Category Archives: Education

Twin Cities Division: New Crossing Gate Podcast Episode: “The TCD goes to the StL RPM”

Admittedly, I am way behind on my model railroad podcast listening… I’ve added this one to my queue… TCD members Joe Binish and Greg Dahl visit the RPM meet at Saint Loius.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with RPMs, these meets were born of modelers getting together and showing their modeling work, completed or in progress and discussing ways it could be improved. I’m told the experience is very communal, all skill levels are welcome and there’s no competition involved.

This episode TCD Crossing Gate discusses the events and fun at the annual St. Louis RPM. Joe Binish and Greg Dahl attended this event and bring us their experience.

The Twin Cities Division of the NMRA (TCD) is a neighboring division in the Thousand Lakes Region (TLR) to the east of us. Our friends in the TCD are quite an active group and are always entertaining with their operations focused podcast antics!

Model Railroad Community Education

Each spring (April) and fall (November) we host a community education class on ‘Model Railroad Module Building’. Each registrant has the opportunity to add track to a 2-foot T-Trak module, add some scenery and then run trains on the completed modules. We had a great time building the scenery on the modules and made some new friends of model railroading.

Our next class is scheduled for the four Tuesdays in November 2026.  Classes are from 6-8pm each evening. One of the classes is a tour of two of the instructor’s home model train layouts. Information and registration will be available sometime in August 2026 through the Sioux Falls Community Education program at https://sfsdcomed.myrec.com.

See our ComEd page for more photos.