I was rummaging thru my stowage trailer today and found a whole new bunch of Peco large radius turnouts. So now I have more than I need. I went back and started looking at areas where I might insert the large radius Pecos for the mediums,....found a few.

Got to thinking about substituting two large radius Pecos for the single crossover Shinoharas? Looks pretty good visually, and would save me from replacing any metal throw bars on those older Shinoharas. Has anyone had personal experience with such a crossover using the large radius Pecos?? undefined undefined undefined

I realize the diverging tracks on these Pecos and the Shinoharas are different, but in this larger radius configuration it does not look to be a problem?

Just tried to "Mark All Forums Read" and received
"Authorization code mismatch. Are you accessing this function correctly? Please go back and try again."

So how do I use it correctly? Did I forget to salute first?


Walt

WPMA-61, the Mannheim Yard daily transfer from Camden, passes thru Chestnut Neck.

Bruce

   

Just curious if any members here use craft stores for their MRR projects. Here in Toronto, we have Michael's and DeSerre's. While these stores are often frequented by people involved in other hobbies — scrapbooking, painting, etc. — I’ve found them very useful for my MRR projects. They even sell scenery items such as ground scatter, trees, etc., and various glues. 

Most recently, I’ve been working on a small switching layout (approx. 1’ wide by 6.5’ long) and have added a fiddle yard to it, which is part of the 6.5’ length. I found these two stores to be great in supplying small pieces of foam and card to extend this layout, not to mention cutting surfaces and tools that I could use.

I’m partly curious b/c I recently saw a satirical website that was making fun of how these stores are geared to women, while the men who go there are bored. Sure, I have no interest in parts of their items, but it’s a goldmine of useful items in other areas.

I prefer DeSerre’s here in Toronto. Good selection and prices seem to be better. Are there others in Canada I should consider?

B6sb on Morris Trestle.     Charlie

I happened back across this posting I made to another forum a few years ago. Thought I might repeat it in its own subject thread as it is still very much a guiding theme with my new layout plan.
 
I just like Model Trains,...of all sorts....the scale miniaturization.

I'm particularly fond of steam engines, and particularly the large ones. I'm a fan of C&O, B&O, NW, etc, etc.
And as a kid of course I had the ubiquitous Santa Fe diesel engine,...those famous worldwide recognizable colors.

I had recently returned from Asia and was living in the Wash-Balt area when a company in Balt called Life Like made the bold move to really upgrade plastic trains to nice scale models. They introduced their Proto 2000 line. They introduced a whole line of detailed diesel locos, then they introduced that superb 2-8-8-2 steam engine.....WOW. They set a standard in plastic scale model trains that the others quickly followed. Bachmann, Athearn, etc all jumped on the band wagon to introduce their premium lines as well. Plastic detailing became an art that eventually was a rival to brass locos.

I was collecting a little of everything. I would buy some stuff that eventually got superseded by even better stuff, so I would attend the Great Scale Train Show in Balt and sell off older stuff and try to upgrade to the better stuff coming out. I would visit John Glabb's Peach Creek brass shop in Laural, Md, and droll over the brass locos which I considered beyond my reach, but then look what was coming out in plastic a few months later.

By this time I had collected quite a few steam engines of various lines, and principle a number of diesels from Santa Fe.
So when it came to planning my new layout, how could I choose just one time frame, or location, .....if I wanted to collect and run all of those type trains? I wanted to run steam and diesel, and I wanted to run east coast and west coast lines.....on one layout??

I've decided my trains are going to run from the east coast to the west coast,...Balt to Calif. I'll call it the Continental Connector. Balt will be on the lower deck and Calif will be on the upper deck.

Since I am not a stickler on time frames I'll be able to run both modern and older style freight and passenger cars on my layout, and of course steam and diesels. I'm going to have lots of staging that will present any number of variations,...including a few European trains I've collected. Yes it won't be prototypical, but it will be fun. And I hope to get a considerable amount of industry in this space as well.

Here's a screen grab I took earlier today.


   

The video can be found here.  It's somewhat shaky as I was about a quarter mile away using a 300mm lens zoomed all the way.

http://www.frontiernet.net/~fiatfan/test.mp4

Tom

permanent display!  

Attached Files

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A few years ago, someone gave me an old train set quality RS11 (I think was a Model Power). Then later, I was left with an unused Atlas/Kato RS11 drive, thus came the idea to build yet another RS18, this time a very specific locomotive that ran in my hometown in the early 2000s. It was an ex-CP RS18u that was chopped-nosed in the 1980s then acquired by NBEC. For years, we thought it would be cool to have this engine on the layout, now it was possible!

While the shell was cheap, I decided to go all the way with detailing and rebuilt the handrail completely by reusing the Atlas stanchions but using piano wire and brass for the handrail following a discussion with Doctorwayne. It was my first time bashing handrails and I was quite afraid... finally, I foudn out the process wasn't that intimidating and made for extremely sturdy handrails.

As it stands today, the model is a real Frankeinstein. Hoods are a mix of Model Power and Atlas RS18 parts mashed together, the cab is a heavily kitbashed Atlas one, the side sill is also Atlas while various detail parts are brass, 3D print or homemade resin parts.

Now, I only need to add window glazing, headlight lenses and touch up some details.

And now for the photo report:






























Enjoy!

Matt

I know of the Woodland Scenics foam risers, but I have never actual had occasion to use them.
https://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics....NCLDECLSET

When I looked them up I found they were only available in set grades of 2, 3, or 4 % grades. For some reason I had thought from their appearance that they could be stretched out something like an accordion to obtain a grade %  in between those set grades offered,....but apparently not so.

Does anyone else make such a variable grade riser set?

I have several locations on my new layout plan were I could make use of such an item