Good point about using Romex cable, Jim. Or you can use 14-ga. "building wire," which is the single-strand (Romex cable is usually two or three wires in a single cable, like household zip-cord only bigger).

The advantage, I suggest, to building wire is that you can get two rolls in two different insulation colors, and always use one for the positive track buss and the other for the return. Keep it the same everywhere, and you're less likely to get crossed wires and short circuits.

Bare wire for a common return isn't a bad idea if you have to solder to it at odd intervals, but you can just scrape a half-in of insulation back and do the connection that way if you prefer.

Kinda like saying you can use the same kind of copper wire for AC or DC current ... it doesn't take two different kinds of wire, one for each.

But there will be some sharper someplace who will try to sell you different wire for DCC to replace your DC wire. Or different track. Or special wood to build new benchwork because the old stuff was built for DC and not for DCC.

Think.

Yo answer Roger T.'s question, "Why do they have to tell you?" ... two reasons:

1]  Some people are dumb enough not to realize that you need to be somewhere else when a firecracker goes "boom"  ... and similar stupidities. If you don't believe it, just ask an emergency room doctor sometime.

3]  And some of those people ... or their surviving heirs ... are selfish enough to decide to sue the maker, seller or anyone else connected to a product that does what it's designed to do, and causes stupid people who don't have common sense to get hurt.

For those two reasons, the lawyers for the companies that make, sell, or have anything to do with potentially dangerous (if misused) products insist on leaving no stone of stupidity unturned in protecting themselves from lawsuits (I won't go into the motivations for the lawyers who file those damage suits ... they, too, are just doing what they were designed to do, regardless of stupid users).

It would be a better world if we did not have those dumb things all around us, but we do, so we have to do what we can to protect ourselves. In a perfect world, nonsense like this would not be outlawed -- that's impractical -- but would be unnecessary and even unthinkable.

And the idiotic instructions "clawed back into English" to use Mark Twain's memorable phrase, would be a thing of the past if we had a single, universal  auxiliary language that everyone used for all intercultural and international communication, with the same vocabulary, spelling and grammar everywhere. Just like the metric system of measurements and the law of gravity.

To keep this train-related: it's analogous to the concept of standard track gauge, which meant that cars can go anywhere in the country without having to unload.

Happy rails to you..............................................................

Nobody seems to remember when American Flyer made O-scale 3-rail trains. I had one in the 1940's, bought, I believe, just before World War II. Memory is fuzzy, though, and it may have been 19946, right after the war.

At any rate, it was AF, and it was O. I had two Lionel turnouts for loop with a short-cut on a 4x8 piece of plywood in the basement. Nothing complex, but it was fun for a kid. The loco, I recall clearly, was a streamlined Hudson (Loewy?) with a series of tinplate freight cars and caboose.

Unfortunately all gone now.

Everybody talks about the AF S-scale two-rail stuff, but to me that's "Johnny-come-lately" new stuff.  Are there any AF catalogs around that show this stuff?

Railsider (now in HO, HOn3 and a little N)

GRZ -- you cab ind the NMRA table on line (Google!) and down load a copy. I pasted mine to the platform scale I use to check cars, and added an inexpensive ruler to the top of the scale, so it's all right  there.

Happy rails to you ..............................................................

Call and leave messages and wait for them to call back ... your caboose!

For $15 and shipping one way, send the Bachmann loco to Philadelphia. And if it's only 2 weeks old, from a retail (not resale) source, enclose a copy of the purchase ticket instead of the $15 check.

The wizards will do the rest.

Here's another fun idea:

After a little conversation to verify that the boiler-room caller is trying to reach *this* person, at *this* number, you cover the phone just enough to muffle, but not enough so the caller can't actually hear what you're saying, and you shout to an imaginary co-worker, "Hey, Charlie, alert the chief .... we've got a guy on the line trying to contact Al-Qaida"

(That oughta hold the little $@&*%s)

Happy Phony Phoning to ya!

Brian ....

I hope you can find a model railroad club in your area. Like the folks on this forum, it will be full of guys who have lots of experience and knowledge, plus a genuine desire (and ability) to help.

The only difference is they are right there, hands-on, to show you what's happening and guide your fingers. You just can't do that on line. Well, maybe in a video-conferencing situation, but we aren't quite there yet, and Johann Sebastian may be a while geting that in place 

If you don't know where to find a club, try this: look in the telephone book under "Hobby Shops" or the like, and find a store that deals in model train stuff. If not in your immediate community, then in nearby, possibly larger, towns. Call or visit, and ask. They will know, and will be happy to put you in touch. If one is meeting right in your town, join. You won't regret it.


Happy rails to you ...........................................................

Narrow-Minded's proactive approach is certainly tempting! It answers the inmost psychological need to "get that %#+!@*" and, NM says, it does seem to work. The reason that "don't even acknowledge the #@$*+s" is good advice is that not everybody has the skill and the tenacity to resist their blandishments.

Intelligent people are, strange as it seems, at considerable risk. That's because intelligent brains can consider contradictory ideas simultaneously. Which is to say, even in the face of the obvious fraud, that little tiny shred of possibility that it might be true, just this one time ... and your own secret but powerful wish to have a million dollars to build that dream layout ... is still there, and you still listen to it.

It's sort of like the notice on a piece of equipment (say, a DCC unit) that says "Do not open; no user-serviceable parts inside." If you know what you're doing, it's okay to get in there. But if you don't, you'll make a mess and ruin the unit. Or the "No Parking" sign in the space that's reserved for you ... it does apply to everybody else, but not to those who are really (not just in their own imaginations) able to qualify.

Or, as sthe old philosopher said, don't pick a fight or make a bet unless you KNOW you'll win.

Happy Rails to you...................................................

Was it not the Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland who said something to the effect that words mean exactly what I think they should mean?

Language is funny that way ... just like a caterpillar, it's always moving and changing, through time, through space and from one professional group to another. You say to-mah-to, I say to-may-to, and all that.

Trucks, lorries, carriages, vans, points, switches, turn-outs, gizmos, whatchacallits ... the list just goes on and on.

Good thought, Ray.  If dutiful son Heaton can find a train club with tax-exempt status, a donation to them would ensure that the stuff goes to loving homes, and also give yhim a very reliable value figure. The club, if they're like any I know, would be delighted to hold an auction, to benefit their own club treasury (or a charity of Mr. Heaton's choice -- or split for both) and the members would be thrilled to get some of the "goodies."

..............railsider

Washers might be cheaper ......................or a weight attached to the bottom half of the tank, to lower the centre of gravity.

G-Guy................

Don't drill a hole in that magnet if you can possibly help it. Makes a mess of both drill and magnet. There are magnets available with holes in them, used for various telephone and electrical purposes. Check your catalogues.

Steel truss bridges have ties and rails, but usually no ballast. Plate-girder or concrete bridges, on the other hand, are ofter built with ballast just like rails going across the ground.

Best way to find out is to go look at real train tracks, bridges, and whatever, and see how it's done. Then make yours look like the real thing. Take pictures if you have a digital camera, and make a reference file.

As pointed out, it's probably good to be consistent with the Code of your rails -- not just because it looks real, but to avoid bumps that derail trains.

I believe there are firms that offer the service of making decals from an original master that you send them. Look in model railroad hobby magazines or try the internet with a search. No idea who, or what it would cost, but I recall seeing something somewhere, I think.