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Back in '97, we took a trip out West. One of the places we visited was the Transcontinental Railroad "Golden Spike" site in Utah.
After the ceremony was over, I decided to head West and travel over the old Central Pacific roadbed once we left the National Park site. It was neat to me knowing that over 100 years ago, the old steam locos were traversing the same route I was on.
I had an all-wheel drive van so I often got off the beaten path when we went places.
I found some old spikes and tie plate bolts along the way. I wondered how old they were and if any were originals. During WWII, they  pulled up all the track to use the metal for the war.
I also have a video on Youtube from the ride on the old C. P. route.
That's the Great Salt Lake on the left.
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The video. Just imagine you are riding in the cab of a noisy, hissing, steaming, smoke belching 4-4-0 headed back to California. The very last part of the video, I took a detour up a hill to see what was on the other side.

I made this for someone on Facebook but it might be of interest to someone on here. With Bachmann's connector wires, I take a black magic marker and run a line on one of the two wires so I can keep them oriented to pos and neg.

I have two Bachmann DC controllers. Neither one will operate a loco in reverse. I have swapped them out and tried different DC locos.
They work fine for running the locos forward, but when I hit the switch to run backwards, nothing happens.
When I use the DC controller, I unplug the DCC controller and plug the DC one in. The controller is run through the Bachmann booster to the track.
Any ideas? Could both of the DC controllers be bad?

Will this trolley (Spectrum #80203 Single Truck Birney Street Car DCC) work with  Bachmann's autoreversing system?
Is the trolley dual mode?
*****  I found my answer - it is dual mode *****
I'm going to put a trolley on my Christmas layout where I have my "Main Street". I'll use some flex track to bend it around the corners then lay something on it to cover the ties.  I need a 4 wheeler because I'm going to about a 7" radius at the end corner.
I have a Tyco/Mantua trolley but it isn't lighted.  I tried it and it seems to do the 7" ok.
I don't know if I want to spend all that money for a new Bachmann one just to get the lights. I might try to light the one I have.
I'll take the auto reverse system stuff off of the E-Z track and solder it to the flex track.

I was watching Tale of Wells Fargo the other night and one scene was shot behind the Sierra Railroad roundhouse. This is from a 1957 episode.
The Sierra Railroad roundhouse is in the background. Jim Hardie (Dale Robertson) is talking to Belle Starr (Jeanne Cooper). Famous movie loco #3 is pulling the train.
(Some of you soap fans might recognize Jeanne as Mrs. Chancellor from The Young and the Restless.)

Someone on Facebook asked about wiring his layout for three separate loops using E-Z Command. I showed him how I did it using stereo "Y" connectors. Someone on here might benefit from this.

I'm still looking for a Bachmann On30 DCC 2-6-0 Mogul tender. I don't even need the body. Just the chassis with the PCB board and connector harness. Does anyone have one they want to part with?

I searched and searched online for this loco. I figured it would be in a museum somewhere or on a tourist railroad. It looks well preserved. A number of things to look for - Old style pointed cab roof instead of rounded. Old box headlight instead of newer rounded one. Radley & Hunter stack. Straight boiler with no hump in back. Three domes when most old locos have two. Star insignia on front of boiler. #1 on front dome.
The two pics look like the same loco.

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I've had this Digitrax PR4 decoder programmer for a few months. It looked like it was going to be a major ordeal to set it up so I shelved it for a while.
It involved changing computer settings and dealing with device manager and com ports and installing software. I was hesitant about doing all that on my everyday laptop because I didn't to be messing with all my settings.
A couple of weeks ago, I broke out my old Dell laptop that I hadn't used in at least a year. (It was very slow. That was why I had gotten a new HP one.) I got the Dell all up to date with all the Windows updates.
Today, I got the Digitrax stuff all uploaded to the Dell and got the PR4 to work. It was a major accomplishment and took a couple of hours to get everything right.
I just successfully changed some CV's on my F40PH to get it to start quicker and stop quicker. I had never done anything with decoder programming before.
Now, I have no reason to get rid of my E-Z Command and switch to something fancier.
I'm very pleased now.

Cool pic of Wabash and Gulf Mobile & Ohio backing into St. Louis Union Station - 1954
From a pic that John Fulmer posted on Facebook.

This is some of the most realistic model railroad scenery I've ever seen.

A train ride around the Christmas layout. I made it today. The date is off. At the very end, after I shut the video down, I tried to back the Mogul up and the camera caught on the corner of the tunnel. The loco and tender fell over and I broke some tender wires while trying to extract it.

I have a dilemma now. On my On30 DCC 2-6-0 Mogul, 4 of the wires broke from the tender connector that plugs into the loco.There's no way I can fix those.
Does anyone have a spare DCC Mogul tender I could buy? I don't need the body or decoder.
I would rather do that than try to solder little wires.
If not, I looked in the parts section.
There is an HO connector - Connector 6 plugs large ( HO Universal ) Model: CONNIE-10548 8".
Is this the same one used in the Mogul?
If so and I order it, how can I find which wires go where on the pcb board? The wires are all black. There are only two wires still connected on old one so I tell where they go.
What little soldering I have done hasn't been little bitty stuff.

I discovered copper tape last year. I didn't know it existed. Copper tape can used instead of wire for some things. It's flat and doesn't take up much room. I bought a couple of rolls and put it to good use.

Here my Mogul stops to pick up passengers on my layout.

Here's my Thomas Christmas train.

Here's one of my projects that I did a few months ago. Sport Utility Diesel.
Bachmann F7A body on a Walthers F40PH frame.

          I'm happy to see the forum back. I click my bookmarked link every day, hoping to see it up. I was so surprised when I just clicked it. Many thanks to the "powers that be" at Bachmann. I sure missed this place. I hope all the "old guys" return.

So you want to build a railroad bridge for your layout. London's Cannon Street Bridge.

https://www.google.com.br/maps/place/Cannon+Street+Bridge/@51.507788,-0.0954146,650m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x487603f03e9772d9:0x400c6eb7433457f7!8m2!3d51.5084599!4d-0.0918446

I'm fixing to jump into uncharted territory here and try to solder some little bitty wires. What do you guys use when soldering stuff to PCB boards? I have a Radio Shack soldering iron but I think it's too big. Like a little bitty tip maybe? Do they make those?  I have not done much soldering at all in my lifetime.
I took apart my wounded On30 Porter and I'm going to try to use the decoder, sound, and motor in my HO Lifelike Teakettle. I tried to put the Tea on the Porter chassis but that wasn't too good and this will work out better I hope.
Since I took the big motor out of the Tea, I should have room for the Porter motor and electric stuff. I'll cut the front of the boiler off the Porter so I'll have the headlight and wires intact and put that on the Tea chassis. I'm only using the old Tea body for now to see if it can be done. I have a new Tea to use if it can.

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