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well, It's taken me about two and a half years to get to this point, mostly due to several long hiatusses caused by the aggrevation. However, since all of my track, and all of my locomotives are now running, I'm suddenly on the "Fun" side of the curve. And I forgot to mention the joy of...

Simply knowing there is a sped limit, plus the old axiom of "no more than four" for coupling operations does the job for me. I don't have a sophisticated enough set up to be able to actually state how fast my locos are going. About all I can do is slow them down as they approach the yards, and...

I'm betting on the reverse current generated by the motor. With a 1000 Ohm resistor, there shouldn't be any problems of burning out your LED unless you've got way more voltage running through your system than I suspect. Still, I'd think you'd want some kind of voltage regulation in there...

Maybe I should build a control board... Problem is, I'm in N-scale, using snap switches, and don't always trust my switches to throw correctly! Alas, building tiny sets of contacts to reveal their actual position will have to wait till I fix everything else.

The photos took a while, as I had to scrounge up a pair of double-A batteries for my camera. And from the other end, just over and to one side of the coaling tower... As you can see, it's still a bit sparse out there, and I've made a lot of mistakes along the way. for example, the sheets of...

Okay, so there's more than one reason to love this hobby, and quite a few not to. But for me, the biggest reason to love it is that I can draw a huge amount of satisfaction from solving even minor technical problems. Which means that a well running layout doubles that satisfaction with a...

I've got enough space I could have built a decent HO scale layout, but much like what you said yourself, what I can do in HO, I can do twice as much of in N. I've had a few catches myself trying to solve some problems in N, like increased difficulty dealing with tiny problems, like a...

Oddly enough, one of my best runners is my cheapest locomotive, so sometimes you get lucky. What I meant when I said "a cheap ten wheeler" was it might be worth my while to spend say, $60 on an almost disposable model to test out whether it has any real chance of running my tighter curves. At...

Hey, I think you just isolated one of the remaining problems on my layout, switches after a curve! Now I know what to tinker with if my problems resume.

well, I haven't got any pics to post here, but I'm getting a real good idea what I need to do with my layout from some of yours. -Backdrops (so I don't have doors/windows/light switches in the skyline) -detail at tunnel entrances -Lighting (Herc Driver, your pics showed me why I need to do...

The Accella looked about right, but I'm actually wondering about the length of the other two trains. I'm not sure I've ever seen a passenger train quite so long. On the other hand, there is something about a passenger liner flying along that's just so very thrilling.

Clearances are in all locations adaquate for anything I care to run, so the length of a passenger car wouldn't be much of an issue. My problem tends to be derailments do to the fixed length of the drivers. I've got most of that fixed now, but I still get the occasional trouble spot. I really...

I'm not modeling any specific railroad, so I'm definately not held to any particular prototype. An F7 could be fun, but I'm concerned that would look a bit odd on my otherwise steam based layout. And a correction to my earlier statement, the period seems to be roughly 1920-1940. Although...

For the last couple of days, I've been considering starting up some passenger servicce on my railway. I'm just not sure what type of locomotive to use. I've got a Norfolk Southern J series, but it started smoking when I ran it yesterday, so is now on permanant shelf disply. I love the look...

heck, if I can go to another vendor and get the same locomotives, but already DCC equipeed, I'll be in hog heaven. Especially since I think the decoder in my 2-6-6-2 died yesterday. I don't care much for traction tires, as 1) they can lead to an unrealistic amount of traction, and 2) what's...

ah, but if you had 55 square feet plus walkaround room, wouldn't the voice of reason insist on using such space?

I wish I had the cash to buy a second 2-6-6-2, just so I could do a better job installing the DCC. Frankly, that was a real pain for me, and it's taken me a year to get the thing running right. As for it's performance, (when I can keep it running), mine has no trouble pulling the 7-9 cars I...

I was just wondering how some of you feel about Bachman's steam locomotives. Right now I own five engines, but one of them is an Atlas SD-50 that has no place running alongside USRA designs. Of the other three, one is an 0-6-0 that came ina $60 kit, One is a 4-8-4 J Series that hasn't been right...

tinkering, tinkering, frustration, tinkering, and successfully resisted the urge to throw a beutiful USRA 2-6-6-2 in any direction available because it just wouldn't run. Today, more tinkering, and I FINALLY got the big girl to run. Now she's smooth as silk, and complements my light mountain...

While I could appriciate the novelty, Doing a layout in a shoebox would completely miss the point of my current ambition. I've got an 11x5 foot layout in N-scale, because I wanted to send quarter-mile long freight trains thundering across the countryside!