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Is your layout double tracked all the way around? If it is, it might make more sense to turn whichever track is closest to the yard into a lead and just single track in front of the yard. That makes a bit more of a challenge to operate as well. You can't just turn em loose and let em run...

Bachmann Spectrum is an excellent choice. For kit bashers the biggest problem is that every railroad's steam fleet was pretty much custom built for that specific railroad. The closest thing to standardization were the USRA designs, and some were more popular than others, but of the hundreds of...

Bachmann Spectrum is an excellent choice. For kit bashers the biggest problem is that every railroad's steam fleet was pretty much custom built for that specific railroad. The closest thing to standardization were the USRA designs, and some were more popular than others, but of the hundreds of...

I'm not sure when I will get back to the museum, but when I do, I'll try to get you as many pics as I can with some key measurements for you.

Do you have a yard lead going off the mainline? It could be a track running parallel to the mainline, but it should be long enough to hold an entire train. The yard lead could start at the mainline at mainline height and then coming out of the switch let the track come down to yard level at...

I don't know how accurate the lettering is on the side of the model regarding build date, but if it is accurate, giving us the build date from the side of the car would help to determine what type of brake system it had. You can't presume that wood sided cars were early 20th century because...

Nice model, Ralph. That is really a cool scene.

I think most of Ward Kimball's prototype collection was donated to the Orange Empire Railroad Museum. If the passenger car is included in the collection at the Grizzly Flats building and you need any detail photos, send me a p.m. I'm a member of the museum and live about 1 1/2 hours away.

Yard tracks are generally not on ballast comparable to mainline tracks. I think the exception to this would be hump yards where cars are cut loose and allowed to coast through retarders to the correct track that the yard master wants them on. A derailment in a hump yard would have the...

The problem is that no matter how you do it, butt welding the beams to the bridge supports won't pass inspection. You need to raise the bridge enough to have the "X" pass under the entire bridge support system. If you are concerned that you can't extend the truss bridge without the seams...

I think a barge would be an easy first scratch building project.

I don't know anything about the company, but most reputable manufacturers will protect their customers (hobby shops) by selling their products at full list. If the manufacturer starts discounting product to a price below what the hobby shop pays for the same product, it really undermines their...

Dan, is the truss bridge long enough to span the 2 stone abutments that the truss and girder bridge are using for their respective ends? I'm thinking that the through girder bridge could reverse positions with the truss bridge. I think you could shorten the girder bridge, if needed to fit the...

I think the procedure was to load from the center out and to load one row on one side then a row on the other side in order to keep from unbalancing the float and turning it over. The float would be unloaded in the opposite order from the outside in and alternating sides.

I haven't tried it, but I don't think an Erie built F-M shell would fit the E-6 chassis. You might be able to remove the mechanism from a powered E-6 b and put it into the dummy Erie built b, but that would involve total dis-assembly and reassembly of the unit. I'm not sure how the Erie built...

Are you still in So Cal or was this last pic posted after you got back to Az.? If you are still in So Cal on the weekend, the Orange Empire Railroad Museum is a fun place to visit. They have an interesting collection of old trains and trolleys with a passenger train running about 3 miles down...

Dimming works with incandescent lighting. Flourescent bulbs generally will be damaged if you try to dim them. The down side of all incandescent lighting is that they use a lot of electricity and produce a lot of heat. If you want to dim your lighting to simulate twilight or even night time...

One distinct advantage to consider whether you model a barge or ferry is that a float built on a cart that lines up with a dock on the edge of your layout can become an excellent "off stage" staging yard for a layout built in a small enough space that there just isn't room to install a staging...

I don't think weight is a real consideration of the load on a decoder. Weight is a function of torque of the motor overcoming the resistance to turn. The max load on the motor is locked rotor amperage, no decoder or motor will live with that load for long. That is why emphasis is made to make...

Right on. Refrigeration units don't "make cold." They remove heat. As long as they remove heat from a space faster than the heat leaks back in from the outside, the space gets colder. Once you reach the point where the heat leaks back in faster than the unit can remove it, the space stops...