Has anybody heard from HercDriver? Or do we send out a search party? Maybe I just missed him.

Lynn

I don't like it when cars wobble and other such "it's a model" tell tale signs. I add springs in between the coupler screws and the car bolsters on my worst offenders. Typically this has to be below the truck to prevent the car from riding too high.

If you can't find appropriate commercial springs, it isn't difficult to make your own. Take a piece of 0.008", 0.015", or 0.020" diameter brass wire and heat it up with a flame. Let it cool. (heating will cause brass wire to become softer). Then take a rod...preferably metal...slightly larger than the diameter of the truck screws' threads. Hold about a 1/2"-1" of brass wire in one hand, perpendicular to the rod. Wrap the other end of the brass wire around the rod...tightly. Then slide it off the rod and you have a spring. Cut the spring to the desired length (I use two turns). Voila! I began doing this for Colorado Central truck springs...but the technique has eliminated the annoying wobble of my Branchline boxcar. Perhaps I should post pictures...

I've seen Traction tires used on steam locomotive model to give them that extra pulling power, but i'm curious if such tires are availble for Diesels and electrics.

Specifically, i have a couple electric locomotives that have problems on our club's 4% grade.

ALP44 and AEM7s locomotives are runts, and they have a tough time going up hill. My AEM7 managed to pull 5 cars up hill, Which is fine, but i would like to see if couldn't get a larger train to be pulled up hill on its own. Even one extra car would be amazing. If you are familiar with these locomotives, they are small and compact, and barely have space for a decoder, let alone extra weight.

I also have some super heavy E60 locomotives that I rebuilt from the inside out to be heavy haulers, but even they struggle when a prototype train it put behind it. It is most frustrating for the NJ transit E60, since it seems that on some days, an 8 car train is literally no problem, and it will rocket up that hill with ease. On other days, the E60 stalls out. It seems that this locomotive accumulates lots of grime, and it gives it enough traction to pull up hill, but once the wheels are clean, it can't pull anymore. Even though this locomotive is larger, there is also little space inside the model for added weight.

A single traction tire should do the trick. I especially want something for my E60MA. I might have to double head it with the one i'm building (I've also seen the "Three Rivers" in New Jersey with a NEC P42DC behind an E60MA) to pull a full Silver Crescent or other Amtrak long distance trains, but if i had a traction tire, the E60MA's power seems strong enough to handle it single handedly.

I've seen traction tires on walthers, but i'm not sure if they need special wheelsets or not. Any suggestions?

Can I borrow the maunual on activating smilies???? Apprently I am not holding my tongue right....(imagine smiley face here)

i joined the new site
i will still check to the old one, lots of information is shared there.
i hope this one becomes as successful as the old one

so who are the Canadian Modellers here any HO CN fans?

stuart warren
renfrew ontario

A few months ago when my switching layout was almost finished, I thought to have a second layout would be a good idea. After seeing Lance Mindheim’s Miami East Rail layout ( <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.lancemindheim.com">http://www.lancemindheim.com</a><!-- m --> ), I knew what I wanted to do. The bird’s eye view of Live Search Maps and the street view of Google Maps gave me all the information I needed to plan the new layout.

My new switching layout is a combination of scenes I found along the NW 58th and 59th Street in the Miami East Rail District. The trackplan is mostly based upon the tracks along the NW 59th Street. I scaled down an aerial picture to copy the position and length of the tracks for my trackplan. Somehow I like the idea to have an almost prototypical trackplan.

Space is at a premium in my layout-"room", so I decided to have a modular design with a permanent section and two removable extensions. The layout is L-shaped and the overall size is 168" x 70", i.e. the permanent part is 11' x 14" (consisting of two modules), the removable extension on the left is 5' x 9" and the short leg of the L is 2' x 6 1/2'. Both extensions can be attached and removed within a few seconds.



The track is Micro Enineering code 70 and as I like switching with sound equipped engines, I will run the layout with DCC. The era is modern, though I plan to switch back to the 1950s occasionly to make operation and taking pics more interesting.

As you can see in the trackplan, there is no runaround. To have a runaround that was long enough to be useful would have spoiled my prototypical plan. In the real Miami East Rail district there is no runaround either, the cars are sorted out on the main and then pushed into the spurs. The track at the front of the extension at the end of the long leg of theL will be used as a fiddle yard and represent that sorting on the main.

These two pictures give a glimpse of what I accomplished during summer. I completed laying track and wiring and I started to build some of the structures, though most of the structures are still simple cardboard mock-ups







I only made slow progress during the last few months, but now as summer is gone and days are getting shorter and colder, it is nice to spend some time in Florida.

I copied a request to this area:

by wgrider on Mon Dec 15, 2008 11:36 am
Just wandering if those that are in control of the settings if its possible to have the New Post button put up top as a sticky so that when a thread has been finnished being posted to or viewed we simply go to the top of the current page\thread and then click the New Post button. I may be doing something wrong but I'm finding I have to go all the way back to the parent directory to find the New Post button.
Lynn

Thought I'd go ahead and get a thread going again for my layout.

For all previous updates, you can view them at my website <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.upmodelrailroad.com">http://www.upmodelrailroad.com</a><!-- m -->

I'll post future updates here.

In actual layout news, I recently got my order of IDC connectors in so I'm planning on Friday to work on the mainline on the upper level. My goal was to complete the mainline by the new year, so this weekend is pretty my last chance to meet that goal before I leave for vacation for a week on
Christmas day. *crosses fingers*

I've also been busy blasting away and completing some building kits (as previous post shown). Using the Floquil/Testor spray paint has made this a breeze cause I usually dread the whole airbrushing routine. But the spray cans make it a snap and there's no worry about having clean up or anything. So I'm happy as a clam now.

I'm also about to try a new method for powering my staging cassettes. As simple as the copper contact strips are, I can't seem to get them to be reliable 100% of the time on every cassette. So I'm going to try using a 2.5mm plug for getting power to the cassette. More details on that once I get the parts in!

Transformers - not the kids kind, either. This actually started with BNSF,`so maybe this is the worng berth, but we'll see.

Three days`ago BNSF dropped off two humongous electrical transformers at ther work siding in Palmer Lake. Shortly thereafter, a fleet of semi's arrived carrying huge metal beams, loads of metal bracing members and 4-wheel road wheel sets, two forklifts, two mobile cranes...and a partidge in a pear tree. My wife and I decided to stop and see what it was all about, and got front row seats to what should have been an episode of Mega Movoers.

Moving like a highly trained drill team, the workers raised up the transformers, emplaced metal support stands, attached the big girders to the sides of the first transformer, then used the lughter bracing members to construct and and swing into place internal frameworks at each end between the main girders. Then wheel sets were attached, two sets at each end. Finally, the transformer was lifted, the braces removed and the transformer lowered onto it's 16 roadwheels. Then two semi tractors hooked on, on at the front pulling, on at the rear pushing, and the entire Rubegolderg assemblage motored slowly off down the country two-laner to the power substation a few miles away where the entire process was repeated in reverse to emplace the teranformer.

Then, of course, back to the siding to do it all over again with the second one. Altogether, it took an entire day to prepare one transformer to move, a second day to emplace it, a third day to ready the second one and the last day to emplace it. Then a half-day to reload and repack the fleet of trucks and finally the dust settled.

What an incredible performance.

Just wandering if those that are in control of the settings if its possible to have the New Post button put up top as a sticky so that when a thread has been finnished being posted to or viewed we simply go to the top of the current page\thread and then click the New Post button. I may be doing something wrong but I'm finding I have to go all the way back to the parent directory to find the New Post button.