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Never too early! Too early to shop, yes; too early to dream, no. I too would include various layout materials, but Mrs. isn't exactly a construction girl... If I asked for 2" foam, I'd probably get a memory-foam mattress pad or some such thing. I fear the raw materials, in my case, are a...

Oh yeah, it's HO scale and each square on the grid is 1' x 1'

Boring but necessary in my "just moved, new layout coming" plans... I painted the basement...

Okay, it's October, and in my mind that means time to start thinking about the Christmas list for wifey et al... So what's on your list this year? Here's mine so far... (all HO in my case) BLI T-1 4-4-4-4 loco MTH K-4 loco Tortoise Switch Machines Of course, this has to grow far larger...

Cool. I'm the 20th Century Limited, which I already happen to model. All is right in the world, but give it 2 minutes and that'll change.

Thanks to all who offered feedback on the layout I posted a while back. Here is an update and latest plans: 1) Facilities: Fully finishing the basement where the train will be located has been found infeasible. Despite the oft-offered advice to finish the room first, it's come down to funding...

Hi all, I'm novDCC novice, but this has got me stumped and I just can't find specific info on this: I'm finally building a big enough layout that a 'booster' is probably in order. I'd end up with runs of 60-90' otherwise. But I can't find a bloody thing with specifics on equipment (I run a...

Informally, we call it the "brew comet"... I'm still trying to figure how to get a loco equipped to blow bubbles out the stack so we can call it "old foamy" and have it lead the train...

Thanks for all the feedback, folks. Definitely what I needed to know. ak-milw: not that picky, and I get particularly "loose" with beer reefers since I've got a whole collection of them which I assemble into the "beer train" on occasion... a fun one to run around when non-buffs come over and...

What is the experience with Train Miniatures? Specifically, I have the chance to buy a large lot of reefer kits, in the box, but am unfamiliar with this brand (thought I knew them all!) Picture attached for reference. Kris

Fred - There probably isn't any signfiicant savings - perhaps even with a saw that can rip it (which I have). For me, it's really not about savings though, but rather the greater stability of plywood/OSB versus dimensional lumber. Even in a climate controlled and rather stable humidity basement...

Wow! nice! One question for the gang: The three layouts I've built prior have all been - I believe - overbuilt in a big way. All could certainly hold me (275 lbs) standing on them, and none really needed to be able to do so... All used 1x6 lumber around the perimeter and had 1' grids of 1x4's...

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone. I do have a radial arm saw that can rip the sheets down (with Mrs. C's kind help), so will probably give this a shot. I'm working on a 27x28 layout which has quite a lot of lumber involved. So anything I can do to ensure bulletproof benchwork is a plus...

Has anyone here used plywood for benchwork grid instead of (e.g.) 1x4's. I've heard that ripping plywood sheets down to appropriate width (i.e. 3.5") strips of 8' length yields equally strong, flatter, straighter "1x4" lumber than buying pine boards. I do know the pine invariably has warp, woof...

Oh, it's central pennsylvania, which makes logging rather a stretcher... But I never let that stop me before. Can anyone point me to examples of a switchback branch? If this space is tailor-made for it, it would be easy enough to reverse the current logging/mining location and this area...

From my dimly remembered 18" radius past... I have to disagree with Russ and say even a 2-8-2 is likely to be unsatisfactory. My first "real" steamer (as opposed to my first 0-8-0 Tyco "chattanooga choo choo") was a 2-8-2 Mikado. Those leading and trailing 2's never did want to stay put on 18"...

I think you've done a great job fitting maximum "mainline" running space into a 4x8. As others have pointed out, though, you don't currently have much _other_ than mainline running. I'm very much into mainline operations myself, probably more so than many model railroaders, and even...

Oh yeah, 1930's-40's era.

Okay, here's a chance to play... I have a 3x14' peninsula on the layout I just can't quite decide what to do with. If anyone has thoughts, suggestions or otherwise, here's what I can tell you: 1) HO 2) Entry on one of the short ends. You do not need to account for curving in from the mainline...

I started using RTS and it's definitely easy and quick. But I quickly got beyond what it could do. I tried about everything out there, and settled on 3rd Planit. I definitely remain a fan of the program. I second the recommendation made earlier to take the tutorial (actually for another program...