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

My Champ decals arrived today. I'm disappointed in the passenger car details.

My order:
-2 packs of NKP steam locomotive lettering
-2 packs of NKP caboose letter, the High Speed Service version in their catalog is actually the steel 400 series cars of the 1950s...of minimal use to me...the plain white & black lettering version is what I thought the High Speed Service version to be...appropriate for the fleet of hundreds of wooden cars...and should work fine for me in the pre-High Speed Service years by leaving off that portion of the lettering.
-NKP Dulux gold passenger car lettering...for coaches
-NKP aluminum lettering...apparently they didn't plan on anyone using them to letter sleepers or Lounge cars...which was my reason for purchasing them... I might have to get custom decals printed for the car names...unless their are blue decal sheets out there...
- And a my primary reason for ordering was a set of Signature Series 1938 20th Century Limited decals. It only included the lettering details...none of the complicated striping!

For those whom don't know, the 1938 20th Cent Ltd was a very complex paint scheme. Aluminum stripes were at the top & bottom of each car (3/4" thick IIRC). Above and below the windows was painted light gray. The windows were particularly complicated. The series of stripes were at the window level. The car was dark gray at the windows, with 3.75" thick (iirc) aluminum stripes near the center, and had 2" (?) blue lines as borders above and below the windows. The following year, it was switched to a simplified scheme with the 3.75" lines becoming .75" lines and the blue lines became aluminum. The lines at the top and bottom of each car were dropped in 1940 or so. The more modeled paint scheme is the 1948 version with the grays reversed and simplified line work. Only a few cars served on both centuries.

Any ideas on sources to supplement the decals with aluminum & blue striping, or am I stuck using masking tape?

Any ideas on a source of blue letter transfers for HO cars? I suspect that Woodland Scenics Dulux Gold transfers will suffice for my future heavyweight fleet.

EDIT: as a happy note, the 20th Cent Ltd decals included non-'38 cars...such as the 1939 Commodore Vanderbilt Bedroom-Buffet-Lounge car Chittenango Falls which will be serving of my layout...my single favorite car of all time.

Hi guys, here is the tutorial i have been saying i would be doing for the past few months lol

Ive had several people ask me how i did my roads and crossings from this picture:



Well this tutorial will not include any pictures of doing a crossing, but after i finish this post on doing regular roads, i will do another post in this thread explaining how i did my crossing in the picture above with Woodland Scenics Smooth-It.

Before i begin, id like to not that
USING WOODLAND SCENICS SMOOTH-IT TAKES PATIENTS!
Please don't hold me responsible for your roads not turning out the way you would like them to when following this tutorial



TOOLS YOU NEED TO DO THIS:

• 1. Woodland Scenics Smooth-It
  2. Woodland Scenics Paving Tape
  3. Some kind of spreader (i used one that came with a package of paving tape and modified it to make it longer, see picture below)
  4. 3/4" Putty Knife
  5. 3" Putty Knife
  6. A mixing container with a lid
  7. A large cup of water
  8. Steel Ruler
  9. A Sharpie or other pen or pencil

For convenience sake, and to get like forums together, we've moved "Getting to know us", and "Mugshot spot" to the "Hobo's Camp" as sub-forums, and added a new sub-forum there for all to display their Gauge and Big Blue ID cards. Now, all the forum sections that deal with our members can be found in one place.

Also, "Forum Announcements" has been moved to the "Dispatcher's Office", since logically, that's where it belongs.

Nothing major, just a bit of housecleaning that we do from time to time.