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Since I know many of us tend to share a love of history as well as trains, I though ya'll might enjoy this video I found: US WWII Train Derailing Experiments

Does anyone have any experience with one of these set-ups? Lessons learned or things you would have done differently? I didn't want to call it an "around the room" design as that give the wrong impression. I am planning one of those set ups where the track goes around the room, above the...

Video tutorials have gotten amazingly popular recently, and I find them all over the web as they seam to be replacing the traditional "how to" article. Frankly, I hate them and I know I can't be alone on this. I recently watched a video tutorial on how to make spent rounds for an LMG team...

I suppose this could fit in Structures as well as Painting, but had to choose one so... I'm using the Walthers Cornerstone Modular kits to build an N scale textile mill. I'm using the roof bits that come with the roof kit, but I am at a loss as to how to paint it. I've tried looking at...

My nephew is really into Thomas the Tank Engine and so my brother in-law was asking me some questions about various toy trains. He had some concerns since they are electric and wondered about a shock hazard. I told him that you should not leave metal across the rails as this will cause a...

Soon I hope to be installing a bridge on my N scale layout. It's Unitrack and I will be using a Kato single track deck truss. I want to cast my own concrete bridge abutments. All the commercial available bridge abutments I have seen would need some modifications in order to fit a deck truss...

I am currently in the process of building an new N scale layout. It is just something small and manageable for me to work on and complete until I'm able to devote more time and resources to the hobby again. The track is all Kato Unitrack. This was originally intended to be only a 2'x4' layout...

I used to be on these forums before, but when the economy tanked my model railroading had to be put on hold for a while. Then my computer's hard drive crashed and I lost all my bookmarks and not being active in modeling it all kinda got forgotten for a while... I was in the process of making...

I am looking for some online tutorials of how to make Birch trees. I managed to re-find one I had read years ago, but since then all the instructional pictures linked to in the article have been taken down. I need to make a forests' worth of trees, so buying the pre-made ones on the market is...

A few days ago, my father and I rediscovered his old American Flyer set. Time has not been gentle, but I really want to get it running again. I am not selling it. I am the first one in our family to have the skills to really be able to do something about it's condition and restore and preserve...

How high off the floor is your track? How tall are you? (for comparison) How easily can you reach things? My rail height from the floor is 54" (4 and 1/2 feet). I am 5'7". I can't reach more than about 2' into the layout without use of a step stool, however I can reach all the...

My wife gave me a some Micro Engineering Company's Bridge kits (HO scale) as a gift. Two Double Track Thru Grinder Bridge kits and two single track Deck Grinder Bridge kits, which I plan to use to make two double spans of the respective types. Does anyone know who makes bridge abutments that...

The wife wanted to go shopping today and I agreed to go along because one of my semi-local hobby shops was close by the mall she wanted to go to. When I got to the shop it was 2pm on a Saturday... closed. It made me very upset and got me thinking, All our local hobby shops have hours that are...

I know I know, similar track questions keep coming up on the forum. I have searched but not found an answer really suitable for what I am wanting to know. Background: I'm restarting in HO, having finally made the switch from N scale. I had eventually gravitated to using Kato Uni-track...

I wasn't sure if this should go in layout planning or the HO section... I'm playing around with some track plans for my upcoming HO layout. I have found that, much to my dismay, to work in one of my druthers I may need to add a siding on the inside of a curve. The curve is already 18" radius...

Hey all! I have the Walthers New River Mine kit in N scale and I absolutely love it. I'm planning on swapping to HO scale and trying to collect my favorite kits in HO scale as I plan to scale up (hurray for a new house with a full basement!). However, this kit seams incredibly difficult to find...

Hey all, I need some guidance on the placement of permanent magnetic uncouplers for the layout I am planning. I've never really had a need for them before, as I could always reach everything and simply poked the couplers with a tool to unhook them. This time though, I am trying to include them...

A few years ago I had downloaded a FREE demo of a track planning program that let me plan some small layouts using Kato N Unitrack. Between then and now I had a hard drive crash and it was one of the programs I lost. Now that I want it again, I can't seem to find it anymore. So, does anyone...

I've recently moved into a new house and now have an opportunity I've never had before: Enough space to model what I want in HO rather than N. I like modeling in N, but I always thought if I had the space I'd rather do it in HO since HO has so much more to offer. I'm wanting to model around...

I've done enough of track wiring to know that the DC side of the our train transformers is relatively harmless, but tonight I got to thinking about the AC contacts that are usually used to hook our various accessories up to for power. What's the usual voltage/amps coming out of the AV side of a...