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I have a few old, mid 60s to early 80s, brass steam locos that I would like to repower with can motors and then set up for DCC. Can anyone here recommend a good source of can motors? Thanks Jim

The clear, quiet Christmas Eve is disturbed briefly as an ABA set of C&O F-7s rumble by, the crew anxious to get home to their families. Folks are arriving for the annual children's Christmas Pageant at the Episcopal Church and across the street Bill is pumping his last tank of gas for the...

I have been doing some simple kit bashing to upgrade the looks of some old Athearn baggage cars, to represent cars rebuilt by the C&O in the 1950s. The cars are close on length, but the doors are too far apart to be C&O cars. However, the main spotting feature for these cars is the newer...

I have a Walthers Sperry car I am planning to add a decoder to and was thinking of going sound. Any recommendations on something that might sound like an old Sperry car? I didn't see anything specific on the Soundtraxx site, except possibly the "Baldwin and other Diesels" since it includes...

I haven't purchased an Athearn passenger car in many years, so this may be a question that has been asked and answered before. A couple of members of my club purchased several new Athearn passenger cars. They are the same cars Athearn has been selling for decades, but of course now they are...

I picked up some Athearn axle gears to replace the gears in a couple of PROTO GP9s I have with the common clunk, clunk, clunk sound of cracked gears. The only Athearn gears I find are sold in sets of six and labeled for SD locomotives. My question is, are they the same gears used in Athearn...

I am putting a Tsunami decoder in an old Athearn F7. I was thinking of using the iPhone I6 speaker that a lot of folks have used with sound decoders. Any pros or cons you can share? Can the little plastic appendage be removed if needed? JB

I haven't built anything model train related in over a year, it feels good to be back at it. Still a work in progress, converting a Walthers Al's Victory station into an Esso station. Roof sign is 3D printed based on photos of Esso stations in the 40s and 50s. Using Woodland Scenics LEDs to...

I was going through old stuff in the basement and ran across a couple of Athearn 40 ft chemical tank car kits. I couldn’t remember what I got them for and didn’t have current any planes for the kits. I remembered a modeling buddy saying he wished someone would make a model of the tank cars...

Sorry if this is a newb question. I installed a TSU-1000 in a brass steam loco. The sound and operation is good but I have two issues I need to work through. Apparently my motor leads are reversed as the loco ran reverse in forward. Not a big deal I changed that in the basic configuration...

Is there a relatively simple formula, or even better, a chart, to help those of us that are math and electronically challenged to know what size resistor we need to use when using 12v or 1.5v bulbs or 1.5v LEDs, which are powered by the 14v track output? Soundtraxx recommends starting with a...

I belong to a club building a new 30 X 40 foot HO layout. The bench work is going together as open grid with 18 inch centers on which the roadbed and scenery will be built. We were planning to use 3/4 plywood, with 1/2 in Homasote topped with cork for the road bed. However, we have an...

My Dad grew up in a small town called Malden, WV. He showed me an old black and white photo, likely from the late thirties or forties, of the town gas station, barber shop and grocery store, all in one building. The grocery store was also the local REA office. About all he could tell me...

Johnny Lightning just released a 1950 Chevy delevery lettered for REA. It looks like with just a little detail work it would make a good addition to that S scale station scene. I think these run around $3.00 at Wal Marts. I picked one up on line at Milezone.com. Jim

What deocoder have folks here installed in the Stewart HO Baldwin ASA 616. I'm not looking for sound. Thanks Jim

I need to remove the lettering from an Atlas HO S2, lettered for the C&O. I'd rather leave the factory paint than strip and repaint the whole thing. I have used Solvaset and alcohol in the past to remove lettering but the lettering on this thing is stubborn. Any suggestions for removing...

Building our first "DCC from the ground up" layout. I am looking for opinions regarding the best turnouts to use. Most of the track will be Atlas code 83 flex track. Thanks in advance. Jim

A friend and I are considering building a small HO modular layout that we can take to shows. We want something we can transport in our pickup trucks, so the modules can not be longer than 6 feet or deeper than 4 feet. Ideally we would each do one end module and one main module giving us each...

Been working on a scene that may end up being a Christmas card. The house was kitbashed from the scrap box, and the cars are all Classic Metal Works. The background is a winter photo I took a few years ago. I used Paint Shop Pro to edit the image and add the smoke and Christmas lights...

Anyone have problems with a Spectrum 4-8-2 picking up power. I have one I installed a sound decoder in, and power pick up seems to be intermittent. It runs good on straight track, but the least little bump or turnout and it is really jerky. My other locos run fine on the same track...