I still have most of my Matchboxes from when I was a kid,(so long ago that  they were still made in England "by Lesney") they were in pretty rough shape though, went through years of abuse by me and then my nephew, my mom kept them though, although I used them on my layout when I was a kid they're not up to my standards now, so I took  my favorites and put them away and the others that didn't look too bad, I painted with rust paint and put in a junk yard on my layout, as long as you don't put any scale cars near them they look ok.  P.M.

there are a lot of nice discast cars, from many different manufacturers, that are slightly larger then HO scale (apx 1/64, which is S scale) some of them even have the scale on the bottom of them. The new ones that WalMart are carrying are excellent, the WalMart around here also has H.O. Norscott construction equipment, although it looks a little over sized to me. also Motor Max has a line of true HO scale cars and a line of close to scale tractor trailers called "Big Rigs" these are very reasonably priced ($2.99) and can be easily taken apart and repainted, the only thing lacking is mirrors, which is the case with many diecast trucks destined for the toy trade.  P.M.

Hi...here's a couple of suggestions:

1) lose the monofilliament line this could be a lot (most) of your problems due to the train slamming back and forth.

2) check your cars, if the trucks have talgo (truck mounted) couplers, get rid of then, not just the trucks but the cars. I find that for reliable operation 40 and 50 ft. Athearn boxcars can't be beat, stay away from cars such as flat cars and covered gondollas, these don't seem to me to have as good weight distribution or center of gravity and will be a lot more trouble. OR maybe passenger cars would work better for you, the Rivarossi passenger cars track great, although they might not be in production at this time, many hobby shops probably still have them. Walthers also makes nice passenger cars but these are a little pricey. If  you go with the Rivarossis purchase metal wheelsets (I.H.C.) makes wheels especially for these cars, AND an N.M.R.A. standards gauge. Use the guage to set the wheels EXACTLY in gauge. If you go with the Athearn (or any other) freight cars you deff want to use metal wheels also, the I.H.C.  ones will work or you might want to try Intermountain ones, these are a little less expensive and are more realistic (the IHCs are bright nickle  plated, the Intermountains are blackened) the Intermountains also have the added advantage of having allmost every set in proper gauge right out of the box so they need a lot less adjustment to work properly (still always check them). You can also get a truck reamer, I don't use them, but from what I read they work great.

3) tighten your trucks on the cars so that one os quite tight, so that it swivels freely but does not rock back and forth AT ALL, the other should be a little looser so it has a little rocking action.
If you do these things you should have pretty much derailfree operation, this is what I do to my cars and I can usually run for hours on end without any problems.

4) for track cleaning a good cleaning car can't be beat, I use the one manufactured by Tony's Train Exchange, it's a little pricey but worth it. It has a tank for the cleaning fluid (I use Life Like also) and a foot to put a piece of cloth on or a piece of drywall sanding mesh, you will also need to keep your loco's wheels clean, you will need TWO good diesels to use this as it is very heavy and the foot creates quite a bit of drag, put one on each end of the car, I find that that works pretty well. A good choice for those diesels would be a pair of the newer Bachmann DCC on board ones (you can use two diesels at a time with no problem and probably should on your trains also) Atlas, P2K and Kato are also good but are a lot more expensive. Atlas and P2k make nice sound equiped locos that would add a little interest to your display but might run into money if you continue to go through them  like you are (I suspect that a good maintainence program and good quality, NOT TRAIN SET, locomotives might take care of this)

5) you can NEVER have too many power jumpers to your track and adding a couple would probably take care of your power variation problems.

6) I know you like your MRC analog power pack but you might want to look into the Bachmann DCC system, this would probably give you more consistant speed control. 

good luck P.M.

There's a company called Dover House (I think) that publishes books of HO scale cut out cardboard buildings in a wide variety of types, even some castles, I've seen pictures in Model Railroader of an N guage layout with some of these same buildings on it, I think the builder must have copied them on a color coppier set to shrink them down to the propper size. These are listed in the Walther's catalog.  P.M.

I stand corrected

not only would that probably be expensive, but that dry ice, or whatever it is, is probably not real safe for little kids to play with, remember the movie Time Cop, just imagine the warning label they'd have to put on these.    P.M.

actually I think that N.Y.C.&St.L stands for New York, Cincinnatti and St. Louis, I bought my first Nickel Plate Berkshire when I was 12 with my X Mas tip money from my paper route and for years I thought that it stood for New York Central and St.Louis   P.M.

I know it's too late cause you already bought the Rivarosssi but Athearn is coming  out with a FEF soon.

oh... and the way it comes it's ready for D.C. you won't have to do anything till you convert to DCC, at least that's the way mine was, be sure to read the instructions in case anything has changed, mine were from the first run

you won't have to remove the shell, the dynamic brake blister comes off, just open that and everything is right there, the instructions that come with it are very clear.  P.M.

I don't think the Atlas dual mode decoders automatically recognize the difference, the way they come they work on regular DC, I THINK you have to go inside your loco and switch them over. I have two GP40s that I've had a couple of years and that's what I had to do. the instructions that come with them are very clear and it's no problem to do.  P.M.

Maybe he ment the P2K Bl2, which was the first (I think) quality loco from LL
                                                                                 P.M.

a real easy way to do a haunted skyscraper would be to pick up one of the old Skyline building sets from the 60s, they still show up on E-Bay with some regularity.. P.M.

I wouldn't be too quick to use B.L.I. as an example of the profitability of prototype specific steam locos as they sure seem to be struggling at the moment, wanting us to preorder products that are years down the road and not commiting to produce them untill they get a minimum number of orders, which anyone would be crazy to do considering that they can't even get the ones that they are commited to market. I think it would be great if and when they do go bellyup if Bachmann or Walthers would buy the assets at the auction and put the resourses and management knowhow that they need in place so that maybe someday I can get my Decapod.
Oh ..one loco that Bachmann could do easy would be the K4 streamlined version, they already have the mechanism,  all they need is the shell.
                                                                                    P.M.

afraid I have to go along with Gene, the IHC mountain is an excellent locomotive although it is only prototypical for the C&O version,  the Mogol was a good unit also, my friend bought his 5 year old son an IHC Pacific years ago (at my suggestion) and that thing took a lickin and just kept on tickin. I have both a Mountain and a Mogol from back when they first came out and they still work as well as the day I took them  out of the box(s). I have two 2-10-2s and I expect the same from them. In  all the time I've owned these I've never had a bit of problem with derailing, stalling in turnouts or getting them going after long periods of inactivity,  I can leave one of these running and go downstairs and they're still running when I go back  up to the attic (however once I forgot all night and was greeted by a derailed car that made a bit of a problem when the loco came around and ran into it but it wasn't the loco's fault, or the passenger cars either, it was mine). As good as the new Spectrum 2-10-2 is, it still is a very finnicky locomotive by coparrison, as are the B.L.I.s that I have.I often wonder why the rest of my steam ppower can't perform as well as the I.H.C.s which are, after all, much cheaper. This is just my opinion. P.M.