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  1. J

    Where are the Great Young Model Railroaders?

    A lot of model railroaders picked up the hobby as a kid, then drop it when they reach girl-chasing age. As age catches up and spouses actively deter girl-chasing, hobbies like model railroading reappear. This was my pattern: active model railroader as a youth, still interested as a teen but it...
  2. J

    Pink or blue foam, Where?

    Indeed--Sacramento homes need insulation, but we need it primarily to keep the cold in, not out! I'm in Sacramento too, and have been on the same foam journey. I broke down and bought the beaded stuff. Although I'm pretty sure I have seen the pink foam at the Home Depot on Howe Avenue.
  3. J

    European subways and rapid transits in H0

    TEP, you've asked the same question over and over for months, and the answer is still the same: no. It's time for you to come to terms with the fact that you might have to scratchbuild this third-rail. It's time to move past denial and progress on to acceptance!
  4. J

    trains in movies

    The JW Bowker also portrayed the "Jupiter" in the Will Smith "Wild Wild West" remake, and on the TNT historical miniseries "Into the West." I caught "The Train" on late-night cable the other day, and it is now pretty much my current favorite railroad film. Instead of just being a background...
  5. J

    switching question

    I use a plastic Rix uncoupler, but it's basically just a barbecue skewer with a clip on it so I can stick it in my shirt pocket or my wheel-report clipboard. I use a couple of Kadee remote uncoupling magnets but a skewer is easier once you get the hang of them--and for those of us who would...
  6. J

    Question about SP passenger cars.

    Exactly. Streamlined cars in Daylight scheme on the mainline long-distance passenger runs, heavyweights on commuter service.
  7. J

    Steam locos compatible with 18" radius track

    The only problem is that there is no standard: as we have seen already in this thread, there are some big, long models that can handle an 18" curve that will derail a shorter locomotive. Generally, the more drivers you have the more tight curves will be a problem, but there are solutions, like...
  8. J

    Modeling a prototype locomotive. Sources?

    One thing for the OP to keep in mind is that there are a lot of model trains that have no real-world prototype: you can get models in the Santa Fe "Warbonnet" scheme of locomoties Santa Fe never owned, and the multitude of "Dockside" 0-4-0 models trundling about come in a plethora of roadnames...
  9. J

    Shelf Layout question

    The dog-bone approach sounds like it would be the best option: have a balloon track at each end so you can have your loop and shelf it too. The other option is to go traction: model a trolley line and you can have 6" mainline curves in HO. There are automatic-reversing kits out there...
  10. J

    Again to subways in H0

    Third rail is very much a specialty item, so it's pretty unlikely that you will be able to find it ready-made. Model Memories makes hangers for third rail, it appears that it is intended to simulate "under-running" third rail rather than the "over-running" style used in subways. Your best bet is...
  11. J

    Any starter sets in H0n2

    HOn2 isn't a starter gauge, really. Roco made the aforementioned HOn30 sets, and several modelers have used HOn30 equipment, mostly kitbashed from N scale track and mechanisms, to represent Maine 2-foot gauge equipment, but for the most part narrow gauge HO is more of an advanced realm. Not...
  12. J

    N scale city, highrises and Skyscrapers

    Whoa. Will you have room for trains?
  13. J

    Seeking RPO info

    The Pony Express gets a lot of attention but it only lasted for a year and a half before being abandoned--it was too expensive and slow, compared to carrying mail by rail. Not every railroad carried mail, but they all wanted mail contracts: mail was light and paid well. Mail turns a train of...
  14. J

    Greetings from California

    Sacramento checking in here, home of the western end of the original Transcontinental Railroad!
  15. J

    moonscape?

    There was an article in Model Railroader (I think in the early 1980s), in one of their April issues, on just this subject. The idea was to model more of an industrial-railway type of project than a high-speed one: something to carry goods from a spaceport to industrial sites on a lunar colony...
  16. J

    New inspiration from the train show.

    The secret to making a continuous loop into a straight mainline, as I am discovering, is to hide one portion of the loop. My layout plan is an around-the-room loop built with very similar approach (as a series of sectional pieces which connect together) and is also based on a prototype. How I...
  17. J

    Museum displays

    The California State Railroad Museum has a toy-train layout and a cluster of small dioramas of different model railroad scales. The railroad museum in Green Bay has a large club layout on the grounds that I found quite impressive.
  18. J

    what do non railroaders think of your layout?

    A General Electric steeplecab locomotive, recorded in 1965, and a Holman interurban combine, recorded in 1962, both in Marysville/Yuba City, California, on the Sacramento Northern. They were recorded by SN engineer Tom Irion and released as a vinyl record in the mid-1960s; I own a copy. There...
  19. J

    What season do you model?

    Late summer--harvest season. My layout has an agricultural focus so the busiest season for traffic is late summer to early fall, when there's a rush to get things to the canneries.
  20. J

    what do non railroaders think of your layout?

    Interesting...another fan of loud music, black clothing, and trains here--in my case, noise, industrial and punk, as both a fan and as a performer. As I got older and realized that rock stardom probably wasn't in the cards for me, my interest in other forms of "industrial metal" returned. I...
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