Search results

I am an HO guy, but before I was born, my Dad bought a Williams Crown line challenger #3958 in UP grey. As far as either of us know, it is single owner and had never been run except probably a test before it left the factory. I plan to join the local Mobile, AL club which has a O-gauge portable...

I might finally get to start on the layout I have been planning for 3 years now (maybe). Either way, I want to start building my own switches partly for cost and partly because I want them to look more real than the switches from atlas on my first layout. I was looking at the ones from...

I bought a Bachmann heavy mountain off of ebay a few months ago, and I've been detailing it. It has a factory Tsunami decoder in it. For some reason, the motor would stop spinning but the decoder would still make noise. I've seen some people mention that the Bachmann PCB's can be a problem, so I...

I'm working on a frisco mountain in brass in HO. I have the tender built in CAD, and will hopefully start building sometime in the next week. While I'm nowhere close to building these, I have a question about drive wheels. So far, I haven't been able to find the correct wheels since the Bowser...

So I finally have a little time to start a project I've been gathering the information on for years (including getting some help here). I've been wanting to start on my first scratch built engine in brass. Having never done this before, I'm still missing one key piece of information. What stock...

I just picked up an A-B-B-A set of Atheren UP PA-1's to go with my streamliner set I've had for years (1930's set from Rivarossi). I've been trying to find some in-service pictures of these locomotives for the past few days with no luck. Does anyone know what these engines should have looked...

There are several of my engines, including the 2-8-8-2 that I am about to remotor, that could use some more power pickups. I'm constantly fighting jerky engines, and dropouts on DCC. I would like to add some more power pickups to these engines to help with this problem. What materials are...

I have an older AHM Y6B, Cab Forward, and Bigboy. All three have the old can motors in the cab. The first two will run, but don't pull well and must be run at speed to run well. I would like to repower them. I've seen several tutorials on it, but the motors those use are either out of...

So there is a non-prototypic project I have been contemplating for a while and would like to hear others thoughts on. I really like M&M's, Chex mix, and other small snacks. These happen to be small enough that a string of hopper cars full would make a nice snack while running trains. I am...

I have been toying with the idea of building a real waterfall for a layout and possibly real rivers and streams to follow. I know it is not common practice and I know that some people have real issues with it (scared of shorts, humidity, cleaning, etc). I would still like to try. I just like the...

I am mocking up a sp 120-c-8 tender for use behind a P-8 pacific I want to build in brass. I have the tank all nice and CADed up, but I am having trouble finding pictures of the top of the tender to know what details to put there. I have some good shots of 2479's tender side, but nothing from...

I have tried to get into the world of scratch building for a few years now with limited success. Lately, I have been playing with soldering some old copper wire into shapes for practice and having fun with it. I am realizing that my biggest problem is holding the workpiece in place while I am...

While running my PS-4 today, I noticed the second axle on the pilot truck wasn't spinning. I removed the truck and started pushing it on its own. The engineer side wheel seems to be out of true, which makes me wonder if the axle is bent. My question is, what can I do about it? I bought the...

After serving as one of my workhorses for 15 years, my Chessie IHC pacific has become somewhat unreliable unless I run it fast. Upon closer inspection, the power pickups are shot. The ones on the first axle seem to work OK, but the ones on the third axle are cracked and don't make good contact...

I am an HO modeler and was wondering what kind of plug would work best to go between my engine and tender. I want to add a decoder to one of my Pacifics and I want to put it in the tender (that way I can use tender and engine for power pickup rather than just the engine as is the current setup)...

I'm playing with designing a new shelf layout (won't get built for a few years by a guy can dream). On my current layout, I have a fair sized yard, but I don't like how far apart my tracks are. They don't look as real as I would like. I have mostly #4 atlas turnouts and I have to curve the end...

I just ran into a passenger set at a Christmas thing (not sure what was going on. I just saw trains so I went to check them out). Some had a rack with several passenger sets from all eras sitting on it. He had a Sunset Limited set from what appeared to be the twenties-thirties. I was wondering 2...

I am thinking about getting a lantern for misc. purposes. There are many times when I need to light up fairly large areas. An electric railroad lantern seemed like it would do the job fairly well, but I would like some opinions on which one to look into. Right now, I am looking at a 1970's...

I am going to start building a locomotive shortly. I want to do it up in this paint scheme. http://www.bullsheet.com/key-to-symbols/CS_6627_1.JPG I have an IHC Pacific that has that paint scheme on it only the top of the loco is blue. I can't seem to find a picture at the moment. I am just...

I was watching the news this morning and saw a commercial for a teen driving program by Allstate. The thing that interested met was a shot similar to the one in this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww8R1-FoOI8 Look closely as the engine goes by. It is not Amtrak as the cars would...