Recent content by HF1

I came across this thread and thought I'd chime in with my 2 cents worth - I was born and raised in Western PA (Washington County) and grew up surrounded by the Coal Mining and Steel making industries in that area. One Mine that comes that comes to mind was the Old Marianna Coal Company, in...

PApat... I understand your position and my commentary was meant as a 'broadbrush' of the whole thread. I agree that Bowser is taking a Bold approach but, is not something that is new. While they may be installing injection moldig equipment, as Intermountain and Exactrail also...

I would agree with Byron on this topic. First, to all the hand-wrinigng hobbyists out there who are lamenting the 'old days' and predicting and end to civilization(at least in the Model Railroad manufacturing world), is to simply overdramatize the situation. The hobby has changed- just like...

Nor have I...The Rapido cars are just as generic - if not more so -and most are based on Canadian Specification Builds, if I'm not mistaken. The other thing i do not like about the Rapido cars are that the plastic is translucent so if they're lighted, so are your car sides - too toy like for my...

Prices are going up with everybody - can we all agree. It's a given. As for the Proto 1000, I have a few of the PRR F/M Erie-Builts and C-Liners. They perfrom flawlessly and I'm very pleased with them. Getting parts for older models is a common and understood issue. Everything in the...

I would be interested in knowing if anyone out there in the HO community has or does plan to purchase any of the new releases from Exactrail's recent announcement. Having been very vocal about their decision to go direct in a few discussions with Blaine Hatfield, I'm finding it very interesting...

Contact Jim at Richmond Controls in Houston, Tx...he's the go-to guy when it comes to MRR lighting and effects products and supplies. I jsut picekd up an order this weekend at hte ATSF convention in Temple, Tx where he was set up as a vendor and got 24 SW0306 s/m LED's with 3.3K resistors...

The folks at Intermountain are always helpful and usually will respond to a customer's concern or need for help quickly. I can't say I've had that experience with every manufacturer. Richard Frazier is a real asset to the IMRC team and Frank is about as cordial as enyone you'd ever want to meet...

I can understand that there are a lot of HO modelrailroaders out there that are perfectly okay with using Hot Wheels Cars on their layouts - mainly because they're cheap - and because a lot of guys in this hobby do not appreciate the level of detail that goes into a scale replica of that small...

There isn't a right or wrong method for Ballasting track - Ballast is primarily, a visual or cosmetic portion of the trackwork. I've done ballasting both 'before' and 'after' scenery, but on my current layout, I'm convinced that most important is the operation. Good operation starts and ends...

Unless you are new to the hobby, who doesn't know 'waiting' has become the norm in the hobby, for new product arrival. Nearly everything Model railroad-related in terms of new product, is going to translate into a wait for it. Personally, I'd rather wait for something I know is going to be...

That just means you've exponentially increased the chances of getting the best running Challenger ever produced in HO scale, in to my, as well as, others hands. I very large majority of modelers have come to understand and accept the MTH HO product line -especially more tech-savy and newer...

Athearn has officially announced the tooling recovery and plans for future RTR manufacturing on Facebook.

I was on the phone this afternoon with an Athearn Rep and learned that they finally have the RTR tooling released and back in their hands. This is good news - at least for Athearn -for the moment. Since Athearn does not yet have a source to manufacture the RTR line of products, when I asked...

I first discovered this book at my local library when I was about 10 yrs old and spent hours dwelling on the photos and dreaming of a layout like those published in the book including some black andwhite photos of John Allen's G&D. Years later, I found it in a Walden's Book store for around...