Recent content by boatwrench

MRR May 2024 one of the best issues in years! The website difficult to navigate. I went to the track plan database looking for an older (late 70s) plan for Mann's Creek searched and searched using many different key words and then just gave up.

After retiring from the Coast Guard, I spent 12 years as the Chief Mechanical Officer later Superintendent of Maintenance for San Francisco's transit system, aka Muni Railway. Like Dave said the best position is retired.

That's the way the Light Rail Vehicles were sanded at the transit system I worked at once upon a time. They hated it.

I regularly operate on another layout with sound equipped locomotives. Whistles at crossings, bells approaching stations add a nice element. However some features (which can be turned off) I find distracting to the point of being annoying. Radio calls from the cab, air receivers blowing down...

I have a Athean BB shake the box kit my daughter bought and assembled for me. Today's newer cars have plenty of fine almost scale details that are prone to breakage even in the best handling situations. The BB kit, it has held up these past 40 years stir ups and brake wheel still intact. When...

Helix help, maybe. Layout Design Journal (LDJ-14) has an informative 14-page section on helix design. Also Rich Kolm's "Trackwork...Doing it Right" a clinic from the 2006 PCR Convention addresses a grades transition approach and departure angles. The former is probably copyrighted, the latter...

I have been reading and watching videos on DCC. I have a question regarding engine sound for EMD diesels. When a locomotive is struggling upgrade and moving slowly is there a decoder, or a program to have the sound of the diesel reflect the load?

Thank you for all the hard work making videos. It was appreciated.

Thanks for the responses. Grandt Line is now owned by San Juan Models. There are two different types of wood boxcar hardware available.

I am looking for sliding barn door rollers. I located a pack of two from SS Ltd but the shipping ($7.99) is more than the actual part. I was wondering if Walther's sells these doors from their kits separately? I am guessing no; they are probably part of a sprue of several parts but thought...

Found two photos of the helix from last year. This photo has three levels, revolutions of the helix. The main is double tracked on the outside closest to the operator. The inside tracks holding the GN express and the NP reefer are dummy tracks for scenic setting only. Again three levels...

What was the temperature? Here in northern California, it has been in the low 50s the past few weeks in my shop, so paints and sprays are taking longer to cure.

I will get a couple of photos next time I am there.

I was at a layout a couple of weeks ago where the builder ran the bus wiring along the front edge of the layout outside the L bracket. The track feeders and turnout wiring ran from the frontside towards the backdrop. The layout was fastened to L bracket about three inches from the from ledge...