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Also I think you'll find that while the motor looks like an Athearn can, it's longer than the DHAT clips... so you'd have to hardwire anyway.

If you want an idea of what you can get away with in a 12x6~7' space, look in the November MR. They have a couple of plans that may or may not be adaptable to the space you have.

Oiling the siderods is a double-edged sword. It smooths things out until the oil starts to attract dust and crud. Then it gums them up. I use a dry lube, like graphite or teflon (both available in a spray or dry powder form) .

I'd actually recommend the DZ125 for that one... and yank out the circuit board and wire it directly to the motor, lights and track pickups. Bachmann claims it's DCC-ready... what that really means is they've added some solder holes to their circuit board that you can solder the wires in...

I don't think you appreciate just how little space you really have. If you want any sort of room other than a hole to poke your head through, it'd need to be about 2'x3'. With 22" radius curves, you haven't got a lot of room for more than a mainline and a couple of sidings in HO. I added an...

Wireless doesn't mean no wires to the tracks, it means no wires between the walkaround controller and the base station.

You could try the MRC Symphony 77. It's discontinued now, but you might be able to find an MRC Synchro Sound Box.

You're pretty much going to have to trust to luck on all of those. There are a few places that will have the odd collections of parts (mostly from junked locos) but neither Mehano, Rivarossi, AHM nor IHC ever had a huge supply of spare parts for any of their products. You could try these...

No, you got a good one Rich. Get a couple of the biggest speakers you can fit into the shell, make sure they've got a good sound box, and you'll be fine. Pair the DSX up with a DZ125 or a DH123 or DH 163, depending on how many light functions you want, and you'll be a very happy camper.

The tone was such that the specs were derived by people who have lots of real-world experience building modular layouts. They have found a system that works very well, and have outlined their reasoning based on their experience. As I've said, pine is fine for a standalone, stay-at-home...

Real-world experience. Actually, most dimensional lumber used in houses is not pine. If you look at a stud, it will say SPF, which means spruce/pine/fir. It could be black spruce, jack pine, or douglas fir. All woods with similar properties, but not likely white pine (or at least not...

The MRCs are cheap for a reason. They sound like crap, don't have any options for motor control, and are just generally cheap. For diesel sound, look at ESU, Digitrax and Soundtraxx. The ESUs are great decoders, with excellent motor control and output options, but are expensive. You can...

Pine is great for a standalone layout. The Freemo (and most other modular groups) are concerned about dimensional stability. For a home layout that sits in one place for a long period of time, the changes in the pine will be minimal. For a module that will be trucked around to different...

I think you've got a really good plan there. It makes good sense, as it captures the rickety, sparse feel of a narrow gauge line. Short trains, steep grades, clinging to the mountainside by the skin of their teeth... :) Some people seem to think that a MRR has to be a spaghetti bowl of track...

Let me add my voice to the chorus - Life Like locos, unless they are Proto1000 or Proto2000, are toy-train locos... aka crap. If you want an inexpensive Chessie set, Bachmann has a powered and dummy GP40 plus a caboose. $45 from Tower Hobbies, likely a bit more from your LHS. This is better...