By Railroad Model Craftsman Staff

Jim Hediger, a longtime Model Railroader staff member and talented modeler who constructed the famed freelance Ohio Southern, died on February 9. He was 81 years old. 

Hediger was a member of the MR staff from 1972 until 2015 when he retired as senior editor. During a legendary career, he authored more than 750 stories, columns and reviews for the magazine. 

Railroading was a part of Hediger’s life from the beginning. Born in Chicago, his father worked for the Grand Trunk Western. At 13, his family moved east to Dearborn, Mich., when his dad got a job with Detroit, Toledo & Ironton. In high school, he built his first model railroad and worked in a hobby shop in Dearborn that was owned by Emery Gulash (a railfan well-known for his films of mid-20th century railroading). After high school, he attended Wayne State University, graduating with a degree in industrial education. After a few years of teaching in high school, he earned a master’s degree from Eastern Michigan University. In 1972, he reached out to Linn Westcott, then-editor of Model Railroader, to see if they needed any help. Within months, Hediger moved to Milwaukee to begin a 43-year career with Kalmbach Publishing. 

Within a few years of arriving in Wisconsin, he began the construction of the Ohio Southern, a freelanced railroad inspired by the DT&I. The first version was featured in the July 1978 edition of MR. A few years later, he began construction of a second version, this time with multiple decks, one of the first people to attempt such a construction. The layout would become the subject of many stories in the magazine. 

Hediger is preceded in death by his wife Judy and survived by three children and five grandchildren.