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  1. Santa Fe Jack

    Walthers 90' turntable kit: Is it really a 'dog'?

    Well, the 90' programmable turntable, 933-2840, DID work out of the box, and really well. It was wonderful to have the presets, so that you could just push a button on the control panel (other end of the layout) and the turntable would line up with the tracks just so. It was really great, and a...
  2. Santa Fe Jack

    Walthers 90' turntable kit: Is it really a 'dog'?

    My 90' programmable turntable just died. This is the Walther Built-Up one, 933-2840. It was a great unit, and visitors were always impressed at how it went to each of the roundhouse tracks square on. Me, too. Now Walthers is telling me "tough luck". They no longer support it. What do they...
  3. Santa Fe Jack

    Container Yard

    After much experimenting, I have decided that the Smooth-It and Hydrocal products are too difficult to work with for roads or parking lots (including an intermodal yard.) I did find a nice solution, though: At the local hardware store, they sell this heavy dark gray (nearly black) paper for...
  4. Santa Fe Jack

    Modeling Cliches to Avoid when Building your Layout

    Oh, man! Use this fantastic glow-in-the-dark paint! It has europium in it, and glows better than anything! http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=28_45&products_id=384 Don't worry - it's not radioactive. Well written -- I think you've nailed it.
  5. Santa Fe Jack

    What's on your layout..

    I am freelancing in terms of road names, at least. I run the rolling stock I have, which is all over the place. Well, it is all North American, I suppose. Just turned out that way, since most of what was available to me as a kid was North American. As for the layout scene -- it is small town...
  6. Santa Fe Jack

    Is Your Layout DC or DCC

    I thought a lot about this when I started my layout. I made a conscious decision to go with DC block control, in part *because* of the challenge it provides. I have 11 blocks cross-wired to 4 controllers, and LED-enhanced switches to help know what is what. But as I constructed the track, I...
  7. Santa Fe Jack

    My Milwaukee road layout

    It would be a bit unnatural to have a pond at the top of a hill like that. Think about where water flows, and some other solution may come to mind. You could, for example, remove the hill and have the pond atop the table, perhaps with a hill next to it.
  8. Santa Fe Jack

    My new Layout

    Your 6th layout? Wow. I don't know how you guys find the time for these things. If I can complete the one layout I have started in my lifetime I will be satisfied. :) Looks like you have a great start on that one. The plan looks interesting, too.
  9. Santa Fe Jack

    The ever changing HO scale layout

    Yes, the weaponeers have made a mess of things, though at least for now it is highly localized. My profession is to clean up radioactive waste messes like that. It matters not whether we ever agreed to their production in the first place -- the wastes are there to be dealt with. Somebody has to...
  10. Santa Fe Jack

    The ever changing HO scale layout

    I live in Los Alamos, about 20 miles northwest of Santa Fe, as the crow flies. It is a beautiful area, and I am thankful that I managed to figure out a way to move here 16 years ago. It's been a great place to raise kids, being safe, with great access to nature and world class geology, a highly...
  11. Santa Fe Jack

    The ever changing HO scale layout

    I would make a few modifications to that layout... Instead of having the yard tracks bending up to the right (in the photo) why not keep them more in line with the yeard lead, and have them go down to the right. Straighter yard tracks are good, and I think these could even give you more yard...
  12. Santa Fe Jack

    Physical disability, layout height pro's and cons. Help please.

    How about making it height-adjustable? My layout, a 6'x10' walkaround, is suspended from the ceiling by cables, and goes up and down on a winch. I can raise it up to 6 ft off the floor so that i can work on it underneath (and so the room can be used for other things) and can lower it down to any...
  13. Santa Fe Jack

    The ever changing HO scale layout

    This sounds like great occupational therapy for your son. And who knows, it may spark a focal point for your daughter as well. I just hope you can do it faster than I did. My younger son was about the age of yours now when I started. I'm just now getting to scenery, and he'll be a high school...
  14. Santa Fe Jack

    Double Radius Turnouts

    I used a bunch of these on my layout (link below), all Walthers Shinohara code 83. As I discuss on the web site (see the section on turnouts) I had a bit of trouble with many of the turnouts, having to redo and beef up the wiring. Maybe they have fixed their quality control issues, but it was a...
  15. Santa Fe Jack

    Greeting! New Member needs help with Turnout

    This is all so familiar... having played with HO rains as a kid, but only intermittently, as I could set it up only on the floor once in while. the trains mostly lingered in the closet. then, as an adult, there was this epiphany that I could now play with trains in a bigger and better way... I...
  16. Santa Fe Jack

    benchwork question

    I had best update the link to the site, mentioned above. That is way out of date, and I apologize. Here is the new URL: http://ho.tauxe.net I should start my own build thread on that.
  17. Santa Fe Jack

    Thickness of foam bed?

    Here's something to consider if you intend to mount things like switch machines to the foam base: I found that having a 1"-thick layer of foam on top, with one or two (max) layers of foam below, makes for a nice way to mount Tortoise machines (see the writeup on my website -- link in the sig.) I...
  18. Santa Fe Jack

    Container Yard

    Thanks for the info. Good to know. I'll have to make a little test yard - that will be fun.
  19. Santa Fe Jack

    Container Yard

    What about using WS Lightweight Hydrocal instead of the Smooth-It? Has anyone tried that? I too want to build an intermodal yard, though mine will be much smaller. Just two tracks a couple of feet long (maybe not even that long) and maybe room for a few truck trailers and containers, serviced...
  20. Santa Fe Jack

    Modeling Cliches to Avoid when Building your Layout

    Excellent! And of course you'll need a stage stick on a bridge, and maybe even a USGS gauge house. Now you've got me thinking. Now, see, I'm more into radioactive and hazardous waste these days, so I'll be having a little cleanup job going on out back of the roundhouse, where Buddy used to dump...




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