ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.
Terry, I think another visit is in order, but I would remain skeptical. Usually things are perfect in the beginning of a relationship and then fall apart, not the other way around. Tread with caution, but don't let one jackass ruin your future fun.
I've had a great train kind of day. I repainted a turd of a building to fill a void in my main street. Only the back is showing so it didn't take much to polish it! I also made my Berkshire look like a working locomotive and painted over the pretty white trim everywhere. It's amazing how much better it looks with a little black paint. I now need to get up the nerve to re-decal and weather it. Baby steps for now I think. I need to buy the decals first so that gives me more time to drag my feet!
Time to get back to the layout. It's amazing how many things you find to do once the train makes a couple of laps around the layout.
I got a wrong number call last night. When I picked up the phone someone was instantly asking for someone that obviously wasn't at this end of the line. So I answered with 'Welcome to USA Prime Credit. My name Peggy. May I help you? Dead silence on the other end then 'Click'.
Terry I agree about the club situation. I went through a couple before settling into one. What a lot of people forget is that its only a hobby. If you are getting aggro from one member even before you've joined then I'd think twice before parting with your hard earned money. As others have said, go to a couple of meetings first to see if this guy mellows or if he is going to continue to be an arse. In my case the closest club is about 3 miles away. The group I belong to is 78 miles each way. At least meetings are an all day Saturday once a month.
Patrick I can see not being allowed to operate until you've had some training if its a complex layout. But having to spend a year auditioning your construction skills before being allowed to play is probably the main reason they are recruiting. No one wants to put up with that BS.
Good morning. It's 72° and partly sunny. The high will be 84° and it will be partly cloudy.
Yesterday I stripped out an Athearn SD9 and an Athearn PA2/PB2 set and turned them into dummies. Now I have three motors and three Bachmann decoders that can be used elsewhere. I also have some gears if I have a truck with a busted one. I used the horns from the PA2 on the E7 which looks much better now. Today I'll be helping my father put new tires on his boat trailer. Putting the rim on the left side is easy. The one on the right side is a two man job as you have to have a wrench on the back of the bolts to keep them from spinning. Later I'll see about getting some of the layout project area cleaned up for the new arrivals that are on their way.
Broke my wire cutters earlier today on a job that was a little bigger than they could handle. So it was off to Lowe's to get another pair. I got the replacement pair and a larger pair pair for those bigger jobs. I also got a half-pint of mis-tinted paint and a battery powered 6 watt soldering iron for those little jobs where a big soldering gun is overkill, like hardwiring decoders.
I have two of the old Bachmann light board decoders and two Atlas FP7's. One is on it's way to me as I type. It's a UP #1499. It may be from an early 80's run of Atlas/Roco models or a later run of Atlas/Concor models. I'll know when I look at the trucks. The Atlas/Roco runs of the 70's have the 'Made in Austria' origin mark on the bottom of the trucks. The later Atlas/Concor models also have this area on the bottom of the trucks but it's smudged out. At any rate it'll also be getting a Bachmann light board decoder. This will be for motor control only. The lights will be getting their power directly from the track. I also have a Bachmann regular 1-amp decoder that'll be going into the E7.
That's two out of three Bachmann decoders accounted for. One (light board type) is in one of my FP7's. The other light board decoder is awaiting the arrival of the other FP7. I got good deals on both of those locos. The one I have was free and the one that's coming set me back only $25. I can remember years ago seeing them marked at retail of $90 or more and I see some on Ebay for over $120. Guess I stole my two! What can I say? Some of my ancestors were train robbers. I probably come by it naturally. Anyhow, the remaining decoder (taken from a Spectrum loco) went into the E7. Easy enough to do. Pull the jumper plug and plug the decoder into the 8-pin socket. A bit of quick work on the program track and it's in service.
Hello and good afternoon
had a bad night after the dentist trip, mouth bled till 4am and an abscess burst in my mouth so i can honestly say i have never tasted worse in my life,
off out for some chocolate color paint for the baseboards on our railroad, why chocolate when it's mud color is beyond me but i guess "chocolate" sells better than mud.
Jeff my first American model was an Atlas / Roco Austrian made locomotive in CP colors, can't remember what it was but it was a GP something or other
Good morning. It's 61° and mostly clear. At the highest today it's due to be 82° and sunny with some clouds.
Not much going on today. I have several old locos I don't run anymore that have decoders that can be used in newer ones. So I think I'll go through and see which ones can be retired for a while. Most are hard wired so that's going to be fun. Most of my display locos are DCC and since I don't run them, guess what. They'll be raided too. I have a BL2 and a fleet of F units that need decoders.
I started on my new run of antibiotics yesterday so I'm not feeling all that great. It'll take me several days to get used to them. The little battery powered soldering iron I got recently works great. It's a Weller BP645 and it set me back a whole $15. I haven't tried it with rechargeable batteries yet. It's still chewing on the three Duracell batteries that came with it. Getting the battery cover off is loads of fun. One thing's for sure, it's not going to just pop off while I'm using it. For being just six watts the little thing will sure burn the snot out of you. It heats up to about 900° real quick. It took me just a few of minutes to solder a decoder into a 70's era Atlas FP7 yesterday and that includes the time it took to desolder the original connections. Sorry if that sounds like a sales pitch. I'm just very impressed with it. I believe I'll get a lot of use out of this little thing.
I never saw one for CP. I know the GP38 was available in CN colors. If it was one of the first Atlas/Roco models available under the Atlas name there were only three GP models. GP38 high nose, GP38 Low nose and GP40. There was one F model - the FP7 and two SD models - SD24 and SD35. This group was available until the early 80's with the exception of the FP7 which was available until the late 80's. It was in the 80's that Atlas shifted from Roco to Kato. There were some reissues of Roco made models. The GP38, GP40 and FP7. There were also issues of Atlas locos through Concor. Also available were the Roco made Alco S-switchers. Of the new models that were available were the RS1, RS2, RS3, RS11, RSD 4/5, RS12, Century 424/425 and the S1 and S4.
Well, I've taken the decoders out of four locos I don't run anymore. Two E units that have pickup problems and two Atlas locos (GE U30C and modified SD24) that I built up for display only. So I have one Digitrax decoder (DZ125) and three Bachmann decoders (one light board type and two regular). I have a Proto 2000 BL2 and several F units (two Stewart and one Athearn) just begging for them. I don't know if I'll do all those today or not.
Good Morning from Central Calif,
It's cooled off fairly necely at night dropping down to about 65* and now is 86* in the shade with a slight breeze.
It been a while since I've been on the forum and rather miss it as well as not having been very active on my layout either. Too many other issues at hand and I still have more too, mainly a couple of construction projects around here, but that's life. Fortunately I still have a roof over my head such as it is.
I also just lost my dear Mom an Aug 10th, 2011 after just over six years from the time she had her large stroke in the latter part of 2005, she sure gave it one hell of a good fight.
So now maybe I can make more progress on my C & S West Short Line RR and possibly get some orders through my Foothill Station model RR supply business. I do need to start getting some items posted but haven't ever gotten any response other than talking to Corey I believe it was earlier this year.
Good deals are available if you'll get in touch to let me know what your looking for?
The two Stewart F9's now have Bachmann decoders, a light board type in the A unit and a regular type in the B unit. The light board decoder has an LED on it so it made sense to use it in the A unit. Instant LED light without that messing around with resistors. The Proto 2000 motor presented no problem. I thought the B unit would give me a problem speed-wise as the only thing on it that's Stewart is the body and frame. Athearn motor and Proto 1000 trucks would likely cause a problem of some kind. Really surprised me when they ran together perfectly speed matched.
I've been waiting for a shipping notice from Ebay on my Model Power GP9. The seller said there might be a delay of a couple of days. That was the 13th. If there was no notice, message or smoke signal that it was being shipped I was going to start getting a case of the you know what with somebody about it. Got an email this afternoon saying it's going out today.
. I probably come by it naturally. 
