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    EMD FP45 or SDP40F?

    Athearn has indeed offered Amtrak phase Iii SDP40Fs but they may be hard to find now.
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    EMD FP45 or SDP40F?

    Of course if you want a real SDP40F then Athearn Genesis has them.
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    Why can't most mfgs use decent couplers?

    Kadee mentioned the can't make enough to supply all manufactures trains. However, the following bands do come factory equipped with KDs: Exactrail Intermountain Tangent Moloco Wheels of Time. Athearn/Genesis come with plastic McHenry. Atlas come with plastic Accumate. Walthers comes with...
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    Best couplers

    I like the kadee 158 couplers
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    What freight mfgs have the best cars of all kinds

    What, no rule about couplers?
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    What plywood to use?

    That hasn't been my experience. I used OSB 23/32 for narrow subroadbed. It's been up for 4 years now and has remained very stable and no issues.
  7. R

    What plywood to use?

    OSB had a smooth side. I laid cork subroadbed so no issues.
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    What are you buying this Month?

    As far as buying, based on my old love of the SP, I have a Genesis SP GP9 coming in about a week - there was an SP G9 that serviced the Hunt Wesson tomato plant not far from my neighborhood and I used to ride my bike along the road that paralleled the tracks that left the east-west mainline...
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    Quick Rant

    The posh way of building benchwork for years had been L-girder, but for me it seems overly complicated to build and my wood working skills are very basic so I just build open grid and bold'em together and then install either flat OSB with Homasote for yards or risers with subroadbed and no...
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    What are you buying this Month?

    Similar for me. I grew up around the Southern Pacific in the Sacramento area - mostly SD45's, SD40T-2's SD45T-2's and a smattering of GP9's and SD9's. Some trips through Utah and Colorado in the 80's and I decided I wanted to model the Rio Grande Zephyr and D&RGW became a favorite.
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    Quick Rant

    Since decent plywood can be rather expensive and very often looking bowed or warped in the lumber section. I used OSB sheets for my subroadbed. I use 19/32" thick for yard areas and 23/32" thick for narrow single or double track sections. For the open grid sections, I use clear 1x4 lumber...
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    My Big Shed layout

    Wow, a ten year gap in this build. Looking forward to more progress photos. Those trains will spend a lot of time running in those two helixes. I only have a 2 2/3rd turn Helix on my HO RR and trains spend enough time in it!
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    Profile wheelset replacements...... Plastic or metal

    In HO generally metal wheelsets collect less crud - I haven't run enough in N scale to see if that is true also but it makes sense.
  14. R

    Our OO friends across the lake

    I always thought it was across the pond.
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    John's Loco Workbench - More Projects Begin...

    You'd be surprised at what SP fans like!
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    Feather River Canyon (Show Layout)

    Feather River Canyon will make for a nice scenic layout.
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    The Great Plains Railroad: Private Basement HO Layout Video

    One thing I've noticed is even with this (to me) relatively good sized layouts, in HO trains don't have a lot of room to stretch their legs. There are two sidings 21 feet long so I can pass some reasonably long trains but the layout is filling up fast, even with 11 storage tracks below the...
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    Why some reviewers are so bad!!

    I can quickly tell a lousy review pretty quickly when viewing the first couple minutes of a video on YT. I remember when James Wright started doing reviews and he was on the AtlasRescueForum. His reviews were good but he was relatively new to trains and lacked much information about the...
  19. R

    Staging - is it really necessary?

    The mainline travels to the top via a long grade some call a nolix. There is a helix at the other end.
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    The Great Plains Railroad: Private Basement HO Layout Video

    I started erecting benchwork in 2020 and here it is 2025 and have most of the layout up and some scenery base but still have a ways to go.




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