It’s the OVR Pop-Up event #2 with several great guests, a mediocre introduction, and a Marginally Adequate wrap-up show. We’ll hear interviews from Nick Masney of ITLA Models, with lots of great products and is as excited about the future of the hobby as anybody, next up is Andrew Duns, who’s partners with Lorne James in the OVR Trains manufacturing business, then we hear from our old buddy George Bogatiuk from SoundTraxx who can dispense more information in 10 minutes than most people can in an hour.

Finally, we meet legendary accordion player Walter Ostanek, a three-time Grammy award winning musician who’s travelled the world and been on just about every show there is such as Johnny, Carson, Lawrence Welk, Don Ho, Phil Donahue etc. etc. Walter is still going strong at the age of 88 and it was a real thrill to meet him and spend quality time chatting about his life. This is a great podcast and one you’re sure you’ll enjoy!!

It’s the end of the Ken McCorry forty-seven-part trilogy of one of the best layouts in all of North America, from its humble beginnings in a townhouse to a dedicated thirty-three hundred square foot barn this story about a man and his dream is completed for now. There so much to learn about the Buffalo Line and in this series of podcasts we only managed to scratch the surface.

With an actual quarter mile of mainline and eleven different branches, this one of the most extensive and exciting to run model railroads ever built. But don’t be mistaken, operations on this railroad are taken very seriously and you can’t just step into a job of your choosing without being fully qualified as the Evel Overlord found out. Ken was a great guest and after a brief pause due to medical complications, we were able to bring this series to close. It’s a great podcast and one we’re sure you’ll enjoy!!

Tillsonburg, Tillsonburg, my back still aches when I hear that word. However, one thing that Tillsonburg does have, is one of the best model railroad shops in all of Canada, ideally located about two hours from Toronto, Buffalo and Detroit. Our very own, Lorne James and his wife Sara are the proud owners of Otter Valley Railroad and decided to host a day long show for some of the best manufacturers in the hobby.

The AML Nation decided to send one of its crack reporters to this event for interviews and what’s happening in the hobby. None of those people were available so instead they sent the Evel Overlord, and he got a chance to talk with several of the attendees. It’s a great podcast, so grab yourself a big bowl of shredded sales receipts, all cool glass of left-over soda and enjoy!!

It’s part three of the Ken McCorry Chronicles, and during this episode, we tried to convince him to let us take the Corvette out for a spin. We also investigate the changing eras and railroads on the three-hundred-mile-long Buffalo Line and what’s behind them. We find out how difficult it is, how much different equipment is needed and what’s behind it all.

For this podcast were joined by former Conrail employee Doug Watts who’s been operating on Ken‘s layouts before the barn was even built. Plus, there’s plenty of discussion about how to maintain one of the largest layouts in the country. It’s a great podcast and one for sure you’ll enjoy!!

Back in the studio is a newly discovered AML talent with a resume that would impress any railfan, modeler or locomotive engineer in just about any generation. Mike May has been a railfan his whole life, a steam and diesel engineer for about half his life, the guy in charge of the “Polar Expess” Christmas extravaganza and now has decided to dip his toe into model railroad manufacturing.

About ten years ago Mike began building my third layout, the White Pass & Yukon Route. The railroad is an unusual prototype which led to many challenges and solutions along the way. This turned into an idea to start offering high quality kits of prototypes that haven’t been available for this unique railroad. Hopefully these kits can help others start modeling the WP&YR or find great freelance homes for them as well.

It’s another great edition of the always popular All-Star Variety Hour, and there’s plenty of good discussion with two people who are involved in the manufacturing and retail side of the hobby. First up, we talk with Jordan Smith of Rapido while attending Dealer Daze at their world headquarters just north of Toronto, Canada. It was a very busy event and Jeremy the video guy even gets involved.

We also chat with Chris Palmieri of Home Shops who has stopped by the ‘ole AML studios many times, this is a model railroad company that specializing in custom painted quality freelance equipment. It’s an interesting story and we catch Chris as he travels from show to show trying to sell all sorts of distinctive freight cars from various manufacturers painted and lettered for many different freelanced railroads. It's a great podcast and one we're sure you'll enjoy!!

It’s part two of our thirty-seven, four-part trilogy featuring the life and times of Ken McCorry. In this episode we try to find out just exactly how Ken ever managed to develop such a superb track plan with an HO-scale mainline that’s one-quarter mile long for his magnificent Buffalo Line model railroad.

There’s also great discussion about the care and feeding of the operators for this fine railroad. You can’t just walk into the Buffalo Line, pick-up a throttle and choose whichever job you’d like on any day, many of the jobs on this model railroad are highly skilled and can take quite some time to learn. It’s a great podcast with all sorts of interesting information about operating a thirty-two hundred square-foot layout. Enjoy!!

There’s no way a guy living in the North Atlantic off the coast of Scotland on a tiny rock could have any sort of significant impact on an organization such as the NMRA with the majority of its membership located in the lower forty-eight. Turns out nothing could be farther from the truth, not only has our next guest’s hard work resulted in major changes, but in reality, his leadership has helped to improve the hobby of model railroading for everyone involved.

As the NMRA continues to struggle with declining membership lack of renewals and a younger generation that sees no immediate benefit from belonging, one man stands alone against almost insurmountable odds, with a single-minded goal of making the NMRA and all its members get as much from the hobby of model railroading as possible. So grab yourself a big bowl of haggis, a tall cool glass of lukewarm sea water and enjoy!!!

What would happen if you grew up in the 1960s alongside the four track Pennsylvania Railroad main line in Berwyn, Pennsylvania?? There’d be a good chance you’d end up becoming a lifelong model railroader and that’s exactly what happened to our next guest Ken McCorry. But that’s not where the story ends, an American Flyer train set, a short stent in the Navy, a couple of N-scale layouts followed by an introduction to model railroad operations, and the rest is history.

 After the switch to HO scale Ken decided to model the Buffalo Line based on an article, he’d read in the Penn Central Railroader magazine. Early retirement at the age of forty-six, allowed for the opportunity to build a specially designed building behind his home that would eventually house a thirty-two-hundred square foot multi-deck layout. This great podcast is the first part of a fascinating story and one we’re sure you’ll enjoy.

Let’s head back down to the Station Inn on the Norfolk Southern mainline at Cresson, Pennsylvania for some words of wisdom from “Uncle” Dave and “the Wiz.” In part two of the “Chronicles” Rich Wisneski gives us some detailed background about the grades heading east and west as the tracks cross the summit near Gallitzin, Pennsylvania. We find out more about a seventeen-year-old Dave that’s made the same trek every year for the last three decades and how he managed to keep going.

Much has changed at the Station Inn over the last couple of years as Alex Lang along with his lovely wife have purchased this historic property, Alex describes some of the challenges they’ve faced running the Inn while making some major improvements. Several trains pass while conducting interviews on the porch which just adds to the excitement of sitting just a few feet away from a busy mainline. It’s a great podcast and one we’re sure you’ll enjoy!!