I'm interested in campgrounds that have some sort of railroad interest. Please post.

I'll start with Port Huron KOA. I-69 West of Port Huron at Wadhams.
This used to have a railroad along one side and a pair of cabooses that were slowly disintegrating. The cabooses have disappeared and the railroad is now a bike trail.
However, they do have a 15" gauge park train that runs around on weekends. (4-2-4, gas engine).

The New Year is almost upon us.
Like making life resolutions(Loose weight, quit smoking, stop drinking) Id thought I'd make a list of "Layout Resolutions".
It'd be interesting to check this list next year and see what was done.

Finish benchwork(Seven years, isn't done yet) Had a wall in the way that kinda put me off for awhile. The wall is now gone.
Finish laying track(See above)
Finish CNE engine facility-Wire roundhouse tracks, finish scenery(Big Bonus at work this year...Maybe replace old turntable with the Walthers Self indexing one, Use old turntable for S&W(Southwick And Winsted)
Finish and improve Winsted Yard.
Finish Winsted.(City)
Finish Norfolk.(Country)
Start Torrington(Another city)
Complete CNE/S&W interchange.
Find and paint two Bombadier Bi-Level coach cars in CDOT scheme(Already have the cab car)
Improve layout lighting.

Find the time to do the list.

I've never tried weathering anything before... and really this first attempt is just that, getting a feel for it all.

It kinda happened as an accident too, I was cleaning my brush after painting something else and was dabbing it in the thiner...which by the way is pretty dirty... and the phone rang, I reached for the phone not knowing that my brush smacked my RDC1 in the roof!

Then I'm like...hey that looks kinda neat... and thus it began. The general technique I used was taking some TrueLine Trains Warm Black on my brush and dipping it a couple of times in the thinner.. then I just sloshed it onto the loco with haphazard strokes...

my results:




Overall I'm not overly pleased with the results. I know I overdid it on the exhaust vents on the roof...and didn't put enough into the sides.... But overall I think it was a decent first attempt. I'll try my luck on an Express wooden reefer next!

Who else has ended up cutting their coupler hoses, since they drag on turnouts?

Greeting,

I have started to build some models for my N scale Railroad. What I’m finding is because it takes so long to find my tools, supplies and generally get started I’m getting very little done. So, I’m thinking of building a dedicated work station for all my modeling needs. I have a general idea of the design and would like to get some feed back from you fine folks here on Big Blue.

The specifications

Work bench 48” x 24” about 36” tall ± with drawers down one side (drawing to follow)

A hutch on top of the bench, 36” tall and 6” to 10” deep. With doors covering the upper shelf’s. (drawing to follow)

A magnifying work light and electrical outlet.

Storage for tools and supplies.

Construction material well be determined later to accommodate the design.
Any suggestions or ideas are greatly appreciated.

Happy New Year,

Joe

I am not even sure that I am posting this in the right place...
Here is the track plan that I am working on so far...

The red lines indicate a scenic divider (i.e. backdrop) On the top is the staging area. On the left side you can see the turntable sitting, all alone, that is where my yard will be. Obviously more needs to be done to make this a workable plan. I need to add some crossovers, a yard, ad infinitum.
If the resident planning gurus could take a peak at this and give me their thoughts, it would be most appreciated.
Crud, the dimensions don't show on the picture. The grid is in 3" increments.

Thanks,
Matt

Here is a slightly more useful pic

i have been gone for awhile and everyone has moved on i just got the link form ezdays good job here i like the colors of the old gauge better and how it this is set up mikey good choice. i see the rats that jumped ship over on the other fourm have found their way back home. just a shame i didn't get here sooner but i did get to keep my screen name i hate when i have different ones i get confused . but i hope to soon get back to the new layout as i had to trash it when it was 85% done due to water damage. so i am back at the planning stage .but the boys cat is not right after a zap .that the stupid fur ball gave both of us as i tried to cut the power to the room.wet cat + fuse box + my hand = zap hair on end for weeks

well guys thanks for the wlecome back home

Well, as you can see, there's not much going on technically speaking right now. In the next week or so I'm going to try to recreate a few tutorials that I have over at Zealot. I've got one on Power and one on using a VOM for testing.

Anyway, feel free to post some of your technical problems and solutions here. We're open for business...

This thread is, for now, a reader's digest version of the posts made over the course of a few years at the Yardbird Trains Yahoo Group.

I will open with a few pictures of the filing. You will see, as time goes by, the continued filing and filing and filing and sawing and grinding to gradually remove bits of zamac from the boiler and eventually the cab. I don't have a really nice picture of the engine pre-filing...shoulda woulda coulda taken one then, I suppose. Oh well.

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In this image above you can see the engineer's side. The cast-on details removed include the sand lines, injector pipe and check valve from the boiler, the stay bolts and piping from the firebox, as well as the generator, whistle, headlight above the running board and power reverse below.

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On the fireman's side, many of the same details were removed as well as the compressor casting and a big chunk of the running board. Also note the cast on air piping above the cast air tanks has been filed down. Originally I had planned on just adding new piping on top of that flattened area.

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Here you can see the hole drilled through the headlight mount (find the red circle). The hole drilled from above down through the mount was a smaller diameter than the hole drilled from below. It's like one of those tunnel projects where two teams dig, one from each side of the mountain, and meet in the middle. I did all of this drilling with pin vises (one for each diameter bit...saved me from constantly changing bits) by hand with plenty of time, patience, and Singer sewing machine oil for lubricant.

Galen

Hello Gents and Gals!

This is where I will post progress of my layout and other adventures in RR modeling on Big Blue. As indicated by the title my new layout when construction begins will be named the Scarborough Harbor Branch Line. As far as I know no such rail road has ever existed. So it is entirely fictional/freelanced.

The track plan...


The track plan is 16' x 15' x 1' 11" deep, HO scale switching layout. Based loosely in the mid 50's to mid 60's The RR will use a P2K GP7 and SW9/1200 to switch and move rolling stock to and from industries. The GP7 will act as the road switcher to deliver consists of cars to three customers; Obay Pharmaceuticals, Gern Ind. Food Grade Flux Division, and The Morgue Ales & Brews. One stub will be a team track that I can use to products and materials like coal, machinery (e.g. farm tractors) and other items to local industries. The layouts main feature will be a dock side scene that will include a Walther's Car Float, a RR Tug, and small dock which will act as an extension of the small yard along the harbor front. This is where the SW9 will find its home, switching cars on and off the float docked in the harbor, which will act as an interchange point for the RR. I'm still hashing out a car card system to move the rolling stock however I'm done with the track planning. I look at it and see opportunities for a four person session, two people per crew. Possibly a fifth as a yard master. Trains will mostly consist of 30-40 ft rolling stock with the occasional 50 footer thrown in for good measure. I should be able to make trains 8 cars in length, which is essentially what I was shooting for. The industry stubs are also long enough to make it look like customers who actually need to use rail service for delivery and shipment of products.

Anywho...no real progress to speak of. Except I spent the last couple of nights converting the SW9 I picked up on e-Bay from DC to DCC. The first real challenge I spoke of was removing the cab from the shell. I wanted to do this so I could replace the 1.5 volt light with an LED. You can purchase a decoder from NCE called the SW9-SR. This decoder will allow you to use the existing 1.5 bulb for the rear light. However, I wanted to use LEDs in both the front and rear lights.

First off the essentials to any meaningful decoder installation. Of course beer, wine, tea or coffee would suffice. However, its the holidays and my liquor cabinet fills up this time of the year with gifts of colourful bottles from guests and family. So allow me to indulge.


I understand for the experts and the seasoned folks here, this is old hat. However, there are a number of us still wet behind the ears kids who might find this mildly entertaining. For what its worth, I could not find much of any help on line to show me how to do this. So, if you have nothing important to do like watch your finger nails grow enjoy!

The first thing you need to do is remove the couplers. Then by gently squeezing the sides of the shell near the front and towards the back close to the front of the cab you can remove the shell from the frame. Actually, if you never put these together as it come in the box you can avoid this step all together. I put them together because I wanted to see it that way and had it do a few laps around the x-mas tree for fun and kicks.


So with the shell off, turn it over and gently pry off the copper contacts off the plastic stubs inside using a # 11 X-acto blade. The contacts are attached to the 1.5 volt bulb and I never did end up re-using them.


First you need to trim the hand rails to the cab door off the back. To do this I used a brand new #11 X-acto blade for a nice clean and flush cut. The hand rails are affixed to the cab and the battery box behind it. So you need to cut the hand rails off one of the pieces. The beauty of this is if you cut them flush when you place the cab back on, it looks like you never touched them. I did not re-glue mine either just in case I decided to remove the cab again for some reason or another.


Then squeeze the shell towards the back where the front of the cab is. This will allow you to lift the cab off slightly.


With some careful coaxing the cab will eventually pop off. It really binds in there and at first I thought maybe it was bonded in place. It's not.


So remove the guts to get at the housing for the light. The cab interior and window parts come out easy as pie.


Because I'm cheap I used a small decoder I had on hand from another loco. Pictured is NCE's D13SR. Also pictured are the LED's and resistors used for the conversion. I picked them up as a set at a Train Show a couple years ago. I do not know who makes them, however the amber glow they give off is something that has grown on me. Doc Wayne commented awhile back the amber LED's look more realistic in the locos, I have come to agree with him.


Intially I was going to use double sided tape to stick the decoder to the motor. However, the shell fits incredibly tight to the frame, so there is no room. So as seen, I placed a couple of strips of electrical tape on the back of the decoder and ended up just taping the decoder to the motor. Which works just fine. What I didn't take a picture of was the Plasti Dip I use to cover up my wire connections. It's like liquid electrical tape and cures in 30 minutes, 24 hours to harden completely. Just brush it on, go mix another drink and leave it.



So...I don't think I need to go over the basics of decoder installation. Deano and others have provided some excellent tutorials on how to hard wire one up. Here it is all wired up for motor testing sans lights.

Fast forward and here is 7403 with her shell on and all wired ready for action in the yard.


So I hope this wasn't too much. Just felt the need to get going on this. Hopefully this start will keep me honest and motivated.