First try at a Christmas layout.  Built this a number of years ago, stayed up for the whole year, then took it down.  Had it up a couple of years ago again, and took it back down.  Planning to put it back up again for next Christmas.  Need to repair/upgrade some of the scenery and do some more lighting.  Not modular, made from 3" composite foam/aluminum roof panel.  Light and easy to move, and really sturdy.  Alaska diesels are from Bowser, excursion train is Bachmann and the McKinley Explorer are the optional lighted cars pulled by the Bachmann EM-1.  All DCC with sound.  Winter mountain scenery on the right, winter village in the center, spring car show of the left.  Inside track is flat, middle track has 1" rise in the rear and the outer track has a 2" rise in the rear.

Will see how well the EZ-mate NS track held up.  Stored in A/C conditioned space.  Overall looks in pretty good condition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7f7VUhL7Gs

Just wanted to pass this little tid-bit along for others who may be planning to do this.

I have finished setting up my railroad for block detection so I can see where my trains are.  The last thing I need to do is install the small resistors on my freight car axles so the system can see them.

I researched the task and found I need to glue 10K ohm resistors, 1/8 watt, to the axle so it creates a very small current path across the wheel's insulator.  This small amount of current allows my BD20 to detect that a car is on the block.

I ordered 200 resistors on eBay, and was surprised at what I received.  I needed a magnifying glass to SEE the resistors, and it was impossible to install them on the axles with the conductive paint.

It turns out, that one of the long list of codes in the part number was the number 0201.  Not knowing what that meant, I did not pay that much attention to it, as I thought all the chip resistors were similar except for resistance and wattage.

Well, the 0201 was a size code, which, had I looked into it earlier, meant this resistor was .024" in length, .012" in width and .01" in height !!!   In metric that is 0.6 mm in length, 0.3 mm in width and 0.25 mm in height.

What I should have ordered (and did so this evening) was resistor size code 1206, which is the exact same resistor only about 5 times that size.

The below link is to a sizing table showing resistor sizes.  If you are contemplating doing this, I suggest you refer to the table on this web site before ordering.  You may wish to order sizes
1206, or the even larger 2010.

Hope this helps someone!

http://www.resistorguide.com/resistor-sizes-and-packages/

Are the F2A and F7A shells interchangeable?

What happened to the EM-1.  I don't see it on the list of HO locomotives any more.

A long time back I purchased 4 Bachmann GP40 DCC equipped/no sound locomotives.  I tried to add sound to one of them, but there was no way to install the speaker without almost completely removing all the metal from the frame.  Now Bachmann has released a new version of the Alaska GP40 with sound, but they only have one road number.  I have three options: 1) use them as is with duplicate road numbers on the layout.  2) try to change the road number with a matching font/size/color decal if I can find one or  3) swap the shells.  Does anyone know if the new GP40 shell is interchangeable with the older GP40 shell?  I'm hoping they kept the same shell design and only modified the shape of the frame to accept a speaker, but who knows?

What type of lettering/logo material is used to print on the Tropicana reefers?  I want to repaint some without the factory lettering showing thru.  Don't know if it was stamped ink, decals or what?  Anyone know?

I have some Bachmann Silver Series freight cars where the coupler alignment is off slightly based on the NMRA Coupler height gauge.  The coupler needs to go up slightly.  Typically, I install a small spacer/washer (Kadee .010 or .015 thickness) on the truck shank between the truck and the body to raise the coupler, but Bachmann has made the truck shank outside diameter larger than normal, so these washers will not fit.  Is there a washer/spacer available that will work with the Bachmann design?

Will a Bachmann F2B shell fit onto a Bachmann F7B frame.  I have an F2B locomotive with DCC/Sound that I need to convert and repaint and re-decal to an Alaska F7B.

The railroad I am designing (Alaska), no matter how I look at things, will work best if one section of track is on a 3% grade for 12 feet of incline (12 ft up, straight over a 4' long bridge, then back down 12').  The train on this rail will be 9 McKinnley Explorer passenger cars with 4 Bachmann GP40 diesels.

The Model Railroad Club I belong to has an incredibly long 2% grade to test this with, but nothing on 3%.

Is there a method of creating the drag this train will have on a 3% slope using weights in hopper cars to simulate the extra 1% slope?  If so, how would you determing how much weight to add to the 7 passenger cars to do this?

For example, if the car weighs 3 oz on a 2% slope would it be the same as a car weighing 4.5 oz on a 2% slope to simulate a car weighing 3 oz on a 3% slope?

I have some Bachmann GP-40's in the Alaska line but not with sound.  Since this is 50% Bachmann, I think it's OK to ask ... since Bachmann does not make a GP-40 with sound but does make a GP-40 in the Alaska line without sound, and I have found GP-40's with sound from Broadway Limited, but not in the Alaska line, has anyone tried to put a Bachmann GP-40  shell on a Broadway Limited DCC w/ Sound Chassis?  Hoping since they are both GP-40's and most mfg's are fairly similar, it may be easier to do this than to adapt the Bachmann GP-40 chassis to include sound.

I see Bachmann just released another passenger car in this line called the Chulitna with lights.  There are only two cars left in the McKinley Explorer line that they don't have, the Kashwitna (1058) and the Teklanika (1059), both introduced in 2005 to the Holland America Line on the Alaska Railroad.

Since Bachmann already makes these cars (frame, lights, interior and shell), all they need to do is change the names and numbers on the coaches to complete the line.

Any chance of this happening soon?

I am looking for some vertical food grade type storage tanks for the Tropicana Juice Plant I am modeling.  I can find fuel tanks, oil tanks, water tanks and grain storage tanks/silos everywhere, but not the smooth looking seamless stainless steel tanks that are used at Tropicana and other makers of mass produced food items.

Anyone know of any tanks Bachmann or any other manufacturer of these types of tanks makes before I start to try and make them from scratch?

I have reviewed the past posts regarding track cleaning, and they don't seem to answer my question directly.

I have the Bachmann track cleaning car, and it works OK I guess.  After running it for quite some time, I always still notice a black residue on my fingers if I run my finger across the tracks.

I recently purchased the CMX Clean Machine brass tank car track cleaner.  It is extremely heavy and seems to travel well, but it does take some real horsepower to pull, due to it's weight plus the drag of the track cleaning pad.

I tried to use Woodland Scenics track cleaning solution, but it seems to work like crap.  It Left a residue on the rails, and the engines are constantly loosing power with the rails.

Looking on line, there is more cleaning fluid solutions the Carters Pills.  What cleaning fluids do you use and how do you rate them.

Is there any possibility of Bachmann developing a 24" radius track section?

Also, what about a 22" radius turnout similar to the 18" radius turnout.  I do not like to use 18" radius curves if possible and it is very difficult to make all of my turnouts on straight sections of rail.

Currently, I need to use another brand of track for these functions and it would be less difficult if Bachmann had these rails to select from.

I do not have one of the Bachmann EZ DCC Controllers, but a friend in our train club asked me some questions, some of which I am not sure of the answer.  He is starting to build a layout and is considering the EZ DCC Controller for his kids to use, but also runs trains on our Club's layout which uses NCE controllers.  His kids also run their trains on their friends layouts as well.

Question 1:  The controller has 10 buttons for locos, 9 of which are for DCC.  If you have a Loco with an address of 2234 and want to run it on the EZ controller, you need to assign a button to the loco.  If, say, you select button #4, does this reprogram the loco to now use an address of 4 and no longer an address of 2234?  My assumption is the decoder was just reprogrammed, and to use it as Loco 2234 on another layout, it would have to be reprogrammed again.

Question 2:  If you are running Loco 1 at 10% speed and then shift to loco 2 and take it up to 80% speed, then shift back to Loco 1, does it then jump right up to 80% speed or does it retain the 10% speed setting.  My assumption is, because there is only one speed control dial, and it appears not to be a digital control but an analog dial, the first loco would now use the speed dial setting wherever it is set at the time of the switch to the second loco.

I have 4 SD40's, all HO DCC equipped without sound, and I would like to add sound to them.  Doesn't look to be very much room for the speaker in the top of the cavity.  Anyone done this before and if so, what did you install?

I wanted to ask if there had been any progress on finding the problem with the Bachmann re-railers, so I went to the thread to post the question.  I see Bachmann has found a way to fix the problem with their re-railers, or at least stop the issue from being discussed.  On April 1, 2013, the Yardmaster posted that it was being "discussed and will be remedied".  He then locked the thread so no more posts can be done there.  WHY?  That is kind of low!  Thank you Mr Bachmann, I guess this is the same "Tech Support" everyone on this forum has been complaining about for as long as I can remember.  At least you are consistant.  From now on, I'm buying Atlas track, and if I find a buyer for several hundred pieces of new Bachmann track at our club's next train show, it's all out of here!  Since I have not yet started building the layout, planned for this fall, it's all still new.  I do have several hundred pieces of track, but that is only enough for the lower level, and every piece of Bachmann track I sell is a piece of new Bachmann track they will not sell.  Atlas will be selling me a lot of track.  

I am getting really frustrated with the available structures in HO scale today.  Why is it all the structures being marketed are over 75 years old.  I have been trying all week to find some modern day professional or office buildings like the one below, and cannot find ONE!




I realize model railroading covers periods back to the 1800's, but why doesn't it also cover today's conditions as well.  It's just as unrealistic as a diesel pulling into an 1890 mining town as a steam engine pulling a freight load into current day Atlanta, but what about railroads modeled after current conditions.  I can picture the Tropicana Juice Train with 2-3 AC6000 diesels cruising through cities where all the buildings are from the 1950's era, which is pretty much what I am up against.  Today's cities do not look like the cities of the 50's.

Don't get me wrong, the older architecture has it's place in railroading, and a very much larger place than modern architecture, but one would think there would be at least some structures reproducing today's environment.

All the manufacturer's are striving to reproduce locomotives with the finest detail that are running on the roads today, but practically no one is making today's buildings.  I did find one company who is starting to make current day structure, but he has a very nice but very limited variety as of yet.  Nothing in 2-4 stories with modern construction materials, solar fixed pane windows, etc.

Some like these:






















If any one knows of a company providing either the structures or the parts to make modern structures, please share them with me.

Most of you know that I am about 9 months new to DCC, and have not had a DC layout for over 55 years now.

I understand block control as it applies to DC, but not to DCC.  How does block control benefit DCC, how can Block control let you know where your trains are and why would you need it.

I will start by stating, I don't care what the real railroads do in this case, as model railroads do not follow the same conditions as real railroads.  Model railroads must fit into much smaller areas and have much more dramatic changes in curves as well as grades as the real ones do.

That being said, what is better for maintaining knuckle couplers coupled, (assuming all the other things everyone will start off by bring up like trackwork, coupler height, etc, are not a contributing factor) body mounted couplers or truck mounted couplers.

It seems like truck mounted couplers have more up and down play in them to compensate for the transitions in changes in grade and the truck mounted couplers are always pointed where the wheels are, not where the body is, but is that good or not?  I know body mounted couplers are easier to adjust for coupler height than truck mounted couplers, in fact, other than using an offset coupler, I don't know another way to change the coupler height of a truck mounted coupler.

Again, please don't make your response based on what the prototype has, I want to know what works best on a model railroad in a room of a house, not a model railroad in a rented warehouse or the actual prototype!

Thanks