In "Out of Scale" 1951, Donald Duck got his model train at about the same time I received my first one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fj5BU9QTeE

 I recently bought a used Rivarossi Hudson & a used Rivarossi Hudson Dreyfus to run on my DCC layout using address 00, which is designated for DC locomotives by my Digitrax Zephyr.  The Hudson screeches when I run it faster than low, 2.  The Hudson Dreyfus does not make noise at any speed.  I lubricated both locomotives before running them.  They came with no diagrams.  Might there be a part under the locomotive's shell that needs lubrication?  Is there any other possible cause for the noise?

 Why are 4-6-4 locomotives so expensive in DCC?  The prices seem to run $300 or more, but the models have sound.  I haven't found any that are DCC without sound.  I bought my Bachmann 4-8-4 new for less than $100.  It derails on my 22" maximum curves, so I think a 4-6-4 would suit me better.  I wonder why Bachmann has none.

 After getting my F7A to run again by having its wheels cleaned, I next had a problem of power to its track being interrupted.  I have 3 concentric tracks, each one wired separately.  The F7A-B runs on the middle track, the only one without a terminal rerailer.  I got a terminal rerailer to make a better connection.  The next problem was that one or another passenger car uncoupled when the train ran on one long side of my oval, but not on the other side.  I have 22" curves, but the uncoupling does not happen on a curve.  I have 4 Bachmann passenger cars about 76' long & 2 Athearn 72' passenger cars bringing up the rear.  Last night, I tried running the train at full throttle.  I'd assumed that running the train faster would only increase uncouplings, but there were no uncouplings during a dozen or so laps!  I'd also assumed that uncoupling would be more likely to occur on curves.  Neither assumption has proved to be true.

 Since I can't find an announcement by Joe Satnik this year, I'll mention that the annual train show in Menomonie, Wisconsin will be at the Menomonie Middle School on Saturday, April 14th & Sunday, April 15th.

 I learned about this program only about 2 hours before it ran.  David Suchet, who plays Agatha Christie's detective, Hercule Poirot, in Murder on the Orient Express, takes a trip on today's Orient Express, provides some history, & inserts excerpts from the new dramatization of the novel.  Maybe it will be re-shown.

 I just bought a 60' Milwaukee Road wood chip gondola car.  I am wondering how to get wood chips for it.  This should be easier than the twigs I cut & glued together for my 60' wood pulp car last year, I hope! 

I just searched & didn't find any post on this topic.  At the local train show last Sunday, I saw some HO woodpulp cars whose loads looked so realistic with bark on the logs that I wondered if the hobbyist had cut twigs by hand to make the loads.  Since I thought I might hear, "Are you kidding?", I didn't ask my "dumb" question.  After the show was over, I suddenly got a craving to have a woodpulp car.  So has anyone here made his own woodpulp load of real wood?  Buying a plastic load doesn't appeal to me.

 Here's a nice story about railfans & good neighbors:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6045962n&tag=related;photovideo

 I'm looking at an LNER Class A4 4-6-2 Mallard Live Steam Set in HistoricRail catalog.  One fills the tender with distilled water & a "low voltage electrical heater in the tender safely heats the water & sends steam to the locomotive's drive cylinders for realistic operation."
 
Do any of you steam devotees have a live steam locomotive?  I wonder how they run:  how long on a fill & how fast.

  Take a look at this:  http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330335995141&indexURL=0&photoDisplayType=2#ebayphotohosting
Of the 3 Rivarossi Hiawatha F7s I've seen on eBay, one sold for $265; one went unsold at $450; & this one has been bid up to $500!  They don't have sound or even DCC.  It seems a good time to make a DCC one.

 I've detected no regularity in the passage of trains here.  If I had a timetable, I'd be taking a lot of pictures.  Today, I got lucky.  After hearing the whistle at home, we drove a mile or so to the crossing.  I expected the train to have gone past, before we arrived.  Indeed, the crossing was empty.  I drove over the tracks & parked, anyway, & they appeared.  Since I'd once seen a UP switcher on a siding here & see UP trucks by the office, I expected to see a UP locomotive.  Instead, I saw two Southern Pacific 4-axle locomotives in consist!  I see a small UP sign on them, too.  Among other cars, they picked up two tank cars from the nearby Quality Liquid Feeds storage station.  I don't know whether the QLF tank trucks bring the feed to be stored & loaded into the tank cars, or it is the other way around.

  Perhaps, someone can identify the model of the locos:
http://s547.photobucket.com/albums/hh465/wlaine/Local%20Trains/

 Recently, the F7A unit of my Intermountain F7A-B DCC with sound consist began losing electrical contact.  I cleaned the underside of lint & fuzz, but that didn't seem to help.

Meanwhile, last night, I tired of my Bachmann 4-8-4 continually derailing at the same turnout.  I'd twice added weight to the front truck.  Sometimes, it would run a dozen laps before derailing, but lately, it has derailed after 1 or 2.  So, I retired it to the train yard.

I had both trains on the same oval of track.  The F7A-B never derails on the turnout.  Without the 4-8-4, the F7A resumed normal running.  I tried it again tonight, & it ran fine.  With 5 amps of power, it can't be that I had too many trains running.  Is there a possible connection between the presence or absence of the 4-8-4 & the F7A's operation?

 Four months after I pre-ordered it, my BlueLine DC with sound SD40-2 UP arrived.  Monday, Tony's Train Exchange called to say that they were ready to ship, but my credit card had expired.  I was told that some BLI preorders take 3 years.  I suppose some of the customers expire during that time!

After running it in DC, I installed a Digtrax DN143IP DCC decoder.  Since I'd left my BlueLine DC with sound Heavy Mikado on address 3 after I'd installed a DCC decoder, I wondered whether the separate sound & DCC decoders would work at a different address.  I had no problem changing the SD40-2's address from default 3 to 4 with EZ Command.  I also changed the 4-wire plug from J1 to J7, because I wanted to be able to turn the lights on & off from my EZ Command.

I like its horn!  It sounds like what I hear, clearly, from the railroad a mile away from inside our house with the windows closed.

One of the oscillating ditch lights does not come on.  I think both worked in DC.  I'll wait a day before removing the couplers & shell & putting all that back together again.

 Reading the manual for MRC Prodigy Advance, I found Fast Clock & settings for time ratio.  The manual is too brief to explain the use for such a feature (or its other complex features) but refers one to "How to Operate Your Model Railroad" by Bruce Chubb.  I looked up the book on amazon.com & found that it was published in 1977 & costs $49 used!   HO minutes & hours don't seem to equate with HO feet & miles.

 I was just informed by a country-western fan that the RFD channel has a weekly program on Mondays, "Trains & Locomotives."  Has anyone here seen it?  I'll be checking on it next week, probably at the 3 a.m. repeated showing, because we watch news during its 5-6 p.m. showing.

Does anyone sell backgrounds for layouts, something like poster board decorated with HO scale trees & sky above them?  This would be a good opportunity to paint--if I had the artistic ability. 

 I just saw a video of someone running his Hiawatha F7.  Until then, F7 meant streamlined diesel to me.  Is anyone currently making HO models of these streamlined 4-6-4s?  If sometimes find the lettering & numbering of kinds of locos puzzling.

 I haven't read a mention of this PBS series here.  A new season of it began in January.  I hadn't heard of it until I just saw DVDs of the programs for sale in Historic Rail catalog.
http://www.tracksahead.net/

 Did you see this, Joe?
http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_12020334?nclick_check=1