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It's not the absolute best price ever on a P2k GP7, but it is fairly below market value. I think you did okay. The model is decent. its looks are excellent and its running quality is solid. You may or may not eventually have gearbox problems, as P2K had some quality control issues with its GPs...

If you need to build the under-layout storage, go ahead and do that. Try to plan it so you won't block possible supports for the layout itself. But as far as building the layout benchwork, I'd be hesistant to do that until you know your design. If you made a simple loop setup all on the level...

Eh. What kind of car specifically are you looking for a kit for, KCS?

Um. Railroads have power on run through agreements all the time. Plus companies lease power to each other, or lend units to pay back for power used from another company. Plus there are power pools for specific service where the locomtives stay on the train for it's full run, even after it...

The P2K cars are still being offered as P2K cars. They're built ups, though. Gold Line cars are Walthers designs offered as built-ups.

Well how much did it cost you?

If I owned a railroad I'd be the owner, not someone who works there.

I know. It's counter to conventional wisdom. I look at it like this. Unless you have a club sized layout, fleeting mainline trains around is going to get boring fast. They just have too short a run. The most value of "play time" for given track is a train that has more "work", more...

27" is okay. As for staging, from what I can see, that's plenty of staging. People always seem to overestiamte the amount they'll need, assuming they need a massive hidden classification yard for a rather medium to small sized layout. 6 train length tracks would be more than enough for this...

NW: Apples??? Miles, Miles, Miles. Lumber! The rule of thumb about home road cars will vary road to road. Generally, railroads in poor financial shape had a higher amount off home road cars, while those in better financial shape tended to have a lot of cars from other railroads.

Schematically, I'd make a large loop with a center operating pit. As far as radius, you've got room enough to go far wider than 18". IMO, make them as big as you can get. 30" would easily fit. You will never regret making your curves broader. Especially since you plan to run this in loops for...

Gary Indiana was a major steel center, and right across the Illinois border. Being a rust belt state, there were almost certainly other steel mills which were in Illinois. Plus remember that IC served other states, there's no telling if the slag came from Illinois or somewhere further south.

Miles is correct. 10,000 and 12,000 gallon tank cars with a single dome and no platform are typical of oil distribution at that time. The car you picture is indeed a chemical tanker.

Yes. I'd go with the wider radius and deal with shortened straightaways over having tight radius with longer straightaways. Plus, wider curves produce easier curve coupling, so if you broadened it to 30" whenever possible, you could probably still switch on those. Since you may lose siding...

Um just a small correction. While I don't know of EMD model 40s still in use, Alco models of all types, as well as GE switchers are still quite common. You'd be surprised by the vintage and the range of oddball engines that still exist in industrial service! My advice: Anything Atlas MDC EMD...

Detection for signals that doesn't require visible light sensors or magnetic switches on the cars, e.g. something similar to the circuit detection used on 1:1 scale. Must be DCC friendly and simple to install.

The tradeoff of widening the curves is that you lose length of straight sections, and thus the length of suitable places for standard switches. If you broaden the curves, you may have to "stretch" towns to extend along those curves. IMO, having less track overall that runs in peak performance...

Miles, try this on for size: http://www.route99west.com/craghead/layout/san-jacinto.gif

Sketch it up for us, Miles. it's easier to offer improvements if there's a graphic to work from.

Prototype spacing is 13', which is what the Champoeg District uses on average. That of course is to track center. The best way to handle it is to just run your cars down there and see how far away you need to be to clear the buildings. Regarding industry type? What kind of cars do you have or like?