Recent content by brooksie

WOW! You're not letting any grass grow under your feet! Things are looking good and really well put together. Really enjoy the photo progress reports. I am FINALLY near the end of the planning stage and am probably going to put paper plans to wood this coming autumn. I must admit to really using...

Looks like a good model! Must be the Bachman Onion Pacific? I am a HUGE UP fan and really like some of the extreme locomotives they have had to employ in the past. I have done some diesels in C&EI this winter and really found it fun. N Scale is very unforgiving for minor errors because an...

Great looking layout Steve. I LOVE the ground throws for your switches. I am drawing up several plans for my indoor railroad and I intend to use no remote switches for ease of wiring and dependability. Plus, your through yard at the front is very well set up. I am going to incorporate the plan...

Boy, I have to really thank Mike at Fifer for his help on this! I got a few Peco turnouts to try with Atlas flex track. I am sure this is going to work. I just didn't want to waste money on stuff that would run without issue or create special problems while installing. Looks like everything is...

Now that I've decided on what track to use, there seems to be an outage of PECO insulfrog turnouts. Plus, I am concerned with not being able to use track nails to hold the PECO in place, unless I somehow can tap a track nail through the plywood and into a track tie just enough to hold it. Or use...

I just did one of those conversions to my Spectrum 2-8-0. It does take patience and a good magnifier loop with a light. I use a very small screw driver to go through the center of the spring and hold it to the back of the metal adapter with one hand and then wrangle the slippery delrin coupling...

I like the layout. It has some complexity to it, yet is manageable enough to actually finish it and enjoy doing scenery and run trains. Post up some more detailed photos and lets see a walk around the layout. The benchwork looks pretty solid. Just get a couple of cheap Bachman engines off eBay...

My first layout was on a card table and was 5 x 2. Couldn't really run passenger stuff or modern gigantic rail cars. Keep the trains small and the rolling stock to a minimum. The smaller the rolling stock, the larger the layout will look. I had a double loop with the inner loop as a "branch...

Successfully sold my Kato stuff on eBay. I've been picking off some Code 80 Atlas from Fifer. I have my track plan ready for the loco maintenance facility section. It will be 6' x 2' and will tie in with the yard/city section I am planning. I like the simplicity of Kato and it works pretty good...

I paint the whole kit before I start with the base brick color I am looking for. Lately that has been box car red. Then I do a wash with concrete or buff. After assembly, I can dry brush the whole thing. I think I'm gonna try the dry wall mud method to see if makes things easier. Sure looks...

Keep us posted on this cool layout. I saw it in the Linn Westcott book at the hobby shop today. Nice job!

All the basics are there! Is that a trolley line in photo 2? What is the overall dimensions of the layout? Looks like a lot of fun getting it where you want it.What are your next steps?

Checked out a buddies layout that he is just got done putting in track and power. He is using insulated PECO switches on the whole thing except the area he started years ago with code 80 Atlas. There is some difference in appearance but they rails match nicely with solder and file and the...

Thanks for the advise guys! I just don't feel like going through the conversion cost and time, lazy I guess. I have a few newer Kato and Atlas locos and they are light years from what was out there. I am doing 40's/50's Pennsy transition era with some custom engines of my favorite lines (C&EI...

Sorry I couldn't reply earlier. My pad doesn't let me type replies when I'm on the road for some reason. I really appreciate the input. I have a nice MRC dual cab unit, new in the box, that I bought about 6 years ago when I started the road back after the flood. I like the old school method...