Hi! We are Ross and Jenny Waters, founders of Trackside Model Railroading. We have been married for 20 years and live in Washington in the United States. We started Trackside together in 2013 with the launch of the digital magazine. We are both creatives and have found our niche in creative tours of model railroads. Ross has been interested in trains since he was quite young and developed an interest in photography. Jenny was the opposite; she had a serious interest in photography since she was quite young and later developed an interest in trains. Together, we create layout tours that bring the hobby to life and showcase the strengths of the railroads we visit.
Our hope is that Trackside can give modelers a venue to share their work and their story, to help modelers to express their creativity, and to be an encouragement as we share ours. Building model railroads involves many different skills and abilities, and we hope to help model train enthusiasts develop their skills as they explore and enjoy the hobby.
Trackside started as just the digital magazine, but has grown and changed since then as we have added the free edition of the magazine and are now producing full-length movies of model railroads. We started the movies in 2016. That was a difficult time for us, as I (Jenny) was diagnosed with cancer just as we started. (I continued working during my treatment and it was a challenging time, but I am well now.)
Since 2013, we have been learning and honing our skills in the many facets of production that are unique to what we do. We have more things in store that we are working on and look forward to sharing. We also are starting to offer some of our content in Spanish and hope to increase that in the future.
If you love model trains, then come check out Trackside Model Railroading’s model train tours. We showcase everything from small N scale train table layouts to examples of large model railroad construction. You’ll enjoy the stories and movies of the model railroads. Many also include prototype history or creative backstories and interviews that are educational. Many of the layouts we feature are HO scale (because of its popularity), but we also share layouts in the other scales: O, S, G (indoor), N, and even TT.
Free Edition
Trackside's Lite Digital MagazineThe digital magazine is published in two versions: a lite Free Edition and an imagery-heavy Premium Edition. Trackside's Free Edition gives you a sampling of the layouts that are featured in the Premium Edition. We make the latest three magazines available to read at no charge.
Premium Edition
Trackside's Premium Digital MagazineTrackside's Premium Edition is much more in depth and includes many photos of the layouts. You'll learn the process of the layouts' construction, design, and operations. We also tell the story of the railroads, often with a fictional, creative backstory of how they were founded.
DVD and Blu-ray Movies
Trackside's Layout Tours on Physical MediaWe create full-length movies touring the layouts. The movies include video of the layouts operating, often from a railfanning perspective, and the story of the layout’s development. Sometimes Trackside’s movies include interviews with layout owners, actual operating sessions, educational information, and cab rides around the layouts.
To view our list of titles, go to:
Trackside's Movies
Movies on Streaming
Trackside's Layout Tours OnlineMany of the same layout tours that are available on Blu-ray and DVD are also available on online streaming. These features are listed by the individual layouts and are streamed through our channel on Vimeo.
See our layout features here:
Video on Demand
Our Video Channel
Trackside's Short VideosFollow our YouTube channel to see model railroad videos (short versions of the tours we produce) and prototype railfanning videos. We share videos in English and Spanish on our YouTube channel. Check out our channel here:
Trackside Video Channel
New Travel Vlog
Trackside's Travel ChannelRecently, we started a travel channel that will share videos that are not just about trains (but sometimes are), which we make during our travels for the business. We will be adding to this channel and kept it separate for those who are interested in a more "behind the scenes" look.
Travel Channel
Jenny and Ross, Thanks for sharing the free video of Walker’s N-scale layout. What an awesome layout and the storytelling by Jenny was great, talking about the railroad’s history. I was able to “escape” the real world for 40+ minutes as I watched the video and listened to the stories of the railroad on the brink of going out of business. Applicable for where we are in our world, but fun to escape for a little bit, nonetheless. Thanks for sharing the video with all of us!
I enjoyed your December issue of Trackside immensely. 138 pages of great model railroading. I loved the creative history of the Big Turn, which has inspired me to do the same for my railroad. The grass and the scenery, in general, is amazingly realistic. There’s a lot of great modeling in that 4×8 layout. That’s one of the reasons I like N scale.
Holy cow! I wasn’t expecting that! Thank you very much! The magazine is awesome! The articles are amazing. The photography is mind-blowing. And the layouts you all showcase are simply unbelievable! That alone was enough to keep me renewing my subscription. But with customer service like yours, I’ll undoubtedly keep it going! Thank you so much for your assistance. And keep up the great magazine!
The 1/32nd layout article and video alone are worth the price of the annual premium subscription! Prior coverage in other publications always left me wanting more. Well done to the layout owner and the crew.
I love seeing the product of those that truly have a passion for it. Nothing is more incredible to me than layouts like these where you have to squint to be able to tell that you’re not staring at the real thing.