Model Railroad Academy by Allen Keller?

Allen Keller Productions did release oodles of DVDs titled “Great Model Railroads” over many years. You’ll have to hunt the secondary market for them now, because it looks like they are currently behind a paywall as part of the Model Railroad Academy.

Watch for "specials".  I own many of his DVDs, and they are often available in bundles for a reasonable price.  (I last checked a few months ago, so this may have changed.)  It would appear that he is trying to sell the remaining DVDs without replenishing his stock.  I don't like that approach, but can't blame him.

If you get on the mailing list, you'll frequently get offers for a year for about $3.  While I understand that you'd rather not watch them online, that's a pretty low price if there's something you want to see.

I joined for a year, I believe it was for $15.  I didn't think it was worth it.  I was constantly bombarded by e-mails to buy something else.  When it was time to renew, it was to be automatic since I had used a credit card to join.  When I called to unsubscribe the operator was very nice and took care of everything and I never heard from them again.

I just got another e-mail with a reduced rate to join the Academy. But, my earlier e-mail to them went unanswered, so am hesitant to join.

The John Armstrong VHS was never made on DVD, at least not that I could find. It must have been made pre-DVD days. Its a real shame, because John Armstrong was truly a titan in O-scale (in the league of Frank Ellison); and, out of hundreds of layout videos I've seen over the years, his layout and the interview stands out as the best ever. I recall him saying he had about 50-years of work in his layout. John passed away in 2004.

Hello, it is not an automatic process to convert VHS to DVD as the DVDs require a much better master to record from than what VHS required. I learned this fact when I asked a couple of companies that created musical performance VHS tapes if they were going to sell the performances in the DVD format.

Is anyone else receiving daily e-mails from Model RR Academy? I continue to get them, yet when I sent a question to them it went unanswered. Certainly, someone on the forum belongs to this group and can comment on it? From what I gathered, it's a on-line service whereby you download their videos.

That was exactly the reason I didn't renew.  Multiple e-mails with offers to buy something.  How annoying!  I was able to unsubscribe after one year.  I was unable to watch the videos and I was a member!  After awhile I thought it was just a scam to spend more money.  There should be an unsubscribe option at the end of the e-mail.  Good Luck.

Hi Paul:

I do currently belong to Model RR Academy as a premium member. I can download the video you mentioned at a cost of an additional $8.50. They have a lot of the Allen Keller series available to watch (stream) online for free (all 4 parts of the George Sellios layout episodes, for example, are free), but some are pay to download.

I have watched some of the videos and instructional series; there are about 74 web pages in all (maybe 8 videos per page) along with other resources. Most of the time I will search for information on a particular topic (“making water scene”) and try to pick up ideas and suggestion so I won’t screw up. A lot of the information is for HO scale, but the techniques and ideas can readily be “translated” to O-scale.

For $5/month I think it’s reasonable, IMHO. Hope this helps!

Oh, yeah there are a lot of emails from them. They go into “Junk” folder and are deleted en masse with the rest of the unsolicited stuff from all types of vendors.

Hope this helps,

Bruce