Jonathan, what is the purpose for the black cloth you hang above your layout?

Do you put train car kits together? I have a HO scale plastic passenger car kit but it didn't come with glue. do you have a preference with glue?

What type (enamel or acrylic gloss or flat) and brand of paints do you use on the cars?

I admire your work and attention to details. The lighted round house is incredible. Those types of detail sets you apart from the wannabes.

Great work!!!


M

Seems a lot of quoting going on here. Which brought John Lennon to mind "So this is Christmas and what have you done"? seems on this particular topic a lot of beaching and complaining. YIKES alert the press Jonathan added two blinking lights to a PRETEND diesel locomotive. Really gentlemen? I come to Bachmann's forum for advice and ideas. Not useless criticism. Jonathan by far has the coolest, detailed, most interesting layouts I follow. It is so exciting to watch his new layout grow. He's almost anal in the details which I find awesome. Who else paints mono fish line to string from pole to pole? I have an 8 year old Grandson who I am introducing to MRR. We are following Jonathan as he is starting over. We are not getting crazy (yet) on going big however I hesitate bringing my grandson onto this site. I want this to be a positive learning tool not a place I need to preview prior to him reading the replies. If someone ask for advice well expect more than one opinion but when a guy is just messing around waiting for his plastercloth to dry and shares a cool thing........ I think the spirit of Christmas just was lost. Hesitant to wish Happy New Year to you all might spark another negative rant. John also said "Give peace a chance".

Wow Jonathan!Wow! You rock with your layouts, especially the attention to details. Just awesome. Can't wait to see your progress. Happy Thanksgiving

As a person obsessed with a Christmas Village and a train running through it, this is fascinating !!! I have built my own (its posted someplace on this forum)  and every year I take it down, box it up and count the days til the next year. This year however I moved back home to NY to be near my family. And due to circumstances I won't be putting it up  so your wonderful layout has helped fill that void of not putting mine up. Thank you! Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas.

 Hello all! I'm back, its been awhile but I'm happy to report my Grandson has gotten bit by the alluring HO scale train bug. He has me, his Grammy to thank and the fact he's been in love with trains from the age of one has also kept his interest going. He is turning 8 in a month or so. I moved from Reno to New York a month ago to be with my family. If anyone remembers, I was the one who had a Christmas village with a train running through it. I also asked umpteen questions. I got a lot of advice and tons of help so I'm back for more.

I had accumulated quite a bit of odd ball stuff in my quest to create that scene of my Christmas village train. I hung on to the stuff  in the hopes my grandson would find interest down the road. and now we are at that road!!! Moving my village & train was a bit difficult and in the end my platform I worked so hard to get it right didn't make it to NY. It was just to big to pack so I pulled up the track and brought that with me.

I arrived with a box or two filled with train stuff. I am staying with my Grandson & Family. and he has already conned me into letting him play with my stuff. It has been a test to see how he treats my things. Next we sat down and shopped for some deals on ebay. I am not at this time buying high end DCC stuff that my Grandson might (will) break. I have only owned Bachmann sets so that is what I went looking for. My Grandson (Connor) is in love with Amtrak and Metro North so the first items we bought were used Amtrak locomotive and then some vintage (everything is vintage on ebay) Amtrack cars. He LOVES them. I have a budget what I am willing to pay for stuff so when my son in law and Connor came home all excited about a train set they had seen at the local flea market I was hopeful. Saturday Connor and I returned. In a old tin Lionel. box was carefully wrapped train pieces and a ton on Ez Track. Only one piece was unwrapped and it was a small black steam engine in perfect condition. I bought it for $80.00. We got home and carefully unwrapped all the pieces. We ended up with 8 cars, 35 pieces of track including left & right turnouts, people, telephone poles, power pack, that Steam engine with coal car and Connor's new favorite a F9 Sante Fe engine, the shiny chrome one. I'm not sure if I over paid for all of this or not? These are Christmas presents and I told Connor they will be packed up and reopened on Christmas morning.  He's cool with that.

I do have a few questions, there is enough track to set up 2 separate ovals. One larger than the other and due to space his layout will be 4'x8'. Question, There is only one power pack and its the older version and I would like to upgrade it and I guess I will need two if running separate tracks, any suggestions on which ones to buy (brands or where to buy them)?

also why do the engines when placed on the track and power supplied they run backwards and will crash into each other? I thought they would follow each other.   

Attaching track, I will be using extruded foam and wood base to support it, what method best to attach track to the foam? My carpenter son in law suggested using a pin nailer gun. I'm pretty sure that's not a good idea?

Is there a trick or something to purchase to line up the wheels EASILY on the track? I find it so difficult to do this especially when the track is sitting on the floor? When I try it looks like I'm trying yoga stances and honestly I'm too old to be doing donkey dunks or walking dog positions. or whatever those yoga names are. It probably will get easier once its off the floor however even then trying to hook up all that stuff well sucks but for now.....?

Happy Thanksgiving, this year especially thankful I'm back home in N Y with my family.

Thanks Dave2744 on your suggestion for the sound. I will check out both.

Thanks, Richardl there are so many you tube videos out there I have found several that might work for me. I just picked up solder and tip tinner/cleaner at RS, I know, don't have much faith in them. Honestly I swear they have never re-stocked any of their electrical items like shrink wrap, wire, solder, from last year! I might now need tinner/cleaner but I am not taking any chances this year. I also bought some 60/40 .023" Light duty. Holy Cow. this stuff is so nice and thin. I can honestly see I might have success this year. last year I was using solder the size of a shoe lace!

this weekend it is practice practice practice. Looking forward to playing with my new toy. 

Excellent info Thank you!!! I doubt Ace or any local hardware store (lowes/home depot) will actually have the good stuff and Radio Shack well unless I want to buy a phone at my local RS I'm better off not wasting my time going in there. Sad to say RS isn't what it started out to be, which was a great source for all things electrical. I can always shop on line, I am very good at that!  I am in need of some tiny shrink tubing also so guess I better get to shopping. Tips, solder, flux, shrink tubing, probably some more resistors. Yup I'm making a list! Thanks again Rich.

Thanks for all the suggestions and tips. I think I might have solved my sound issue. Its not really a issue its just one of those want to have things. I found a re-recordable sound module. You can download up to so many seconds of sound effects and its small enough to hide and a push button start. For under $10.00 it was worth trying out. I will let you know how that worked out.

Today I won a bid on ebay for Lemax railway stop signals. They flash alternately. Didn't have them and found a good enough deal to buy it. I know a lot of people buy Amazon but I personally haven't found any good deals on Amazon. Ebay is my go to place. I wait it out, shop and shop, make many watch list and when the time is right I buy. The scariest 60 seconds of my life is the last 60 seconds of an action I am winning on ebay. My hand is ready to pounce on that mouse to up the bid if necessary! Guess everyone now knows I have no life other than be scared of the last 60 seconds on ebay. 

I will be heading to Ace after work tomorrow to see if they carry decent solder and flux. I do believe half my problems last year was the wrong solder or too thick solder and not sure if the flux was right or not. Also having a 7 dollar solder iron with cheap tips didn't make things any easier for me. I am determined woman so I will conquer soldering and I am sure I will have the burn marks to prove it! lol.

Two new questions have arisen since yesterday!

1. does anyone have a simple solution for removing the graphite out of the center of a pencil, without damaging the pencil? I attempted to make light post/telephone poles last year but time ran out and I just lost the interest in going further with them. Now I am thinking if I could remove the graphite, the center would make a great tube for the wiring. I am all about re-purposing things or taking something and make it something else. That's the crafter in me. pencils are cheap. they are wood, take paint easy, and best of all for me, I won't be shorting stuff out by using metal tubing.

2. My new soldering station was just delivered I purchased the Weller 40 watt station after several recommendations. My questions is does anyone know of a good clear knowledgeable video I can view to set this soldering iron up correctly from the get go. And what type of solder do you suggest? I will be soldering wire/leds/resistors.

Thanks and Happy 4th of July!

great info, thank you, i will check it out.

I'm back! I'm starting a new topic as I need less help than I did when I first came to this forum in 2014. I was planning on moving to NY this fall however it is postponed til Spring 2016 So I get to set up Jamestown one more time in Reno. There isn't a whole lot more I could add to to it but as all of you know there is always something more that can be added or critiqued. This year I am adding Flashing railway crossing lights, that is if I can find them reasonable. I am really wanting to add sound to it.

A little back ground on my layout. It's a Christmas village with a train running around it. I am not a model railroader, nothing is to scale in Jamestown. It started with a couple little houses, a few people and a couple of trees. It is now grown to a major city! I am using a Bachmann Steam Prairie loco and a few decorated cars and caboose. I love that it steams and now I would really like it to have sound effects of some kind. It is powered by the original power supply box, not DCC. I don't want to spend a fortune on sound so hoping someone out there has some simple inexpensive ideas. What I'd like it to do is sound like it is idling then bells clang, whistle blows, steam power starting up sound as it goes around the small 4X8 platform. I could just record sound and play it back on a cd but I'd like to possibly simulate as the train is starting up, moving forward and running at regular speed sound like its doing that.

I don't know if there is a kit or sound board that I can place inside the cars or a program I could download to simulate the sounds. I have seen someone install a small one button recorder that you record the sound you want and has push button start/stop. Any help/suggestions would be really appreciated. Thanks, Martha

I am so sorry to hear of his passing, this is the second person in 2 days I learned recently passed. I am honored to have known D as a MR man. He really knew his stuff and the support, guidance and the little bit of personal info he shared, well I will deeply miss him. condolences to him wife and family.

Doneldon, I posted Jamestown in the general forum as well as this one and some of the other guys replied there. Jbrock, jward and Jerryho had kind words as well as you did. I think there is a small home over the tunnel for sale, not sure if the rumble of the train would be a problem but then again, a train guy would probably find it soothing! Happy New Year, already think of 2015. Thanks again!

Thanks for the kind words. I am already thinking about next year! As I have plans to move back to the east coast in 2015 I can only hope I find a place big enough to display Jamestown. There were things I didn't get to complete this year, some that didn't work out so well, street lights for one. Oh the design was good but for some reason (I'm thinking resistors) half the led's burned out. Ah the joy of miniature lighting! Prairie ran like a champ, she really made me proud! I will keep checking back here over the next several months to keep up on all the discussions. You all feel like family for me now! Happy New Year! And a special thank you to doneldon, jbrock, jward, JerryHO, you guys rock! M

I am posting this in general discussion for the general population to see/read. I am not a model railroader (well not yet) however I have come to this site over and over seeking advice, tips, help, you name it, I asked. I need to let you all know the Bachmann forum is outstanding. The knowledge I have learned from you all really are the reason I can post these videos of my Christmas Village. Happy Holidays to all of you. May the New Year be better than this year!

I started Jamestown for Christmas 2013, 2014 I improved, added, expanded to what it is today.

So here are Jamestown 2013 to view if you'd like   http://youtu.be/kulQYLP7a0M

and Jamestown 2014     http://youtu.be/dV7waLsnU5I