I removed a 50' flat car from my train, because it was dragging, instead of rolling.  Then, I realized that it has 3-axle trucks.  None of my other freight cars has them, not even my 75' well cars.  The flat car is second-hand, so I can't be sure that the trucks are original equipment.  Has anyone else encountered freight cars with 3-axle trucks?

  A friend sent me mp3s of two railroad songs I enjoyed, so I looked them up on Utube:

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=vTBF6gj_K9M&feature=PlayList&p=3FBC92F0E660D66E&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=41

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF_iHwjW4rY

  I searched for this problem & found much about derailing, instead.
I have had 2 Walthers PowerLoc turnouts short out after 5-6 months of use, a steel alloy right-hand one & a nickel silver left-hand one.  I use them mostly to send current from one oval to another, so that each train has its own track.  In checking the rails for current, I find the current stops at the curved rails in the turnouts.  I wonder how common this problem is.  I just e-mailed Walthers to ask them about it & request replacements.

  I see that derailments at turnouts are a common problem.  The guide wheels of my new Bachmann 4-8-4 slip out of place in the turnout.  I found no spring to shorten or remove.  YampaBob said that a little weight on the guide wheel assembly might help.  I am puzzling how to do it.  Has anyone had success with that?

  There is a formula for calculating the optimum weight of rolling stock, at least partly because ready-to-roll ones are not always made heavy enough.  Do the manufacturers of locomotives determine the optimum weight & make them in accordance with it?  If that is not always the case, is there is a way to calculate the optimum weight of a specific locomotive, or are there too many variables?

  I just bought a Spectrum 4-8-4 DCC Santa Fe on eBay NIB from thefavoritespot for $83.  Their BuyItNow price was $95.  modeltrainstuff's price on sale is $110, so I think I did okay, considering the furious bidding each time one comes up for auction.

  If anyone on the forum has one & some comments, I'd be interested.

  I thought that I'd get just one steamer.     Watching videos on UTube of the Milwaukee Road 261 recently running through Wisconsin got to me, though.  Maybe I can change its name to Milwaukee Road.  I saw that BLI has a Great Northern version, but it costs $400!

  I find myself, like YampaBob, averaging 1 new locomotive a month, but he's been doing it for a lot more months. 

 What is the usual order of passenger cars in a train?  I have a milk car first behind the locomotive.  I'm not sure where to place my coach, combine, diner & sleepers.  I know the observation car is last.   

  This photo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combine_car shows the combine car with the baggage part facing forward, but my Spectrum heavyweight combine has its seats facing away from the baggage section.  If passengers are supposed to see where they're going, not where they've been, the passenger part should be forward of the baggage section.  Oddly, when I run the combine with seats forward, it goes fine, but when I reverse the combine to baggage forward, it derails at a turnout.   

  This year, my home town of Coleraine, MN, celebrates its centennial.  This train pulled the first load of iron ore from the Oliver Mining Company's Canisteo open pit mine at Coleraine, Minnesota in 1909:

  Can anyone identify the locomotive?



  I finally inserted a photo!  Thanks, guys!

  Has anyone experienced this phenomenon?
  My Intermountain F7A-B DCC with sound activate (lights & sounds come on) when I turn on my E-Z Command Control--even if I have not selected their address! Each of  my other 3 DCC locomotives remains dormant until I select its address & move the throttle from zero.  I've even tried switching to a different address before turning off my system, so that when I turn it on, the F7 address is not selected.  Consequently, the F7A-B are the only units I can't store on my layout without their sounds & lights running.  Can you explain why this is so?  Is there any way I can deactivate them while I run another train?

  I just queried Intermountain about this, but I am curious whether or not anyone else has had this problem.

 I searched the Forum & got only one reference to cattle.  Has anyone a method, other than gluing them to the floor, of putting HO cattle into a cattle car so that they remain standing?

  Did you hear about the collision of two Canadian Pacific trains in Southeastern Minnesota along the Mississippi on Wednesday?  I didn't even know that the CP ran trains that far south.
This didn't make CBS national news, but I saw it on CBS WCCO news:
http://wcco.com/local/train.derailment.ammonia.2.889273.html

 I just read about this train in today's St. Paul Pioneer Press; it visits cities in Minnesota & Wisconsin, among others:
http://www8.cpr.ca/cms/English/General+Public/Holiday+Train/default.htm

 I no sooner solved one problem than I have another.  My Intermountain F7A DCC with sound loco stopped working:  no movement, no sound & no lights.  The F7B DCC with sound unit works & was trying to push the A unit.
I've had the F7A for 2 1/2 months & bought it new.

 A few days ago, I added a third track to my layout.  I was happily running my F7A-B (powered) DCC with sound on the 42' outer track, my SD45 DCC on the 39' middle track, & a DC F7 on the 36' inner track.  I use E-Z Command with the 5 Amp booster plugged into the outer track.
  Today, I received a replacement of my BLI Heavy Mikado DC with sound.  I installed a DCC decoder.  The good news is that it now has the chuff sound.  For a while, I was running the F7A-B train on the outer track, the SD45 on the middle track & the Mikado on the inner track, enjoying its chuff & blowing its whistle.  Noticing that the pull bar had come loose, I removed the Mikado & followed YampaBob's suggestion of winding a 1/8" strip of electrical tape around the bottom of the locomotive's connecting pin to keep it in the hole in the pull bar.  I began running all 3 trains again, but suddenly they stopped.  After pressing their address buttons & moving the throttle, I got the trains on the outer & middle tracks to run at their normal speeds.  However, the inner track does not work for DCC.  I tried my DC F7, in vain.  When I ran a locomotive across the switch from the middle to the inner track, it stopped on the switch.  I disconnected the inner track from the rest, connected my DC power pack to it, & tried the DC locomotive.  It ran. 
  I thought I was all set to run 3 trains simultaneously.  I need some electrical expert advice.

 Does anyone have some favorite movies, either classics with train scenes or films notable for good train scenes?

  My favorite European train movie is Hitchcock's 1938 classic "The Lady Vanishes."  "The 39 Steps,"  "Shanghai Express," "Night Train to Munich," "North by Northwest," "From Russia, With Love," & "Murder on the Orient Express" have good train scenes.  "The Narrow Margin" (1952) is a gem of a "B" movie, & its re-make, "Narrow Margin," shows a lot of the Empire Builder, inside & out.  "Silver Streak" shows a lot of its train.  There's a Michael Shayne mystery, "Sleepers West."  Agatha Christie's Miss Marple witnesses a murder on a train in "Murder, She Said," as does Canadian star Deanna Durbin in "Lady on a Train."

    Westerns with trains include "Union Pacific" (1939) about the building of the railroad, "Jesse James," (1939), "Whispering Smith" (1948), "Night Passage" (1957), & the classics "3:10 to Yuma" (1957) & "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid."  Hobos during the Great Depression ride the rails in the classic "Sullivan's Travels" (1941).

"The General," "Go West," "Twentieth Century," "Palm Beach Story," & "Some Like It Hot" have funny train scenes.

"The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1934), "Four's a Crowd," (1938), "Holiday Affair" (1949), People Will Talk" (1951) & "Throw Momma From the Train" feature model trains.

 I don't have any steam locos.  What's the sharpest curve the 2-10-2 will run?

 I just connected a new EZ Command 5 Amp Power Booster to my EZ Command Control.  My Spectrum DCC SD45 & my Intermountain DCC with sound F7A & B run slower with the power booster connected than they do with EZ Command Control 1 amp power!  The booster's green light turns on, & the power to the locomotives shuts off when I turn the booster's switch to Off. I pushed the two wires that connect to the track under the terminals on my EZ Lock terminal rerailer track.  I have the Command Control plugged into an electrical outlet & connected to the booster.  I have the booster's power plugged into an electrical outlet.
  So far, this looks like a big, expensive waste of money that I will have to return.

   Can anyone tell me the respective eras of & differences between these locomotives:  Bachmann HO 60301 RTR GP40 w/ DCC  Bachmann HO 60904 RTR SD40-2 w/ DCC?  Bachmann is offering attractive prices on both models.

 I just got the F7B DCC/Sound unit for my Intermountain F7A DCC\Sound Great Northern.  Using the instructions from Bachmann EZ Command Control's DVD, I had no problem re-programming it from Address 3 to the Address 1 for my locomotive.  I have yet to measure whether or not the B unit increases the speed of my passenger train.  Initially, running it & my Spectrum EMD SD-45 freight train slowed the freight, but, after a while, it re-gained some speed.  I still run the 8-car passenger train at full throttle & the 18-car freight at 3/4 throttle to keep them at about equal speed.
  I had to resort again to wiring 4 cars together, because the McHenry 52 couplers I used to replace horn & hook on my IHC cars don't seem to close as securely as some knuckle couplers.
Reading The Great Northern Railway: a History, I learned that the new Empire Builder of 1947 had 12 passenger cars.  I have 8.  Twelve 11" long passenger cars, plus the F7A & B, would make a train about 12' long, occupying almost a third of my 39' layout.  I'd like to hear from anyone on this forum who runs a passenger train on a home layout.  One option would be to use 72' cars, instead of 85' ones.  Online sellers often don't state the length of their passenger cars, however.

 Has anyone converted a boxcar with fixed doors to doors that open?  I unknowingly bought online a boxcar with fixed doors.  It is an Athearn with couplers mounted on the body & steel wheels, but not being able to open the doors for cargo bothers me.

 I see that Walters http://www.walthers.com/exec/page/20th_century is taking orders for this famous train circa 1949.  It's not the model I saw in the classic 1934 film, "The Twentieth Century," but it probably resembles the one in the 1959 classic, "North by Northwest."
  Does anyone here model the 20th Century Limited?  I haven't noticed any models for sale until now.