On February 28 and Mar 1 there will be a train show in Virginia Beach, Virginia. This is a nationally recognized train show. My beautiful wife and I plan to attend. For more info, PM me and I will be happy to send you the details.

Now is the time for your input to count, and this is the place to voice it.

Several people have asked about us having Big Blue Train Forum decals for starting a Big Blue railroad, or for just to decorate a car or two. We are thinking about having multi-color water decals, probably in 8 1/2" x 11" sheets. So I'm going to pose two questions for you regarding the decals, and one question regarding the general use of these decals. Note that these decals are independent of the vinyl stickyback ones we have already in the works.

1. The first question is in two parts:

1. should we keep the logo the way it is to put on our railroads, or should we adapt a name for the railroad and do the logo that way?
   
2. If we adapt a name, what should we call it? Like for instance, "The Big Blue Railway Co.", or "The route of the Big Blue Express". These are suggestions, we'd like to hear yours.

1. Should we have one sheet for each scale, or multiple scales on a single sheet?
   
2. What else would you like to see on the sheet besides the logo? Road markings, car numbers and/or other markings are some possibilities. I would like to make the decal sheet as versatile so it could be used to decorate several cars and possibly even a engine or two.

When I built my first modular layout, I had one place where I had to place a turnout right at the joint between two modules. Unfortunately I have no photos of that turnout, but....I was able to mount the turnout, and its motor on a short piece of 1/8" Masonite, which bridged the joint (with some strategically placed supports), and was "dry scenery'd " at each end. Through the several moves, before the layout was scrapped, I had no problems with the operation of that turnout.
I might think more than twice about doing that on a more repeatedly moved module, but at the once every three years rate it was fine.

Seeing the photo of the firebox posted here a few days ago got me thinking. A grate area that big will draw lots of air for combustion. So how and where does all that combustion air get into the firebox?

hey everyone,i have a few bridge questions for ya'.right now im building a small part of my logging layout and im finishing the trestles and bridges so i can lay track.i have a walthers truss brudge and was wondering,did they mix truss bridges with trestles? i have a small river/waterfall to span and id like to use what i have on hand.and if they did use them,in what manner would they attach the bridge? right now i have the deck just sitting on top of the pilings.and finally,did they ever curve track on a straight bridge?,as in was there an extra wide bridge to accomodate a curve?--josh

I have listed a few things for sale on e-bay in effort to raise a little extra money.

Some of these include Walthers Cornerstone Bridges, Bridge Track, Bridge Accessories, a CNW SD40-2 Flacon Service Set, a Walthers Cornerstone North Island Refinery Partly Assembled Kit, and a Custom Built-up and detailed Walthers Geo. Roberts Printing Building

They can all be seen on ebay under my user name if your interested: bnsfmodeler123

Here is a link: http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/bnsfmodeler123

I've read various opinions regarding DCC wiring...and with my birthday present - a Digitrax Zephyr - on the way, I'm trying to figure out what to do.

The basics of the layout: currently wired for DC operation, Peco Insulfrog turnouts, no reversing tracks, 16 feet length/14 inch width dog bone with 4-ladder yard, 2 mainline passing tracks. Currently there are three powered track joiners located on a front mainline, front mainline passing track, and rear mainline, all near the midpoint of the layout's length. There are four dead-end parking tracks for car storage and access to industries that are accessed from the yard.

Here's my question....... Does every track (including all the branch lines, mainlines, turnouts, sidings, parking tracks, passing track, everything) need to be constantly powered? Or...can I leave one or more parking tracks that can be reached from a Peco Insulated turnout "dead" for parking DC loco's? My idea was to have a dedicated track where I could park a DC-only loco and not have the DCC power constantly trying to spin the loco's DC motor by using the Peco Insulfrog turnout to create a "dead" track off the turnout. I've read that several large club layouts employ this technique, since members frequently forget to "turn off" their DCC loco's when they step away from the operations. This gives the chief operator the ability to park unused engines on a parking track and "forget them". I have several DCC articles and a book explaining DCC operations, but they contradict each other. One says wire every track, the others say you don't have to. This leaves me confused. I plan to run mostly DCC engines with one DC engine from time to time. I know the Zephyr can handle this arrangement (at least the online manual gave me that impression). And from what the manual explained, I can also use my "straight-DC" power pack routed through the Zephyr as an extra controller operating one DC loco while the DCC cab operates everything else (I believe they call this a "Jumper" arrangement).

Any ideas or advice would be most appreciated.

Thanks guys!

Hi All,

I normally use feed the toe of a turnout with power from the bus use ....... isolating joiners on all four roads coming out and add four droppers after the isulating joiners.

If i leave a gap between the end of the turnout and the following lines would this be sufficient to isolate the turnout rather then use isolating joiners still wiring as above ? the HO joiners are a little obtrusive if it would work this way i would prefer it.

Many thanks