Recent content by trailrider

Something unusual would be a ten-coupled (2-10-0, 2-10-2 or 2-10-4) that would negotiate 18-inch radius curves, with the center drivers blind, and a traction tire on one flanged driver. While 3-D manufacture could permit less expenses, enough weight might require die cast boiler and certainly...

Model railroad curves are generally much sharper than the prototype. Although wider curves are always desirable, Atlas Snaptrack curves come in 22, 18 and 15 inch radius sizes. Those are to the centerline of the track, so a 180-degree curve in 22-inch means a 44-inch diameter circle plus another...

If Hershey and his wife hadn't gotten delayed, they'd have been on the Titanic. Then no Hershey bars!

Golden Gate Bridge and major highways in New York blocked by pro-Palestinian protesters! On the Bridge, people trapped in their cars. Can't get to work, or doctor's appointments. Some of these protesters have CA'd their hands to the cars or used "sleeping dragon" pipes to prevent their being...

Those old Athearn blue box PA's were pretty good. Before other manufacturers brought out EMD E-7's, I took the bodies from older LifeLike, and stretched the frame from some PA-1's. They still work fine. You did a nice job.

Most of the end-cab switchers with 4-axle trucks should work fine on 15" radius curves if you don't try to run them too fast. (Prototype wouldn't either.) F7A should also work okay. You might have to check if the coupler will deflect sufficiently with 40' freight cars. The draftgear might...

Sadly, when Caboose moved from Broadway to Lakewood, Colorado, the pandemic plus lack of variety of inventory sealed their fate! Other than a place out in Aurora (East side) which handles other hobby stuff, the only place in Metro-Denver is up on West 55th, just east of Wadsworth. They are...

One factor as to whether you run steam or diesel or both has to do with what era a modeler runs on a layout. Many of us model the "transition" era of the 1940's through the '50's. Except for steam excursions or tourist railroads still being run today, steam locomotives disappeared from mainline...

The only problem I have ever encountered with Peco turnouts is one case where wheels would sometimes pick the frog. Solved it by placing a .010" thick shim inside the guard rail on the one side. I think Peco Code 100 are actually OO scale, whereas they now advertise Code 83 as being "to American...

I wonder if a NWSL Stanton drive could be installed as one or both tender trucks? Some prototype steam locomotives had booster units either in the four-wheel trailing trucks, or in the lead or rear trucks under the tender? Don't know if it would work due to the difference in wheel diameters...

It depends on your era. As a kid, I rode the original Zephyr 9900 (now in Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry), so I had very little personal experience with steam (although somehow I got hoisted into the cab of an M.K.T. steam yard switcher when I was about 2). That, and as a mechanical...

Just exactly the kind of senator...and person...Joe Lieberman WASN'T! RIP!

Apparently complications from a fall! Be careful our there! Falls can do a number on seniors especially! RIP Joe Lieberman.

Since the gears in the trucks are locked into the worms you can't move the whole thing with the gear units in place on the top of the towers. The plastic housings with the worms can be removed by gently prying them away from the tower. The main problem as I see it, is the short. I would remove...

Regardless, try to get another opinion!