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My older son graduated yesterday from the only college in the USA that's named after a railroad. I got to be on stage to hand him his diploma! :)

Tyson, Could you post a sketch of your track plan? Your layout size is close to mine, and I'm looking for some creative ideas to modify my track plan. Cactus

Hi, I have a yard with the configuration that sidings leading from the yard throat each come to a dead end. My questions have to do with parking freight cars on the sidings. 1970's era, if that makes a difference. Would a prototype road have all the parked cars coupled together, at the...

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. WM-N-Fan: Heh, Heh, the plan is to reflect the existence of Lehigh. The new structure they put up over there is 500 feet tall. The big crane they have for it was dismantled and hauled up to New York to move heavy debris from the World Trade Center. I...

It's pretty clear that I have a lot more to do with this layout. The 4 inches of styrofoam will house a river. I'm also thinking of raising Frostburg up a couple of inches into the mountains where it belongs. That, of course, will require some track rearrangement, which will lead to...

The United Energy coal tipple is in the upper left -- scratchbuilt from poster board. The red grain elevator is scratchbuilt from balsa. It sits at Union Bridge, which will eventually have the Lehigh quarry as well. The passing siding at the bottom of the picture serves Westminster, and...

Westminster occupies the 3 sidings here. The green building is Bowman's farm supply. The Frostburg siding is on the left, nearest the wall. The flatcar visible is parked at United Energy Coal, in Frostburg. The track nearest the table is the main that enters Hagerstown from the east.

Here's more of the Baltimore/Hagerstown yard. The WM BL-2 and SD-35 are parked in front of the Hagerstown Freight depot. I built this from scratch also. Did I do a better job on the cat or the building? The westbound main runs behind the cat, near to the wall.

WM-N-Fan, Some time ago you requested that I post photos of my WM/B&O layout. I finally figured out how to do it. The first one here is the roundhouse and yard at Hagerstown/Baltimore -- whichever you want to be in at the time. The B&O handles freight between the two cities, and all...

Thanks all. The layout is built on 4 inches of extruded styrofoam with cork roadbed. It's the buzz that worried me, and it looks like I ought to buy/build a capacitor discharge unit -- both to reduce the buzz and to protect the switch machines. It looks simple enough. I'll do that. Bill

I recentlly purchased a couple of PECO PL-10 switch machines, and mounted one of them several days ago. I'm working in N-scale, using PECO turnouts. I mounted the PL-10 directly to the turnout as in the instructions. Power for the machine is 16V AC, as the instructions specify. I'm using...

WM-N-FAN: I bought some track & roadbed, a couple of PECO switch machines, a 10-pack of Microtrains trucks/couplers, that sort of thing. I did notice some WM rolling stock by Atlas, Microtrains and Kato (their new caboose), but my budget was depleted by the time I got to the glass case that...

Thanks, I visited Main Line this morning. My wallet was much lighter when I left, but my shopping bag was heavy. Good store. I took some digital photos of my layout. Tried to post them, unsuccessfully. It looks like one needs one's own web page to link photos to, and mine is a company...

Yes, the Train Works did have a closeout sale. They didn't advertise that they were closing, just had the sale. I discovered it when I walked in with a pocket full of Christmas money. I took it to be an annual week-after-New-Year sale (though I was suspicious because everything in the store...

Until last month, I went to the Model Train Works in Finksburg, just 10 miles east of here. They closed down last month, so I've been on the lookout for another shop. I have off work this week -- well, not exactly, but it's a very flexible schedule with no requirement on how much time I spend...

WM-N-Fan, I live in Westminster, and I've never seen the Hagerstown yard, except in some photos on the Hagerstown Roundhouse web site. So, it's all in my imagination. I do have a turntable and roundhouse in the yard. I have limited space, so the same yard is also Baltimore. Whether a...

Mine is the WM/B&O from Baltimore to Frostburg, with the Hagerstown yard as the main hub. WM trains serve Frostburg, Thurmont, Union Bridge and Westminster. B&O shuttles between Hagerstown and Baltimore yards. Time period is the early 70's. Was late 60's, but I just had to have that Atlas...

All-- The solution was simple. I spent $3.40 for a dozen "wheel sets" from Microtrains. (1 wheel set = 2 wheels on an axle) Replaced the wheels on the offending cars and all's well. Thanks for the advice!

Gary-- Can't. They're plastic, all molded as one piece. Looks like I'll be operating very carefully for awhile, until more wheelsets appear within the budget.

Billk -- you're right. I don't have the proper gauge to measure it, but the offending Microtrains wheels have their flanges set visibly further apart than on those trucks that track dependably through the turnouts. It's as if the axles are a smidge too long. This allows the inside wheel...