Q & A with Duane Johnson

Duane Johnson worked for the railroad for a lot of years, and has been making wooden trains for a really long time. He enjoys making steam engines, since they’ve got more to show than diesel engines, and he’s VERY good at it. In many cases Duane doesn’t have plans, and creates his amazing models by looking at pictures of the trains his interested in. From the pictures he’s able to scale the size of the model, primarily based on the size of the drive wheels. What a great talent. Duane does his woodworking on a Shopsmith Mark V. The models look amazing, and in this video Duane shares some of his knowledge about making wooden trains.

Finishing

Amazingly, considering how great the models look, Duane doesn’t use any special paints or materials when making his projects. In fact the boiler on the Big Boy was turned from a green treated 4 x 4, and the paint he used was standard stuff from a hardware store.

Projects in your shop

Our hope is that you’ll get some inspiration from Duane and his enthusiasm for making wooden trains. If you don’t feel like you’re on track to make wooden trains, no problem, WoodWorkers Guild of America has you covered. We’ve got lots of great woodworking gift ideas, and beginner woodworking projects that’ll keep you busy in your shop for many years to com.