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Not being an electronic whiz, could I suggest something based on a transistor throttle? these are able to cut the power way down but I think might require a major heat sink. Would an SCR throttle work? I think that a plain resistor would have to dissipate 90% of the current to the motor's 10%...

The reluctance to use 3rd rail has 2 prongs. One is trespassing -- even the TTC posts notices "Trespassers will be Electrocuted" -- and long sections with little supervision would be tempting. I think the other problem is low voltage. 3rd rail systems are mostly 600V while new overhead wire...

Party at Wayne's place! balloon6balloon6:band1: BYOT :steamtrain:

We used to be able to get lamps with a picture of Niagara Falls on them. Lamp was a cylinder and there was another cylinder inside that rotated to give the idea that the Falls was flowing. Probably shadows on the inside, powered by light bulb heat and a propeller.

Kevin: can you not find a simpler decoder? You could then save this one for a loco that has all the bells and whistles. (Finally, a chance to use that cliche literally) As long as bare ends don't touch you can either cut the wires back or tape them together for possible future use.

The last article (series) I remember was Thornburgh builds a Wabash Mogul, which started in MR's 25th Anniversary Issue, January 1959. I don't know how many segments, but I think it lasted most of the year. (I was missing most of the issues en before they got mouldy.) I also recall John Page's...

diode matrix You can reduce the number of controls required. I use a system where there are contacts on the control panel track dagram and a dangling wire; you could use push buttons. Using jesso's track plan as an example: you can set up a diode matrix for control. There are engineering-style...

For its time, the Whyte system was extremely elegant and simple. capable of describing the locomotives of the time and most of the ones that followed. With slight extensions it could describe almost all of the successful steam locos that were built, if you allow that it was only intended to note...

O and OO were originally 0 and 00 (numeric), but you know what happens when people start to talk numbers. Apparently the printers thought H0 looked awkward and set it as HO. S was once called CD (or C-D) scale by the ClevelanD Model Shop. That was not popular with other manufacturers. so Al...

Do you have a ammeter? Put it in series with Thomas and see what he consumes (Full speed, hold onto the coupling). If it's under .7 amp (and I expect it will be) the N gauge decoder will be OK. I remember one of the magazines commenting about one new loco how it was nice that they had provided...

I edited my profile to drop most of the non-railroad forums (I left the admin ones in, for some reason) so now I just hit the main page and "new posts".

Rob: my copy of the Model Railroader is sitting on the coffe table right now. Are you still looking for the article?

All decoders are supposed to work with all control systems. There may be occasional programming problems. What won't work together are different brands of control systems. You probably won't get NCE, Digitax and Lenz throttles and power supplies to work interchangably (I know that Lenz is sold...

You may find that scale people for your scale don't fit in your passenger cars, especially dome cars. This is because the material is so much thicker than scale. You may want to look for people in the next scale down -- for HO use TT (if you can find them). And you will find that moulded seats...

Our club held a mini-layout tour recently. There were 5 layouts open, including mine :mrgreen: and 2 carloads of members came visiting. Pictures taken on the tour are posted at http://www.theplatelayers.org/layouts/platelayers_layout_tour.htm (For security reasons the layouts are not...

If you have a really good model of a steam loco, you will see pipes coming down just in front of the drivers. These are the sand pipes. Every so often the fireman on a steamer would throw a handful of sand into the firebox. This would scour soot from the flues; it would be accompanied by very...

Rob: for several years the W-StJ ran between Waterloo and St Jacobs, with an occasional trip to Elmira. They ran with an F unit on each end. City of Waterloo built them a new station/tourist office to use. Some citizens in St Jacobs objected to the service. One cold winter night several years...

I used IVAR as a base for my layout. I used the middling height uprights and the appropriate shelves to make bookcases, the made pairs of L-girders to go over the top and carried on from there. The layout could be removed from the shelving if I needed to, except that it's really fastened...

Linear Induction is used on the Scarborogh RT line and some Vancouver lines that use successor equipment. I remember an article about a modeller who tried a similar tack. Steel rod down the middle of the track wrapped with a wire coil. A car with a horseshoe magnet under it and contacts for the...

Eric: as you take the loco apart, do the following: Take photos at every stage. Digital photos are cheap. Keep it straight where the screws came from. You can use a piece of foam and draw diagrams on it and mount the screws in them. Otherwise, draw diagrams and put the screws in labelled...