Truck eating plants!?!    That's a new one!

-Brian

I would suggest - Getting Started in Garden Railroading by Allan W. Miller. A good book for G newbies.

Most real life railroads have top grades of 1%. That's only 1" in 100" (or about 8 feet). The grades for your layout will depend on the type of equipment you will be running. If you are running big steam or diesels with long stretches of freight or passenger cars you will want to keep it to a maximum of a 2% grade (2" in 8'). If you are running logging lines with geared steam (shays and such), a maximum of 4% is typical but you can push that to high as 6% as long as your consists are short.

-Brian

Harvey,

I think the Annie's have only been around for 5 years or less (Annie - short for 20th anniversary edition). What you have is an early edition of the ten wheeler big hauler. Is it the battery powered or track powered? You can find some helpful tips here - http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips1/big_hauler_tips.html

-Brian

R/C - battery power difficult?  Maybe

Confusing? Most definitely   

Lots of different systems out there like the AristoCraft, RCS, AirWire, etc.  There are a few shops that can do the set up for you. Check and read some of the forum postings on mylargescale - http://www.mylargescale.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=55

-Brian 

I finally finished up my dunkirk kitbash. I had posted it on the old forum. Its made from a cut down Bachmann gondola, Ten wheeler cab and diecast shay trucks. The boiler was scratchbuilt  from PVC pipe, styrene, brass stock, and detail parts from Ozark Miniatures and Trackside Details. I just added wood pilots front and rear with pocket couplers, push pole pockets, steps and a bit more piping. I also shortened the coupler shanks and added a bit of weathering.






Here it is with my bashed Bachmann bobber and a just finished scratch built water tank -



-Brian

Here's a recent forum posting from the MyLargeScale site on a scratch tank car - http://www.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=45086

-Brian

or even a Dunkirk built from a Bachmann gondola, Big Hauler cab and diecast shay trucks.

-Brian

The Connie (2-8-0) really needs 8 foot diameter curves to run well. I think 6.5 is a minimum. The ten wheeler (Annie or Big Hauler), Indie 2-6-0, or two truck geared locos (shay, climax, heisler) will do fine on 5 foot curves.

-Brian

It sounds like the boiler weight in the engine broke free during shipping and acted like "a bull in a china shop".



-Brian

Bachmann will be there. For an almost complete vendor list go here -

http://www.aristocraft.com/vbulletinforums/showthread.php?t=9028

-Brian

Matt,

You can buy a brand new annie for under  $100 and swap out the shell yourself. Just a thought.

-Brian

Test, test. Test, 1, 2, test.

Let's see if this works for me



-Brian