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traingeekboy

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traingeekboy last won the day on February 17 2021

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  1. oh oh - someone got the narrow gauge bug. I love the loco.
  2. Not much to report yet. I realized I should check back and see how everyone else is doing.
  3. Yeah, we've had some doozeys. My friend was right onthe edge of the burn area up in louisville. His house was untouched. The big shooting that was all over the news was blocks from my house. My sister knew one of the victims. Crazy times.
  4. Well, after all these years I think I need another Garden Railway. It's still cold outside here. Snowing and below freezing weather. The front garden area is a shambles and needs to be revived. I want to have a small table and chairs surrounded by plants and shrubs. Of course, I also want a railway in this relaxation zone. What can I say? Once you've run your trains on a really long mainline, that is bigger than you've ever had, it's sort of impossible to think of going back to a tiny indoor layout. I tried planning for small practice layouts. Yet I have 8 car passenger trains! Sure, I may build an oval test track for table top use indoors, but these trains need to really be able to stretch out and race on a long mainline track. List of items I want to incorporate: -Recycle as much of my old flex track as I can. -Use recycled materials as much as possible. -Wood frame. -I have no yet decided if I want shingles and bitumen, or creosote soaked lumber. -A swappable control system of Analog or Digital. -It will be a low layout this time. I love having things at table height, but I want to try having the trains passing through flower beds and rocks for natural scenery. -I am aiming for a double track oval to race my trains on at highly unrealistic speeds because that is what makes me happy. Things I learned on my last layout: -I didn't seal my lumber well enough. -Some of the places on my layout did not turn out as well as I planned. I need to make truly solid woodwork. -Having the oval be at table height made access to the garden a problem. -Build as you go really worked for me. I will just start making flower beds with risers and track platforms and slowly work my way around the oval like I did the first time. -I may consider using clear caulk sealant to bind the track to the baseboards. The track nails worked well, but the vibration from wind loosened some areas. -Switches/points did not deal with the sun well. The Atlas products I used seemed to melt and warp unlike the flex track. I may build small sun roofs for these areas or use removable covers to keep these areas protected from sun light when not being used. -Keep the layout very minimal. I may not even place structures on it. The addition of details is one of the things that made me give up last time. I never reached a point of completion. I need a goal post I can reach and say: Ok, the layout is finished! Resources: -I have already collected some nice garden rocks from a trip to the mountains, I need more. -I grabbed some scrap wood from a construction site, I need more. -I purchased a pack of Zinnia seeds for one of the flower beds. Fingers crossed for warmer dry weather.
  5. Post up videos in that are non member videos. I found this one today. I had not seen it before.
  6. Nice to see you still at it. All of you guys with operating railways make me a bit jealous.
  7. Perhaps a bit of salt for that? Or, maybe a hair dryer?
  8. Found something of interest. Since my layout is now about as dead as can be, I will post the links here. Free train magazine: https://railmodelleraustralia.com/downloads.html
  9. Athearn are a reliable brand. It sounds like your points may be too small a radius. I would try to open it up and see if you can re-gauge the wheels you speak of. Ideally an NMRA gauge is your best friend, but I've found turning the loco upside down and sliding a piece of set track, or identical kind of point over the wheels will show you what is going on. No fun having a new loco fail on the layout.
  10. Used to be everything would run on the USA standard of 18' Radius. Most newer USA models are designed to follow prototype radii. Athearn says the new locos can do 18" but advise 22". Is that an SD60? I would also check the wheel gauges. With my N scale locos I had a problem that with a wheel gauge tool the wheels seemed correct. When running these same locos through a switch it turned out the gauge was slightly narrow and the locos would pick at the facing points. American models are now using body mounted couplers as well, the body mounts make a huge difference in radius they can do. Also, the coupling are closer together and that also changes things a bit.
  11. Not as bad here, but yes, the winter is limiting enthusiasm. I may sit at the dining table and make more false hand laid track tonight.
  12. Sure could use an update. This looks amazing. I need more photos!
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