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Chasing girls while they're still young. This is a hobby that's traditionally not taken up until retirement or a midlife crisis. The focus in the media through the years on the youthful side of it is a result of this. Model Railroader had a column for students because they were a niche within...

There's always basket weaving. That doesn't require any solder, near as I can tell. ~BS

From what I recall from my HO days the brown paper towels work much better for this. It's pretty common throughout the older model railroad how-to books. I'd suggest visiting your friendly local Tim Horton's manager and asking about getting a roll.

The March 2008 issue of Railfan & Railroad has drawings of the inside of the Metra and Caltrain variations on the MP36.

Nope. My reference book says a C30-7 is 67' 3" and a C32-8 is 67' 11". Besides, what's the odds of Kato even rerunning the C30-7, much less producing an entirely new locomotive?

I'd say you're simply trying to cram too much stuff in for the space. If you remove about half the elements in the plan it'll be much easier to work on. Focus on just two towns on the route and model the branch only as staging. Ian Rice has some great designs for simpler layouts in his books and...

That's correct, and I was pointing out the correct name to use since others hadn't mentioned it yet. The misnomer "high level cars" was used previously in this thread.

Now that I've actually read the replies I'll add more to the discussion. For starters, Amtrak consists vary by season, so the month you model will have an impact on what the train looks like. Amtrak also dropped the freight business on the majority of their trains in the last few years. The last...

Amtrak goes though this every budge cycle. It's basically a non-issue anymore. Amtrak will request X for funds, Congress will toss it about for a while and approve Y, and Amtrak will make do with they get. ~BS

There are plenty of Amtrak fan sites online that have this information with a simple Internet search.

It would probably be best to minimize the number of transitions and make one portion of the layout Unitrack and one portion Atlas. Other brands of track can be mated using regular joiners instead of the Kato ones but these joints are awkward to make. Having fewer of them will make construction...

Very cool project! Though, I must say, it's much more well kept than most American museums are. ~BS

Although I use flextrack and Atlas turnouts on my permanent layouts I do have a small collection of Unitrack to setup on the dining room table for an impromptu layout when I feel in the mood. I can see why people would choose it for a layout, it's durable and easy to work with and looks pretty...

Because Union Pacific said so.

I just use them as they are. Like you said, they're easy to work with and very reliable. I have a second layout that I'm working on now that'll be more refined to scale with code 55 and 40 track that will, obviously, not have them. But for ease of use they can't be beat if you're not into...

A C39-8 would have a slightly broader appeal, but it's still a rather obscure locomotive. Passing one off as the other would be a tough sell, too, given the different lengths and number of hood access doors. ~BS

Only ten were built for one railroad and even with the proliferation of second-hand owners there still aren't enough road names to make it viable for a manufacturer. There have been articles on making one over the years, but not in N scale, to my knowledge. ~BS

No, and there's not a readily available model of it in any scale either.

There have not been railroads for three centuries, let alone models of them... Larger, more expensive scales don't have to cost the modeler anymore. An O scale engine alone might be $600 compared to $100 for an N scale engine. In the same space, however an O scale modeler might build a...

I gathered by your user name that you were from Michigan, even before I looked at your profile. That's quite a shack in your photo on QRZ! Since you're in N scale the easiest way to go about this would be to collect the Atlas 40' PS-1 boxcars. They were introduced on the prototype in 1947 and...