Here is an Auto-Carrier Truck that i have spent the past couple hours building and detailing. I added detail parts to the Promotex Mack CH603 from Plano Models. The Auto-Carrier is from Walthers and came from the Auto-Loading Facility Kit. I have 2 of these Auto-Carriers, both are built, but i have to detail the other cab for it, so ill post that one when i finish it...

But for now, here is this one:














I added Front Fender Mirrors, Front Fender Corner Posts, and a Diamond Tread Cross-Over Platform to the cab from Plano Model Detail Parts. I also added Mack Mirrors, grabs horns, and the famous Mack Bulldog to the front hood

Man o'man... my layout is a headache. It's really depressing and has caused me to avoid my train room for about two weeks now. I tried again last night and got so frustrated I had to pull the plug before I started throwing locos and rolling stock everywhere.

I've finsihed my main line, and I've tried running trains, but nothing can make it the full circuit without derailing... I know for sure that I gotta replace the Atlas turnouts with Pecos, the Peco turnouts I do have seem to be pretty much flawless....

but the rest of the layout is giving me strong issues. My locos (daylight and challenger) keeps skipping the rails and giving me shorts/SVDA errors on my MRC Express, my Consolidation can't make it anywhere without stalling out...yet works fine on my test oval of bachman eztrack.

It's quite upsetting....

I'm so close to tearing it all up again it's not even funny... I need some tips on how to lay track thats reliable. I solder feeders every foot or so, and in the yard every leg section has it's own set of feeders. I've cleaned all the tracks with a bright boy and then atlas track cleaner with a nice soft cloth. I've even went around it with my Aztec track cleaner a few times and I'm still getting tons of stalls on straight and level track with my smaller locos. (the challenger stalls quite often too, but the Daylight is awesome)

I've even done a good cleaning on the loco wheels, and they sparkle as if they are new... so I know theres electircal contact there.


I'm using Atlas code 80 and Woodland scenic road bed for my track work. I use white glue to keep it all down, and I usually weight the track into the glue using cans of food and let them sit for a minimum of 10 hours before I remove the cans.

My wire for my bus is slightly thicker than the stuff Atlas sells, and the feeders are all atlas feeder wires.

I don't solder my joints unless it's flex...because my last layout had lots of issues when I soldered every joint....


Even my diesels are giving me issues... My intermountains stall more than any of my other locos...and my Atlas GP9 can't make it through the yard smoothly either.

My top performers are my Kato Daylight, Bachmann Heavy Mountain, and Bachmann J-class. Those three do not stall out and hold the rails the best...but still skip every once in a while....

minimum radius is 11... so I'm thinking I'm going to redo @ 13 minimum if I tear it all up (which I most likley will....aside from the terminal where I'll just replace the atlas turnouts with peco)

Hi Gang,

For those of you that are not familiar, I'm talking about Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

There is a crumbling elevated expressway that runs across the south side of the city, between the downtown area and the shore of Lake Ontario.

History:

The south side of Toronto ended at Front Street and the piers and docks along Lake Ontario.

When the Railways were built ~150 years ago, they were constructed on landfill over "Water Lots" that pushed the shoreline south into the Toronto Harbour.

All of the new land south of Front Street was industrial and was mostly cut off from the rest of the city by the railway corridor.

Eventually, during the 1960's an elevated cross town Expressway was built just south of the railway corridor. The expressway named for city planner/politician Frederick G. Gardiner.

In the late 1960's and through the 1970's the railways moved their main yards out of the area and the industries moved too, leaving behind an industrial wasteland.

Although the rail yards and service areas are gone, along with the industries, there is still a major railway corridor that carries regional GO Transit Trains and National VIA Rail through Toronto Union Station.

The area south of the rail corridor and expressway is being rebuilt with a lot of condos and some parkland along the water. The area is known now as Harbourfront and the East Dock Lands.

I hope that the above information paints a picture for people who are not familiar with Toronto.

The Gardiner Expressway is crumbling and costs the city a lot of money to maintain. There is now discussion on the future of the "Mistake by the Lake". Some people want to tear it down, while others want to maintain or enlarge it.

One plan is to replace it with a cable stayed viaduct built on top of the Railway Corridor.

There was an article last week [Friday] in the National Post [I think] that I read online will surfing around.

I didn't bookmark the article, but it contained a couple of links that I did Bookmark:

The first one advocates a cable-stayed viaduct above the Railway Corridor:
http://www.toviaduct.com/Home.html

This one is the public consultation...
http://www.gardinerconsultation.ca/

HI all.
I have the Bachmann EZ Command and the Nce Power Cab. I will run 1 loco ( 2 max ) at a time. All turnouts will be manual and no signals or other electronics.
The NCE puts out 2 amps and the EZ command has 1.5 amps.
My layout will have about about 150 ft of track total total. Would either of these controllers have enough power to operate the layout with out a booster? All I can find is how many locos each system will operate. Not how big of a layout. But I have heard about dcc dropping the signal ?
If not, could I use one controller for the yard/interchange area, and the other for the rest of the layout? Maybe unplug it from one section, walk around and plug into another section ?

Loren

I'll be getting some Bachmann products in a month. I plan to get an Amtrak Bachmann F40PH. I think Bachmann produces them in phase III colors, but I'm not sure. I'm bound to get 2 phase III coaches. Can a F40PH pull more than that in real life? If so, what cars do you recommend me to add? Please correct me about the phase III colors if I'm wrong.

Over in Bob's thread about his bashed mikado, someone asked about the layout it was photographed on.

Here's some pics I've taken of the Paris Junction layout - in the Paris Junction Hobbies store.

Here's the layout as it sits in the store (the clutter and debris varies from day-to-day ):



And here's the house loco, Paris Junction #101, a Bachmann GE 70 Tonner, custom-lettered by Bob:



Here's 101 with my (original) Athearn pickle car. I was offered some good money for that car before Roundhouse re-issued it. At least they haven't done the Heinz one (yet!)



Here's (one of) Bob's pride-and-joys, a Proto 2000 0-8-0 at the station (a DPM kit):



Here's 101 in front of one of the nicest structures on the layout, a kitbashed foundry from Railway Design Associates:



Here's 8410 working the yard:



And one I shot just to demonstrate to someone the differences between "scale" and "gauge":

Several pepole have asked me to keep the pics updated on this build. Rather than do so in my engine roster thread, I will do so here.

Well I cleaned off my work station (TV Table :) and I am ready to start my next project. Time to start my favorites...Tunnel Motors ;D

One is an RTR (only one I have) SD45T-2. This one won't get many modes done to it, but will get the standard details added.

The second one is a BB SD40T-2 that I plan to through everything at. I am going to open the grills, replace the nose, subbase, cab, filter box, blower, filter screens, turbo, and fans with cannon parts amongst other parts.

As you can see by the stack of parts on the back of the tray I am already helping Paul with his sales this year, and I don't even have half of the parts yet.



This is the scheme for the SD40T-2



And here is for the SD45T-2

Hi All,

I am looking at my ballast tubs here and have mainly medium sizes of WS stuff grey/brown/buff i bought these for N scale but want to know what sizes of ballast you use for HO ....... as i have tried a section beside the repair shop and it looks a bit small between the ties, also what colour of ballast would fit in with the switcher layout as it is really a busy yard.

Hi guys,
I have a bunch of locomotives from my son that have suffered some abuse from my grand-kids so Grandpa gets to fix them.
One of the locomotives is a Bachmann GS4 that has the parts from the front of the tender missing that attach to the drawbar.
I'm hoping one of you may have one and can post a picture so I can make one. A scan of the parts list would be nice too, but it runs great and the locomotive is damage free so I don't anticipate needing anything for the locomotive.
Thanks, Charlie

Left over from my days of modeling British outline back in the 80’s. All of the locomotives run but, keep in mind they are Grafar chassis, or in one case Lima. First photo shows:

#1. LMS 0-4-0 (Class 4F?) by Lima. This loco was purchased at Paul’s Train Shop/AMRO in New Oxford PA about 25 years ago. Amazingly, in spite of Lima’s notorious “pancake” motor, it runs quite well and quietly.

#2. LMS 0-4-0, D&M white metal on Grafar 0-6-0 chassis. Runs OK, noisy like all older Grafar, hesitates once in a while over switches but, could probably benefit from having the wheel contacts cleaned.

#3. LNER Class J33??, D&M white metal on Grafar 0-6-0 chassis. Same comments as for #2

#4. GWR Pannier tank by Grafar. Same comments as above.

Assorted wagons and a few extra tenders.

$50 plus $7 postage (domestic) for the lot.



Assorted British vehicles: $8 plus $5.50 (domestic postage) for the lot.



Take both lots for $60 post paid (domestic). Postal money order or PayPal please. If interested, please PM me.