Recent content by Selector

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  1. Selector

    How to distinguish 2 similar locos

    Keep a slip of paper handy with the numbers on them. Lead is X, secondary is Y...
  2. Selector

    Recommended Method for Weathering Kato Viaduct

    I used Floquil 'rust' on rails, but that brand is gone. For any tinting, painting, and weathering, I just fudge something passable out of the Plaid Craft acrylic paints available cheaply at Wally's. A single drop of red, half a drop of yellow, and maybe some Burnt Umber, just a half smidge, and...
  3. Selector

    Recommended Method for Weathering Kato Viaduct

    These are through girder bridges. A viaduct is suspended roadbed held at grade by a masonry and/or stone arch structure. The girders would be painted black, and over time the fillets, flanges, and rivets would develop rusted sections and streaks below them. The bottom flange would be dirty...
  4. Selector

    Choosing a DCC System

    It's a problem with every used item for sale. No warranty, unless the terms are public and they include full refund if the BUYER isn't completely satisfied.
  5. Selector

    Choosing a DCC System

    You're being fed water from a fire hose, and I hate to contribute so little, but here goes: All currently available DCC systems work....as they're designed to. They're all very reliable, and easy to learn if you're willing to make a few booboos and pick up the manual when you're stumped. Or...
  6. Selector

    What gauge wire should I use for DPDT momentary toggle controls?

    If you can always be certain that the maximum sustained draw through those wires is never going to be more than 0.5 amps, then you could indeed get away with 22-26 gauge wire, but even then for that smaller 26 gauge you would want it to be fleeting...say one full second and no more. Once you...
  7. Selector

    Lost in the Woods Switching Layout

    Lots of nice imagination shown here. Nice layout and approach to it as well. :D I hope I won't step on any toes, but I wonder if the OP might be interested in getting all items in his images in focus. Unless he already knows of it, there is a process called image stacking that brings all...
  8. Selector

    Pin Vices

    I hope you won't mind a correction. vise vs vice. What we are discussing is the former. :)
  9. Selector

    I'm having some problems with points.

    Think of the distance you move through a turnout, but in feet, or some other unit. For every foot you run along the main axis of the turnout, your diverging route deviates at a certain rate if the train takes the diverging route. For a #4 turnout, the diverging route moves one foot to the left...
  10. Selector

    Bachmann EZ track for beginners

    EZ-Track is a tried and tested product and is generally very good. The one fly in the ointment could be their turnouts. So many people report that they have problems with EZ-Track turnouts that it is a concern. I have used EZ-Track on a Christmas train set, On30, for many years now and have...
  11. Selector

    locomotive wont move

    No, not a short, but as the train passes close to, or over, the joint, it might flex things open enough to break the circuit, in which case the train obviously will stop....or it won't respond to commands if it is stopped over the joint and you want the loco to move.
  12. Selector

    Multiple AR1's needed for proposed DCC layout?

    I can see at least two reverse loops, the large at left, but also the inner lower loop at right with the high main running around it to the immediate east and south. You'll need at least two reversers of some kind.
  13. Selector

    Help identify these reefers?

    Iced reefers were common on express and 'limited' passenger trains from the late 90's through to about the end of the Depression. They were always head-end cars, and trains carrying them in the consist were given priority over freight and regular passenger trains. Meat and silk were always...
  14. Selector

    Hidden trackage Grad percentage

    It's difficult to answer your question without knowing more: Weights of cars; Rolling resistance (it matters, no matter if rising on a grade or descending); Heft of the locomotive, or if there is to be more than one locomotive, the heft of each of them; The types of couplers (this matters...
  15. Selector

    Wiring a Wilson Turntable

    Are there instructions still in the kit box? If the pit where the bridge rotates doesn't have metal rings running around the pit wall, then it can't get power to the rails via wipers there. So that leaves the spindle or pivot complex. Sometimes there are small brass rings that are meant to be...
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