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Caboose Ind. lists the travel for their throws on the website http://www.cabooseind.com/pr1.html . The sprung N scale has .135 inches of travel, you could measure your turnout and see if that was enough. I use them on my layout and I like them. The ones with contacts are a bit bulky. Power...

One of the little projects on my layout I recently did was adding in a tunnel portal to my hillside tunnel. I fabricated it out of cereal boxes and painted it two different shades of gray. I also went about painting the handles on my ground throws. They had previously been all yellow. I...

I just spent a few hours of my morning re-installing one of the two Atlas under the table switch machines on my layout. It went smoother then the first installation, but it still was a major pain. The switch machine has just enough throw to move the points from one side to the other. If you...

Sometimes you get the most fun out of the cheap models because there is so much you can do to improve them. I got a Bachmann engine and spent a lot of time upgrading the couplers and painting the hand rails. When I get an Atlas one all that is done for me.

The loco looks nice, one of a kind. What a color!

Wow that is a lot of wiring. Do you use the cat for power or just for show?

I added in another small hill in front of the bigger hill. It looks better now that the big hill isn't the only thing looming above the flat terrain.

The line coming into the freight yard looks like it comes in at too sharp an angle. Maybe if you made it a simple U shape. The incoming/outgoing track would be against the edge of the platform and against the wall and the yard would be on the inside. It would probably require a bit of...

I have used the Caboose Industries ground throws on my layout. I have used the sprung kind and they have worked wonderfully. I found I had to raise them up with a piece of styrene. Other then that the were very easy to install, much easier the the Atlas under the table switch machines I also...

I am trying to picture that. You mean that the hill should come out further to where the curved track is, and the curved track should be in a bit of a cut?

I built a mountain this weekend. I think it looks a little out of place since the rest of my layout is still entirely flat. Right now it has not been attached to the layout. I am thinking of making some holes in the bottom of it and having it mount on dowels that come up from the layout. I...

This weekend I was able to get the wiring finished up and clean up the layout enough to put out some structures and run some trains. I am excited to finally have a running layout again!

Interesting idea. I do have a few spots on the layout where I had planned for a building but didn't have any particular one in mind. Here is a picture of the control panel I wired up this past weekend

Looking good! If you wanted a big elevator, maybe you could have the top sidings start all the way in the upper left right after the curve, and run the length of the layout along the top.

Do you have any more info on the open house? Location, hours?

Yes that is what I was thinking. I had envisioned it all the way to the right on the siding, but I see what you mean now about there not being much room on the lead at that point.

I wasn't planning on paint the ties and rails. I don't have an airbrush and so it never was on my mind. But if I were to do it I suppose the right way would be to paint the track and ties before putting them down. It is always something to keep in mind for the next layout.

Looks good! Going door size is definitely a good idea if. I am working on one a door sized layout myself where I previously had a 2.5 by 4 ft layout. The extra straightaway space makes it look a lot more realistic an easier to fit in industries. The one suggestion on the plan I have is to...

This past weekend I did most of the wiring under the layout. I still have a few more connections to solder but I was able to run a train this week! I got the main line powered up but I still need to wire up the control panel for the sidings. I plan to have three different blocks (each of the...

On my last layout I had the same problem, and it normally occurred around my switches and ground throws, where I had done the first pass of ballast lightly. I am very happy with it so far since it looks good and I haven't even done the ballasting yet.