About Us

Jeff Lemke Trains was founded in 2017 by Jeff and Carol Lemke. Carol named the company, recognizing that Jeff's reputation in the model train community would resonate with collectors and industry partners alike. That came on the heels of Jeff's retirement from Class 1 BNSF Railway where he worked as a locomotive servicing engineer, freight and passenger conductor, and yard foreman.

In Jeff's words, "It might appear that I switched from working on big trains to little trains. In reality, I've been working with model trains since 1972. By 1975 I was hooked on prototype modeling. In fact, I was so hooked that it got me to photographing and researching railroads in the Duluth-Superior area (MN/WI)."

Many moons ago Jeff prepared a short PDF document that he thought others might enjoy. At the time, we were running our first business, Twin Ports Rail History. Jeff's story is a bit corny, but it has a few neat pictures included. It talks about his very first trip to Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin where he discovered railroading at the Head of the Great Lakes—The Twin Ports. You can read it here: How Our Railroad Collection Started

More recently, in 2024, Jeff co-authored the 224 page, 280+ images, hardcover book, "Twin Ports Trains—The Historic Railroads of Duluth & Superior, 1870-1970". That book was 11 years in the making. If you're interested in railroading in the Twin Ports, we still have an exclusive handful of books available for sale SIGNED BY BOTH AUTHORS. Visit our eBay Store to secure your copy today. It's the only place to find our exclusive signed author editions. The image below helps to prove the point that railroading at the Head of the Lakes area was something truly special in its day. Jeff's book tells the whole story.

Besides photography and research aimed at one day writing a book about this place, those early research trips fueled Jeff's rising interest in making his model trains look more like the real thing. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s much of his spare time was devoted to gathering more information from Duluth and Superior to help create brass models of favorite prototypes. Those were mostly Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Burlington Northern and Missabe Road projects. To date, Jeff has made 66 trips from the Chicago area to Duluth—and he's not done yet! That work continues as his hobby.

Working with Overland Models

In 1986, the day after the Chicago Bears won the Super Bowl, Jeff moved to Muncie, Indiana and went to work for a fellow by the name of Thomas E. Marsh. Of course many of you know that Tom was founder and president of Overland Models, Inc. Jeff's title at OMI was Research Specialist. He sure did a lot of that. But he was also their chief model train repairman. His first project, first week on the job, was repairing 40 brass Erie Tugboats that were damaged in transit between Korea and the USA. They weren't packed correctly at the factory leading to virtually all of the topside details being broken off in transit. It was a mess on a grand scale. And it was up to Jeff to figure out how to un-do all of that damage.

Jeff recalls, "It was that first work-week in 1986 that taught me that my trusty American Beauty 250 WATT Resistance Soldering Station (still going strong, but now one of 10 different stations I use to do my work) was not enough power to get those early jobs done. Great soldering results come from having the cleanest possible brass surfaces, and having more than enough wattage in the cottage. Today, this work requires a variety of different probes and tweezers along with power ranging from 100 to 1,100 watts. But back in 1986, those darned tugboats created the exact "Ah Ha!" moment I needed to begin my career of helping others to get better soldering results. I realized that if I was struggling to make soldering repairs, then anyone with less experience would have a devil of a time with similar situations."

As a direct result, it's been Jeff's ongoing effort that shows others how to do things the right way when working on brass models AND ALSO how to prevent shipping damage in the first place. Without this situational awareness of why brass models get crunched in transit, people will continue to pack them wrong, hand them to their carrier, then put the blame on USPS or UPS for ruining their models. That's not how it works. The carriers are rarely to blame. 

Carriers simply move packages from point A to point B. The most important person in safe shipping of any brass model is the person packing the model into its box, then packing that box into a proper shipping box. Failing that—expect damage to result. Our website home page and our LINKS page has oodles of helpful tips to increase everyone's situational awareness on this very important issue. Please heed our warnings, and take our advice. We've shipped tens of thousands of brass models. Not one damaged yet.

Working with Brass Importers as a Consultant

Besides creating many projects for Overland Models, Jeff began working with several other importers, and soon enough his plans and photos were being used by a variety of builders in Korea. China too. Some of his favorite design and research projects that culminated in wonderful brass models in HO and O scale include:

  • DM&IR M-3 and M-4 Yellowstone 2-8-8-4s, 6 versions; Samhongsa & Precision Scale Co. (the orange box versions with coasting drive in HO)
  • DM&IR M-3 and M-4 Yellowstone 2-8-8-4s, 6 versions; Samhongsa & Precision Scale Co. (the gold box versions in O scale).
  • DM&IR E-1 2-10-4, 2 versions, Samhongsa & Challenger Imports.
  • DM&IR EMD SD38 and SD38-2 Diesel Locomotives, 6 versions: Ajin Precision and Overland Models.
  • DM&IR C-200 Extended Vision Steel Cabooses, 4 versions: Ajin Precision & Overland Models.
  • Great Northern Class C-1 0-8-0, 2 versions: F.M. Models & Challenger Imports.
  • Great Northern Class M-2 2-6-8-0, 6 version research assist: BOO-RIM and W&R Enterprises.
  • Great Northern X2950 Sand Cars, 3 versions: Ajin Precision & Overland Models (our first brass model project).
  • Great Northern Zinc Concentrate Hopper: Ajin Precision & Overland Models.
  • Great Northern 2-Bay Open Hoppers, 2 versions: Ajin Precision & Overland Models.
  • Great Northern 50 Foot Passenger Boxcars, 2 versions: Ajin Precision & Overland Models.
  • Great Northern Snow Dozers X7300-X7302, 6 versions: Ajin Precision & Overland Models.
  • Great Northern Iron Range Caboose X-176, Ajin Precision & Overland Models.
  • Great Northern Bros X-1500 Sno-Flyer, 3 versions: Ajin Precision & Overland Models.
  • Great Northern 1945 and 1949 Steel Cabooses, 9 versions: Ajin Precision & Overland Models.
  • Great Northern EMD NW2, Ajin Precision and Overland Models.
  • EMD SD7, SD9 and SD18 Diesel Locomotives, 20 versions: Ajin Precision and Overland Models.
  • GE U25C and U28C Diesel Locomotives, 20 versions: Ajin Precision and Overland Models.
  • HO scale operating switch stands and targets, 24 versions: Ajin Precision and Overland Models.
  • Great Northern F-Unit Heater Cars 11-18, 4 versions: Ajin Train Model & Overland Models.
  • Great Northern 1083-1084 Twin Cities / Twin Ports Buffet-Parlor-Observation Cars used on Badger-Gopher Trains, 2 versions: F.M. Models & Oriental Ltd.
  • Great Northern Taconite Service Bay Window Cabooses X184 & X185: Woo Yang & Oriental Ltd. (also sold by Model Express and Sunset Models)
  • Great Northern X1-X30 Slant Cupola Steel Cabooses, multi-version research assist: Division Point.
  • Great Northern X-310 and BN 11444 Streamlined Cupola Cabooses, multi-version research assist: Division Point.
  • Great Northern X-100 and X-181 "Hutch" Long Caboose, multi-version research assist: Division Point.

We believe that the best thing about this hobby is getting to work with and learn from other knowledgeable people. That's especially true within the model train design and manufacturing sectors. Each of us seems to have a favorite railroad, or era, or railroad location that we enjoy collecting and chatting about—if not bragging about. It's all part of this great hobby. Clearly, our devoted interest in Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Burlington Northern, and the Missabe Road has helped to create lots of wonderful models that thousands of other people now own and enjoy on their layouts. We take a great deal of pride in sharing that accomplishment.

Teaching Professional Custom Painting to Factory Workers in Korea

The most thrilling project Jeff ever worked on was undoubtedly traveling to Korea to set up a factory painting facility. The image above shows how they were painting things outside until he helped the factory to set up a new, professional painting facility inside the factory. This was hands on work. None of that sitting across a desk from each other, telling them what to do. As Jeff puts it, "My Korean counterparts didn't speak much english. I sure didn't speak Korean. No Google Translate back then!!! So we used our handy English to Korean and Korean to English pocket translation books instead, and got through it all just fine. Albeit with a lot of gesturing, finger pointing, moaning and groaning (when necessary) to help get across certain more important points of learning. There were plenty of 'Ah-Ha!' moments shared between the lot of us!"

Jeff's first painting student in Korea was one of the production managers at the Ajin Precision factory in Seoul. You might be familiar with him. Mr. Se Ho Jang, who today owns and operates BOO-RIM Models. That's him in the photo above, working at a way-too-small home-made cardboard spray booth. Jeff snapped that picture in 1986 while he was looking over Mr. Jang's shoulder. It shows the first time he tried airbrushing the cab interior of an HO scale brass steamer. It was a Rock Island P-42 4-6-2. The cab was soldered on. Jeff handed him the airbrush, Mr. Jang picked up the model and made a few squirts of paint through a cab side window. In less than a minute he made a complete mess of things. Paint was dripping out the cab, all over his trousers and the floor.

The best way to teach an adult how to do something well, isn't just having them do the same thing over and over again. It's also about letting them fail initially, so they can see and feel their progress, and improve with each new attempt. Many days were invested in this learning process of what to do, and more importantly—what NOT to do! In just a short couple of weeks Mr. Jang got the hang of things and went on to produce some fine looking factory paint jobs. Then he got the opportunity to teach others in the new paint factory what he learned from us.

According to Jeff, "After days of seeing paint dripping out of cab windows, that night at dinner Mr. Jang and I agreed it would be a good idea to change all future production of steam locomotive models in every scale to have removable cabs. It took many months to accomplish but that positive change did happen. Anyone who has ever painted a brass steamer knows the cab should come off. And when it doesn't, making a mess of things is always a very real possibility."

Building Brass Model Trains in Korea

In case you'd like to learn more about brass model train production and see it all too, on Flickr.com we have an album of 100+ images showing how brass model trains were made at the absolute peak of production in Korea. There are enough images and reading material out here to keep you busy for several hours. It's the real deal. Here's the direct link: Building Brass Model Trains—Jeff Lemke's story about people collaborating to create remarkable products in South Korea

If you like what you see here today—if our messaging rings true—then please tell a friend or two about us as well. We're certain our information and presentations can help to make any modeler a better craftsman. That's what we're all about.

Thanks again for visiting our site.

Cheers!

Carol & Jeff Lemke