development are looking at it from the standpoint of what is the most easy project to research what do we have information on what's you know where can we most easily and most readily you know obtain the information required when completed the research package is submitted to our design team in china we have several full-time design engineers dedicated to our company exclusively if builders drawings were submitted with the research package they're scanned into the cad or computer-aided design software and become the basis for the model drawings the dimensions on the drawings are then compared to field measurements to ensure they both match oftentimes changes are made during manufacturing and there are discrepancies when this occurs we have to determine which dimension is correct if builders drawings are unavailable the model is drawn line by line in cad using field measurements as you can imagine this takes much more time a drawing is created for each model variation for the es44 there are numerous detail differences like cabs antennas dynamic brake configurations grill arrangements trucks and on and on all together we've created drawings for over 60 different versions the first round of cad drawings for a new freight car are usually completed within four months and a new locomotive within six months once we receive the engineering drawings our product development team reviews them and works closely with our designers to make revisions so the models are as accurate as possible depending on the complexity of the project this back and forth can take several months before the final drawings are approved to create the tooling next work begins in china on the cad design for the steel molds in the u.s our artists start applying paint schemes to the engineering drawings joe another one of our founders explains how art is created it's important for us to submit artwork to the factory for two main reasons number one without it they would not be able to produce our product number two they use that artwork as a guide through the production process to create an accurate model based on the information that we've given them having artwork when we announce a product is important because it allows the customer to see what that model is going to look like once it's produced also it gives fans of the prototype the ability to chime in and let us know if we've missed anything so we can produce an accurate model now that the research phase is done it's time to pack our bags and head to our factory in china where we take a closer look at the design phase which is the cad drawings as well as tooling after nearly 24 hours of traveling we arrived at the hong kong international airport this modern airport opened in 1998 and is one of the largest and busiest passenger and cargo terminals in the world we picked up our luggage and caught the airport express train to kowloon where we spent the night and got some much needed rest the next morning we took a short taxi ride to the high-speed railway station where we boarded the train to mainland china the train ride is a short 30 minutes northwest of hong kong by car it's nearly two hours along the way we pass through shenzhen which is one of the largest cities in china our factory is located in the dongguan province which is an industrial area with many factories and small businesses employing the majority of the population with over 45 million people calling the province home it is one of the most heavily populated areas in china when we finally arrived at our factory we visited our engineering team to see the drawing progress for our upcoming new announcements behind this door is where the magic happens we're standing in front of our design team's office we've moved closer to our factory that way there's more synergy between our design team the engineers and the molding department so that way we can create the most awesome models possible let's go inside and see what they're working on now as you look around the room you'll recognize a lot of familiar faces go back to the scale trains big dreams video in 2015 and you'll see a lot of the design engineers are the same folks working with us today and they're dedicated to us full time that means they know exactly what we're looking for and what we want when we say railroad road number and era specific detail they work super closely with our team in southern california and they'll go back and forth as much as needed to make sure that all of our models are dimensionally accurate that the features are correct the details are right and that way we can deliver the best models possible so one of the big challenges with railroad road number and era specific detail especially on a locomotive like the sd40-2 are the countless variations this locomotive has had a long life and over that life it's gone through many changes as i'm looking at the locomotive in front of me i'm looking at the non-dynamic brake version railroads like missouri pacific illinois central rock island all have this particular version and so we're working on that tooling now we're also working on the ns high hood version at the transition from n w and southern to ns and we're working on things like the santa fe lower headlight and a ton of other versions which you can see here on screen and the reason it takes so long is because all of these have to be drawn individually so that we can make sure they're accurate for each railroad for each road number and for each era so after we sign off on the final design it's time to prepare to cut tooling as you can see on the left screen we're looking at handrails for the tier 2 tier 3 gevo project you see the handrail itself in green you're going to see how the plastic is going to flow in blue and the other thing we have to do is we actually have to look at the tool itself you'll see there's all of these rods here at the bottom those are called ejector pins and what they actually are going to do then is once this is molded it's going to push that actually out of the tool and that's how the plastic comes out so as part of the design process the engineer is going to actually draw the tool and what we see here is a body shell tool for the tier 2 tier 3 gevo as he starts to peel back the layers you're going to notice this is what's called a four slide tool in other words on a fourth slide you're going to pull from the sides and the ends during the molding process as he pulls it back you can actually see the roof layer and you also see these numbered sides what those are inserts and those inserts change from locomotive to locomotive and that's what allows us to create the unique details it could be grill arrangements it could be dynamic breaks uh it could be door arrangements and then of course the other big thing you're going to see here are the ejector pins in the bottom that's what's going to push that body shell out of the tool at the end of the process and then over here on the left hand screen you're going to see there's actually 11 different bodies for the tier 2 tier 3 project each one of those is going to have to have inserts created so that we can get all of those unique details so after the engineers laid out all the parts in the tool and designed the tool itself it's time to run simulations as you can see in the screen in front of me what's happening is this cnc machine is actually cutting the tooling or the electrode for the edm process the reason this is done is to make sure that everything works together as well as determine how much time is going to be required in the tools shop what that allows the tool shop to figure out is how much capacity they need to make this particular model so now that the tooling is all laid out and we've ran the cnc simulations it's time to cut tooling and electrodes and that's what's going on behind me let's take a closer look so in this particular machine they're actually cutting the steel cavity what we'll do is we'll get the rough cut or the basic cut of the steel tool and the next process after c and c is we start to put in all that fine detail into the steel mold so we just looked at the basic steel tool so how do you get all that detail well that's this step the cnc machines are actually cutting the copper electrodes these machines are so precise that they can get all those super details into our models the next step is edm or electro discharge machining and we'll show you how these copper electrodes are used so earlier we saw the cnc simulation and we just saw the cnc cutting some parts so what are they cutting well they're cutting the basic steel tool design as well as these these are copper electrodes and they're used in the edm process we'll explain soon what you're going to see is the cnc machine actually cuts all the detail of the like this sd45 radiator fan as well as the sd45 long hood the process is working exactly the same for the tier 2 tier 3 gevo project what's absolutely incredible about this process is it literally takes thousands of these electrodes to create the tooling as we pan over you're going to see over 2 000 copper electrodes on the floor that's only half of the 4 000 required to make the sd45 the tier 2 tier 3 requires a similar number this is what allows us to create all that railroad road number and era specific detail so after the cnc machine finishes cutting the copper electrode the next step is to burn the design into the tooling as you'll see behind me there's actually electric current passing through the machine down through the electrode and into the steel tool itself and it's that process that actually burns the design into the steel tool so earlier we saw on screen the layout of the tool for the handrails this is the actual handrail tool it takes about two months from the time the tooling started to get to this point you can of course see the handrail stanchions you can see how the plastic is going to flow and the tool itself once the tool is finished they're going to go back and they're going to check the fit and the finish they're going to make sure everything works together and go back and polish the tool so that the plastic is very sharp and crisp when it comes out of the mold so now that the tooling is complete the tool master is checking the final fit and finish as you can see on this side it's using a red almost like a die and what happens is when the mold comes together if there's any red in this particular part that means the molds are touching each other so what he's doing now is going back and using this tool to clean up the mold to make sure that when it comes together those parts don't touch so in the tooling process they create a cavity and a core as you can see this is the negative and this is the positive so when the tool comes together it actually creates the truck here in my hand is one of the cabs for the tier 2 tier 3 gevo project as you can see it's one huge chunk of steel this is the same slide insert in four different versions for the tier two tier three gevo project in addition you'll look at this fine detail right here it actually took five copper electrodes to burn in this minute detail so tooling is not only created for plastic parts it's also created for die cast parts and as you can see here this is the chassis for the tier 2 tier 3 gevo after the hard tooling is created plastic parts are molded our product development team meticulously reviews these first shots for accuracy and fit and finish sometimes the cab design does not translate well to the actual part and tooling revisions are required similar to design cutting the tooling and signing off on revised parts can take up to four months for a freight car and six months for a locomotive later in this video we'll take an in-depth look at molding after we submit our work the next step in the process is to wait for an echo sample a model like this fully assembled but typically not functioning this is the first chance we actually get to see everything in three dimensions to make sure that the factory followed our artwork to make sure that our artwork was accurate and then we could see it all pulled together right here so when we review the deco sample we're looking for things like paint application is it smooth is all the color breaks nice and sharp and clean printing same thing are the edges sharp is everything clean are the colors accurate is the assembly done correctly are the correct parts used are they assembled correctly are they are parts straight is there too much glue not enough glue or parts all being secured properly if there is a problem then what we will do is we will submit a deco sample review form on that form that will list any any corrections adjustments that need to be made also we'll send supplemental art or updated art if need be in the case of this model here the wisconsin central sdl 39 number 590 when we first looked at the photographs to our eye the color of the striping appeared to be the dulux gold but once we got the models in we photographed them we put them on the web page and the wisconsin central fans alerted us that actually 590 should use the lighter shade of yellow that's also used in wisconsin central so in a case like that again we're going to update the artwork going to change the color we're going to send this the updated artwork along with the dsr form that's going to indicate the color change we're also going to alert the factory to any other corrections adjustments that need to be made on the model once those are submitted the factory will review them they'll get back with us with any questions from there once that's all been resolved we're ready to start production once the deco sample is approved it's time for marketing to step in and that happens right here in tennessee our marketing team is going to prepare all the things you're accustomed to like video and photography the website social media and of course the trade show display when everything's ready to go we make the announcement and for the next 30 days we take pre-orders and we use pre-orders to help us judge the interest in a model if it's small we'll only order a little bit of extra if the interest is big we'll order a lot of extra pieces once that process is closed it's time for production to start so let's pack our bags once again and head to our factory in china after we place our purchase order with the factory a detailed write-up is created for each department including molding printing painting and final assembly this document is hundreds of pages long and takes about 30 days to complete once finished subcontractors in the factory can start production while our factory does most of the work in-house some things do have to be subcontracted today we're visiting our pcb supplier in my hand is an actual pcb board with all of the traces drawn that's actually what's happening in the machine behind me let's follow the entire process and see how they're made so the second step in the process is to actually add the electronics to the board as you can see in front of me it almost looks like a printer and you'll see that the tape is moving as it goes into the machine what it's doing is feeding each individual electronic component into the machine to be placed on the board so the final step is to heat all the components up so that all the chases will flow and all the components are soldered together this is the machine that does that and it's several hundred degrees the next step is to make sure all of the components are soldered correctly on the board and that's what's going on behind me after the pcb board is created there's a few more steps in the process going on behind me this gentleman is adding the two super capacitors for the power pack we're the only manufacturer including super capacitors in all of our models at the rivet counter level and above also we're soldering on the lights and depending on the version it depends on what the lights are going to be soldered so that's going to be things like headlights number boards in this case an sd40-2 with class lights and then the final step is to make sure that all the lights work that way when it's installed in the locomotive everything works perfectly when we started scaletrains.com we challenged ourselves to push the limits of our favorite hobby one of those limits was motors we wanted to come up with a motor that was powerful that could pull long trains as well as silky smooth throughout the power curve this is the motor we came up with in my hand is the beginnings of a new motor as you can see the armature's here it's been insulated the shaft's installed the commutators there the next step in the process is what's going on behind me as you can see she's running wire back from the machine and then actually spins the copper wire onto the armature you know it's incredible that something so small is so important when it comes to a locomotive there's a lot of different processes that make a motor perform extremely well those include the number of windings on the armature the type of wire and the thickness of the wire how polished is the commutator but one of the most important steps is getting the motor balanced our motors go through two balancing processes one you see in front of me right here is when the armature is totally complete the last one is when the flywheels are installed it goes to another balancing process it's that balance that gives you that silky smooth control and that ton of pulling power so here's the final step this is balancing the motor with the flywheels installed you know we want to give our customers the absolute best value and that's why we use the same motor in both the operator and the rivet counter brand this gives you super precise motor control and stump pulling power so this subcontractor makes the wheels on the train go round i'm holding on my hand a piece of bar stock this is the beginning of a wheel set and what will happen is this is fed through a machine that's going to cut it to the appropriate length it's going to cut the piece of steel down to the right size so the flanges and then it's going to put a hole in the wheel itself the next step is to go out to electroplating where it's going to put the black color on the wheel and then it comes back here for final assembly in addition to making locomotive and freight car wheels the metal supplier also produces the metal gear assemblies here an arbor press is being used to insert a gear onto the shaft for a locomotive gearbox so we're here in the warehouse where our steel molds are stored it's really important that the warehouse is dry and cool that way the steel doesn't rust while subcontractors work on the electronics metal parts and more manufacturing begins at the factory too molding plastic parts is the first step here we see a hardened steel mold for locomotive handrails to ensure our handrails are straight we create a handrail mold for each color this allows for shrinkage when the plastic cools the factories is both virgin and recycled plastic plastic from screws and parts that do not pass inspection are fed through a grinder to make pellets otherwise known as re-grind as you can see the steel mold halves come together and molten plastic is injected into the mold after the hazard tracked the mechanical arm reaches into the machine picks up the part and places it in a bin this is one of the few robots at the factory most of the molding machines at the factory are operated manually as you can see the work area is neat and clean the operator initiates each molding cycle and physically removes the part from the machine he then inspects each part for what's called a short shot he's making sure the plastic flowed evenly throughout the mold and formed correctly on average a locomotive body can be molded and inspected in about one minute for a run of three thousand locomotives that's three thousand minutes or fifty hours for molding this does not include setting up and tearing down the machine for each body variant after we finish molding it's time to prepare the bodies for paint in this particular instance we're taking and we're making sub assemblies this is a dash nine cab but it works exactly the same way for all of our other products for the dash nine you've got a separate number board housing a separate nose door and what this young lady is doing is actually installing an etch metal plate that represents a builder's plate so when the production is finished you'll have that nice shiny metal look so if you've ever seen one of our rivet counter on decorative models they look like swiss cheese one of the unique things that we do is whenever it's possible we design our models so that there's a pin in the tooling and what that means is every grab iron every part is exactly straight you don't have to worry about an air hole in one place or another sometimes though there's holes that we do have to drill we're drilling holes for snow plows you'll also see us drill holes for things like horns beacons and other parts that are going to move on the locomotive or the freight car so as you can see in front of me the young lady is actually cutting away the sprues that are left inside the body cavity the reason they're there is to help the plastic flow during the injection molding process now that the molding is done the sub assemblies are ready and all the detail parts are there it's time to head to paint let's see how they do it our factory uses an acrylic or water-based paint since we're mass-producing models an automotive style paint gun is used to quickly apply the color this spray booth has a water curtain to catch any over spray once the body or part is painted it's set aside to dry so as you can imagine during the production process there are literally thousands upon thousands upon thousands of small parts that have to be painted to speed up the process what the factory does is they take masking tape and tape to these large trays next they affix the plastic parts the tray then goes to the paint shop where the appropriate color is sprayed once dry it comes back the masking tape is removed and then new masking tape is put on the part is turned over and the other side is sprayed this saves a ton of time in the painting process what's in the box have you got a good guess well if you said lift rings you're absolutely right these tiny lift rings there's literally hundreds on this frame before they can be applied to the locomotive this has to be painted and then the lift ring is removed can you imagine the tedious process to make that happen so as you can see here this young lady is actually putting grab irons onto this foam pad and what that allows us to do then is when this goes to the paint shop they can all be sprayed at the same time once it's dry each one's taken out and the long leg is cut off so they can be inserted into the locomotive as you can see next to me there are literally hundreds and hundreds of light bars and to make sure the light shines in just the right place check out what has to be done so a bar is used and there's masking tape wrapped around the bar and then the light bar is actually affixed to the tape and then more tape is ran along the top the reason for this is it makes sure the paint doesn't cover the end of the light bars then they're taken to the spray booth they're painted silver and that way the the light is going to reflect on the inside of the light bar and only come out on the ends after the base color is applied it's time for masking so here the base color was yellow and then we come back and we do the blue and the orange in this case we're spray painting the orange and you can see there's the very crisp lines that's created by the paint mask we can even get the unique shape for the seat in the chessy cat so the body's inserted into the mask and he's pressing very tightly to get those sharp crisp edges he's going to work his hand down along the mast to keep the pressure very tight about every five times that a body is sprayed he's going to have to take the mask off and clean it to ensure the edges stay sharp sometimes the level of detail is absolutely unbelievable you know as the guy who writes the checks i have to wonder what product development is thinking sometimes take a look at this this is a special clamp masses created to do this very tiny detail to paint the silver on this air filter now of course that's what makes our models unique and what makes them so awesome but holy smokes this process is unbelievable we even go to a ton of effort on the operator model in my hand is an sd 40-2 cab interior and at the very back of the engineer's side is a step and my right hand is the mask and what happens is it's inserted into the mask and right here you'll see that step when it goes into the paint booth that's going to be sprayed so it's the appropriate color unbelievable the amount of detail we go to even in the operator brand so as you can see there are a ton of steps in the painting process between each step the bodies are stored on racks just like these next to me the chicago northwestern sd40-2s and the bnsd40-2s when the time's right they'll come off these racks they'll go to the appropriate paint booth so that they'll look just right when they get to you so after painting it's time for pad printing this is when the model actually starts to come to life let's check out the processes and see how it works before we start printing we have to create the printing plates and it all starts right here on this film you'll see the road number for our upcoming flat car that hauls rebar and the way this works is this film is transferred to a metal plate using a chemical process that etches it into the metal right here we're actually looking at number boards for one of our locomotives so we're often asked why do containers cost so much money they're just a box well it's called printing impressions there's a lot of work that goes into the printing process today we're going to follow a dmne sd40-2 in the mount rushmore paint scheme all the way through the printing process and see how much work goes into making the model as accurate as it can be so she's now loading a body onto the jig and we're gonna watch five colors be deposited on that body in this case white blue yellow black and green and you're actually going to be able to see the mount rushmore logo come into vision right before our very eyes now she's going to remove the body from the jig and she's going to take a very close look at it with a magnifying glass this is to make sure that everything is unregistered in other words no fuzzy edges so now that we've got the mount rushmore logo on the side of the body it's time to add the red white and blue banner here in front of me you'll see this machine is depositing four colors black red blue and white all together that's nine different colors to create this unique logo when it's all done they'll reset both machines and do the nine colors on the other side so that's a total of 18 different printing impressions to get this one unique logo on one locomotive so final assembly actually occurs on the production line and on the production line there's going to be at least 50 different stations with workers at each station doing sub-assemblies that come together to make the final locomotive here we're in a special room so we can get it up close and personal and see what's happening this particular worker is assembling the dmne sd40-2 cab interior in the rivet counter series there's actually seven individual parts that make up this particular part of the locomotive you've got the front wall the back wall three seats and the control stand on both sides as you can see here she's applying very small dabs of glue on the underside and that way none of the glue will leak through and you'll actually see in the cab interior if you're like me you're a fan of all the hard work that goes into our models here we see dynamic braking radiator fans on an etch metal frame of course this has to be painted before it can be assembled as we look down at the table she's actually putting these fans on the dmne sd40-2 very delicately she's placing the fan to grill itself and then she's going to take some glue and finally touch around the edges to make sure that it's not visible when the final product is ready if you think about it in our example of three thousand locomotives on a production run that's five fans per locomotive that's fifteen thousand different fans that have to be installed before this shipment is ready to leave thankfully our factory workers are highly skilled at building model trains because final assembly is a meticulous process every part is hand applied a freight car can have more than 100 separate parts and a locomotive over 400 individual parts the hoscale big blow turbine has a staggering 800 plus parts using our example of 3 000 locomotives that's over 1.2 million parts that have to be hand assembled dcc and sound locomotives require even more testing of course we're going to test the light functions in this instance we're looking at our rivet counter chicago northwestern sd-40-2 we're going to make sure the class lights work so we can cycle between red white green and off we're also going to check the number boards make sure they're lit and all of the headlights both front and rear in addition you'll notice the sound is off right now that's because we can test the coupler clank the bell the horn and those other sound functions and we'll test the prime mover eventually while it's quiet we're listening for the motor we're listening for the gear train and also the drive train if everything sounds correct and the sounds are correct as well as the lighting functions it's off to be married with the body the last step in the manufacturing process is final packaging each model is visually inspected to ensure it meets our high quality standards blemishes are touched up and fingerprints removed the model is then carefully placed in its package and prepared to be shipped to our tennessee warehouse [Music] so the final step in production is getting everything ready to ship as you can see the workers are rolling out the pallets in preparation for the container to arrive all the pallets are shrink wrapped they have straps on them they've got corner braces and this is to ensure the models arrive in the best condition possible when they get to tennessee this process will take almost five weeks from the time it leaves our factory until you see us open the doors in tennessee so what's happening now is the final step we're loading the container in preparation to ship it to tennessee the forklift is going to come up he's going to put on the container there's a gentleman inside he's got the pallet jack and what he's going to do then is move that container inside so here comes the forklift he's going to put the pallet inside once he puts the pallet inside the other worker in the trailer is going to move that pallet to where it needs to go so that it safely arrives in tennessee so after the truck leaves here it's going to make its way down to the port in hong kong after a few days it'll be loaded onto a ship and it'll make that long journey all the way across the pacific ocean down to the panama canal through the canal and all the way up to savannah georgia at savannah it's going to be loaded on another truck and then come up to tennessee so the final step on your door first is to shut the door ready so the final step as we shut the door is this will go to customs in china they'll put this bolt on it and when we get to tennessee we'll cut it off so here comes the truck as you can see it's a tight squeeze as he's leaving the factory and as the truck passes by here comes our last side of the container as it makes its five to six week journey to tennessee we wish it bon voyage well this has truly been a journey to learn how model trains are made it's been a ton of work as you can see we followed everything from the big blow turbine to the sd40-2 to the sdl-39 and of course the es44 project a lot of this video documented the es44 and the video footage from our factory was shot nearly a year and a half ago that model is on the way to us now which means that whole process was about two to two and a half years as you can see a ton of work goes into making the best railroad road number and era specific models we hope you've enjoyed this video and if you have be sure to subscribe to our youtube channel and ring the bell to be notified when we post new videos we certainly appreciate you tuning in to how model trains are made [Music] you

Channel: ScaleTrains

Views: 301,752

Keywords: train, railroad, model railroading, model trains, Scale Trains, Rivet Counter, HO Scale, locomotive, diesel locomotive, Santa Fe, BNSF, Norfolk Southern, UP, Union Pacific, CSX, James Wright, JLWII2000, Athearn, Genesis, Atlas, Master, Bachmann, Bowser, Broadway, Broadway Limited, ExactRail, Fox Valley, Intermountain, Kato, MTH, MTH Electric Trains, Tangent, Walthers, Proto, P2K

Id: WoxtnAYGwrc

Length: 38min 25sec (2305 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 23 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Original-Cinikal]

What an absolute awesome video on manufacturing using model trains! I loved it. As a guy that is making molds with a 3D printer I thought I was cool... This is freakin' cool. Thank you. Also, as a person who was building model trains from Lionel Play World back in the earlier years, These trains have come a long way. The detail to realism is astounding. Did not know how advanced it has become.

There was a toy store near me in Miami on 87 ave. called "Lionel Play World" and I was always buying there Lionel train sets. This brought back some cool memories!