Once again, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 2026 HOn3 Annual! This year marks the 18th issue of the magazine, and we thank you for your continued support. At the completion of each issue, I wonder how we might equal or surpass the previous magazine, and yet the authors always deliver the kind of material we can package into a publication packed with quality modeling, prototype information, and building techniques. You have come to expect an issue that will keep you busy and inspired until the next issue, and by golly, I think we’ve accomplished it.
As this issue goes to press, I am a few days from heading to Bloomington, Minn., for the 46th National Narrow Gauge Convention. Every convention features the assuring familiarity of seeing old friends, layout tours, vendor displays, prototype railroad activities, and clinics given by knowledgable fellow hobbyists, and I always enjoy attending. While I appreciate the routine of the NNGC, they are also always different in some aspect, and that will be very true for me this year.
I mentioned last year that I had joined the staff of the Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette as Associate Editor. Editor Bob Brown felt he was slowing down, and the plan was for me to take some of the “grunt work” editorial duties off his plate, allowing him to devote his energies to big feature stories. I was to assume more editorial duties as time went on. But I had to become the de facto editor with the March/April issue as he was hospitalized in late 2025, and was limited when he returned home. Bob passed in late January of this year, and I was named full-time editor shortly thereafter.
So this year at the convention, I will not only be representing the HOn3, On30, and Garden Trains Annuals, this will be my first NNGC as Gazette editor. While I am excited to met everyone there in my new role, it is equal parts daunting. Seriously, how do you follow a legend? In the end, all I can do is be the best version of me I can be, and serve the Gazette readers in the same manner I have the Annual patrons the last 20+ years.
On to this issue. Most of us dream of building a monster layout depicting all 153 miles of the RGS (and John Short did a great version starting on page 20), or some equally grand scheme, but that may not be in the cards for some of us. Depending on your life stage, you may not have time, space, resources, or energy for such a grand project. Therefore, I’d like to point to a few articles in this issue by Associate Editor George Riley. While his primary thrust is to show you new products and how you might use them, he often does so in the context of a mini-layout or operating diorama. The articles are packed with ideas useful to those with the above mentioned restrictions, and hopefully serve as means to get you modeling.
Also in this issue, we wrap up our series on Standard Oil facilities on western narrow gauges (with plans), and Art Dutra builds U.S. Army 4700N, the “Little Monster,” which was used on the D&RGW out of Durango. We have two depot building features; one scratchbuilt, the other kitbashed, a rock and scenery story, modeling the Tweetsie in HOn3, and three locomotive enhancement projects. Plus, a whole lot more. I hope you find the mix of articles useful, entertaining, and inspiring, and all of us at White River Productions wish you happy modeling.
—Chris Lane, Editor