With only a few days left before Christmas, Tony Cook and I thought it would be a good idea to check in with Ken Bianco Jr at Trainworld and Trainland. Ken tells us about the items flying off the shelves this holiday season and shares the joy he gets from introducing new folks to the hobby.

Meet Campbell Rice, a man who has moved more times than the Raiders football team, but has carried his passion for model railroading with him along the way.

What does it take to start a model railroad company and lead it to the position of the "Cadillac" of the industry? On this episode, we get to hear from ScaleTrains president Shane Wilson as he tells us about his model railroading journey that led to entrepreneurship at a young age and set the trajectory to a career in the hobby business.

It's late November, but we're still talking about late August and the 2023 NMRA National Convention in Texas. During that week, I was fortunate enough to visit the outstanding layout of Mike Armstrong and it was a thrill to talk to him tonight about how his Rock Island Mid-Continent Route came to fruition.

The growth of technology in model railroading has brought a whole new level to the hobby. On this episode, Tony Cook brings along Chuck Stancil of Logic Rail Technologies to tell us about the amazing products he has created that bring life to layouts.

I had such a blast talking about Around The Layout and how all of our podcasts compliment each other, and John has given me permission to share the audio from the show with the ATLP audience.

One of the most memorable stops during the whirlwind week of the Texas Express 2023 NMRA National Convention was the visit to Devin Jackson & Family's Mesquite Belt, located about 2 hours south of Fort Worth in the town of Palestine.

On this special episode of Around The Layout, we talk to Art Dutra and Mike Wheeler of the Nutmeg Division of the NMRA and learn what's new and exciting from the division covering Connecticut and portions of Massachusetts.

We first met Matt Stern on the May 2023 What's Happening In Model Railroading episode where he represented Bachmann as their Communications Manager.

Freelance model railroader and YouTuber Matt Forcum pays a virtual visit to the Around The Layout studio.

Coming to us from northern Colorado - seemingly a hotbed of model railroading, is the creator of the BNSF Fall River Division, John Parker.

On this edition of What's Happening In Model Railroading, we step into the 1:220 world as Ztrack Magazine's Rob Kluz tells us all about Z scale.

Dave Owens from the Amherst Railway Society joined us to record a special on the upcoming Vernon Train Show happening on October 29, 2023 in Vernon, CT.

Anyone who has listened long enough to the show knows my affinity for cottage industry, so it was a thrill to talk to Ron Klaiss about his model railroading journey that led to the launch of Mine Mount Models.

Comedy and model railroading - the two definitely can go together, especially when you start talking to the very funny William Sampson!

One of the big announcements following the NMRA National Convention in Texas was the hiring of Lucy Dormont as the new Social Media Director for the National Model Railroad Association.

Mike Landis has taken his childhood experience with the MKT Sedalia Subdivision and turned it into a passion that has led not only to writing the book Show Me Katy, but also an HO scale layout paying tribute to the railroad in the 1980's.

There's something really cool when you find out that someone you watched on television and in movies is a fellow model railroader.