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I finally wrapped up my full P2K SD9 rebuild of a SP SD9E. Years ago I semi detailed Athearn models, but they hardly compare. For my first rebuild, I chose unit 4433 which has had a long career in Oregon that last well after the SP went away. I fully detailed the unit and did the light package...

I've spent the past few weeks rebuilding an area of the OMRS club layout (Lacey, WA) known as Dupont. Dupont is on the upper level at the top of the Helix and the start of a extended siding that runs into the summit town of Anderson. It's the only place on the mainline that there is a grade that...

A friend of mine, Josh Delp and myself went to Tacoma Trains. Josh had a DCC version of the new SP Genesis caboose on order, and was eager to get his hands on it. I went because I just want to go to the shop. I had been told the cabooses were sold out, but located two non-DCC versions in the...

My dad has been a life long hunter, so I made this little diorama for him as a Christmas gift. A hunter has his pants down and gun out of reach when a bear walks out of the woods. An amused buck looks on from his hiding spot.

I had a chance to attend a operating session of the Sherwood, Shelton and Sarazen Rwy. The SS&S is On30 layout created by Charles "Chuck" Ricketts of Lacey, WA. It's a turn of the century narrow gauge railroad designed for operations. The railroad is run by a dispatcher with both timetable...

I recently received a Mantua 0-6-0 from my Brother's family as a birthday gift. After installing a N scale decoder and test running, I found the rigid suspension derailed everywhere. The middle driver is blind, but I'm not totally sure if that hurts or helps. Anyways, I've started a project to...

I managed to catch a very rare and unusual stack car yesterday while railfanning the UP in the Columbia River Gorge. This car was built by FMC in 1984 for Sealand, and later sold to the SP as the SP 2397. This may be a one-of-a-kind car, but I'm not 100% certain of that. Here is a website with...

A GP sponsored layout was recently featured on Auction Kings. http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/auction-kings-an-expensive-toy.html

Here is a load idea for a 3-bay hopper. Waste glass is sorted by color (clear, green and brown) and loaded into hoppers to head to a glass smelter. One of those smelters is on the west side of I-205 near the Portland International airport.

While Daylight GS series 4-8-4's were the queens of the passenger trains and the Cab Forwards were the Kings of the Mountains, to highball the long freights across the valleys between the mountains and out through the desert, there was one preferred type of locomotive for SP enginemen. That was...

Watch This; http://www.ktvu.com/video/28747102/index.html Not sure how effective this will be. You have to balance anti-theft measures against what will drive customers away. While regular customers will think nothing of signing up for memberships, new customers may just walk out the door...

Been working on a couple projects in the back lower corner of the club layout to improve a area that was barren and undeveloped on the layout. On the right hand side it was decided to add a intermodal yard. It took a long time to settle on a final design for the yard. There were some differing...

Recently uploaded a video to youtube showing a long SP freight I ran on my club layout a while back. Normally the helixes limit train length to about 35 cars (about one complete circle) without string-lining. So for this 50 car train, I had a 3 unit swing helper in addition to the 4 road units...

A couple weeks ago my air compressor I used for air brushing started acting erratic. Of course it was already several years beyond the 2 year warranty so I tore it apart looking for the trouble. Turns out one of the brushes on the electric motor wore down to almost nothing (other one was only...

The thing about a recession is that the managers are quick to cut jobs, but slow to add them back. The same holds true in railroading, and that often causes trouble when the business starts coming back. Back a couple years ago when things got real slow, the local trainmaster cut the day shift...

Just found these pieces that are appox 1:150. http://www.dhsdiecast.com/shop/product_detail.cfm?product_id=7265 http://www.dhsdiecast.com/shop/product_detail.cfm?product_id=6592 http://www.dhsdiecast.com/shop/product_detail.cfm?product_id=7039...

This is the continuation of the tour I first posted nearly a year ago. The first part is here; http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16603 This part of the tour will cover the newer part of the layout constructed in the former lobby area of the former gas station that...

I'm sure you guys are all eager to see what kind of stuff you'll get for Christmas (and I'm sure many of you already know!). Enjoy the holidays!

Went to town this last week getting some recent purchases up and going. The BN 6770 is a unit I won on ebay back in August for $102 including shipping. It sat on the shelf until this week when I finally got around to putting a decoder in it. I tore out the Kato circuit board and hard wired a 9...

I'm studying rechargeable 9v batteries for our club Digitrax throttles, and I'm looking for some advise. One of our club members claimed that he used to use such batteries back in 2007, but they only lasted a hour and a half in radio equipped throttles. I looked at some sample batteries he...