CraigZ

There's TWO roundabouts in this image here in Raleigh, North Carolina. http://goo.gl/maps/PG11P Except the 'big one' doesn't look like that now. Our drivers have enough problems with single lane roundabouts; two lanes and driver's heads started to explode. Minor shunts/fender benders abounded...so much so that the city came back and redid the roundabout to remove the second lane. I watched an elderly lady who knew she had to make a left turn from Pullen onto Hillsborough do exactly that - head into the roundabout moving clockwise. Whoops. When I tell friends about hitting three lane roundabouts when I drove in the UK....more heads exploding. There's a difference here between a roundabout and a rotary. The latter are a northeastern US thing...traffic coming into it has priority; they also tend to be higher speeds than roundabouts. Roundabout rules are as yours in the UK and are being adopted in more places in the US as somebody's figured out they cause way less congestion (once the local knuckleheads get the hang of them) than traffic signals or our idiotic four way stops. Then there's stuff like the SPUI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-point_urban_interchangewhich work very well. And the diverging diamond interchange http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diverging_diamond_interchange which REALLY makes heads hurt. But it seems to work pretty well where I've encountered them.

I did something akin to this 20+ years ago....an Athearn SD40-2 truck with a single shaft Mashima on it....fitted up into an Airfix '207 hp shunter' body...ran very well actually. I should find it and put a chip in the thing

FTAs, prototype and model, were not designed for couplers on the 'blind' end. The ATSF threw a monkey wrench into all that; their A unit couplers are described as being S shaped thought I've never seen a photo of one. In modeling an Atlantic Coast Line FTA I used a dummy knuckle that was pillaged out of a Proto 2000 FA2; I could find nothing from Kadee that was short enough. The other way I've seen it done is to drill thru the shank of a coupler and fit that to the model with a small screw; a fellow I knew would then use little dabs of silicone sealant as the 'centering spring' though I found on my FTA that the coupler is so close to the truck that centering is not really needed.

Regarding the three Yahoo lists - The Steam Era list covers up to 1960; the Modern list is 1960 and later; the Baby Boomer list is essentially post 1954 but its traffic is heavily 1960s and early 1970s related. The Modern list seems to be more heavily 1980s and newer. And I must say that the knowledge base available on the Steam Era list is amazing in its depth, especially when one considers that the subject matter has been defunct for 50+ years. Kaolin was (and may still be) into the 21st century carried in box cars, albeit not in bulk. It was shipped in 50 lb paper sacks and in 2,000 lb 'supersacks'...I watched boxcars being loaded with both at a kaolin mining and processing operation near Tennile, Georgia. The majority was into covered hoppers but the box car traffic still existed. I've not been back there since 2003 so no idea if that's still the case.

Have a big Mexican hi-railer that I photographed in Orizaba about 13 years ago.

I had an adult beverage at the bar with Lance at the Cocoa Beach RPM meet. He's somewhat bemused by his near celebrity status in the UK...and I of course teased him mercilessly about it...

Wow. It's a wildly different beast than a QSI Paragon 1 or regular retail. No primary/secondary CVs to begin with...and at least in the case of their PRR I1sa the 'banshee' whistles are very very different which is the one thing I'd expect them to keep the same as the QSI Banshee is very very good. And while I've found the QSI decoders to be pretty stable and to program reliably, the Paragon 2 decoders are usually a fight to get CVs to 'take', and have a nasty ability to get confused by track shorts. In fact when on my way to Cocoa Beach I dropped off a Q2 model at BLI to be repaired - it derailed, shorted, and lost the ability to go forward. Runs perfectly in reverse, but does nothing forward.

Post #5 says Paragon 2 which is absolutely not a QSI decoder. It's Broadway Limited's own decoder made by God know whom. My experience with them is less than favourable..they're easily confused on DCC, can be cranky to program as well...

Oh my. Those are lovely...

A stunningly easy swap, Jez. The Kato-into-Athearn is a pretty common swap over here now - sourcing the motors w/ flywheels is the usual obstacle. Frankly it's usually not as easy and neat as what Jez did; there's usually frame grinding involved to clear the flywheels. And care needs to be taken when using the Kato driveshafts as the hex profile that's broached into the flywheel doesn't extend the full depth of the hole. There's a relief cut in the bottom (needed for machining) which means if the shaft is pushed too far that it will disengage from the flywheel. Jez's swap happily shouldn't suffer from this give that the CF7 was built from F7s...the model motor/truck spacing should be the same. And to be honest, the later Stewart non-Kato mechs are pretty darn good too...

Jon, the Cannon PAF box will be dead nuts on for your GP38-2 unless it's some sort of backwoods homebuild box. You're wise casting a wary eye on the Atlas GP38-2 as it's know to have dimensional errors; ditto for the Proto 2000 GP38-2. Stacks - the Atlas GP38s and GP38-2s stacks have the base/flange cast onto the shell, thus no flange on the stack part itself. I don't like to question your info but are you certain your prototype lacks any sort of flange at the base of the stacks? Even the later flush-mount circular EMD stacks have a flange that secures the stack itself to the top of the car body.

Of the prototype part?

I've got an engine that's finished...but I'm able to say how and where I did pretty much everything on it...this Atlantic Coast Line F2A built on a Highliners shell. Shall I?

Pete, are you looking for a blow-by-blow detailing story? Parts list etc?

Good Doctor, I'm an operator...I like to switch, run a local wayfreight. There's a local layout here where I operate - when I'm not a yardmaster in one of the two terminal yards, I run locals. For my railroad, the continuous loop will be for moving scenery when I want to go brainless or run in a new model. The layout where I operate is pretty Old School in its configuration - dense trackwork. There's a switching district at the end of a short branchline that's a maze of switchbacks...with a short run around. If not done in a very specific order it's unworkable. And I don't enjoy that job. But the road freights, yep...those are my trains.

I appreciate the ideas. Not sure I want to do a loop with two wyes in it...the reverses would go crazy!

Continued great stuff. I'm loving it...and there's things I'm seeing I simply had not considered. When I get it running you're all invited over to play. Not sure where you'll all sleep though... Trevor - thanks for the photos. That's packed in good and dense. Wish I'd known you when I was visiting Eastbourne a couple of times a year a dozen years ago. A note on my 'footprint - the 6.5', 28' and 11.5' sides are hard - up against walls. No cheating on them. The 7' and 5' cut-out sides, I'm trying to preserve to keep it easy to access my house's mechanical space. I am willing to cheat a little on the 21' length but there a couple of floor support posts along the 21' side I have to deal with...but I am willing to put a staging yard under there that can be accessed from the 'outside' to keep the aisles inside clear. Perhaps these photos will help a bit...taken when the house was still under renovation before we moved in. There's all sort of detritus from upstairs including old kitchen cabinets and other stuff. First, geography! Looking northeast...you can see the door to the mechanical space. Looking southeast... The general space is beyond the far set of posts. Those posts are supporting steel beams that support the floor above...

Well, my neighbour's house is for sale It's an American split-level so you could have a very large space indeed...and I wouldn't mind a modeler for a neighbour! "Can I borrow a couple of Kadees please?" *smacks own forehead* Yes, HO. Min radius 24" on secondary trackage...that's about as low as the BLI 2-10-0 PRR Decapods like. Aisles - 30". And if I can ever come with a way to keep half the people in the room from ending up in the narrowest spot on the railroad...I'd be rich.

The space is completely free and clear for layout - no doors, no stairs involved. In fact, the 'notch' is to allow access to the HVAC equipment and our home's crawl space . I'm very much preferring no duckunders. Against the walls seems logical but it needs to be supported on legs, not by the wall structure. Through staging sounds good - would allow for continuous running - to either a terminal yard or a through yard. Martyn, I like your idea a lot...staging could go under the side where it crossed the 21' length and be worked from the outside, keeping the body out of the aisle. And I'm still all ears and eyes, gents!

Well ok... Here's my space available The 6.5', 28' and 11.5' sides are walls; the other lenghts are open. The whole room is 28 x 20 but I'm not using the full width. The 28' and the 11.5' walls have windows that I plan to leave exposed for ventilation - they're about 40 inches off the floor. My initial ideas involved a U shaped layout running from loop to loop with one loop tucked in the narrow corner, the second a peninsula on the 21' side. Staging down below is absolutely a possibility with long ramps up to the deck; I find a helix to be a space eater. I'd like provision for continuous running, eg, moving scenery but to have a good amount of switching as well. The continuous part is for engine break in and the occasional dose of mindlessness Railroad - I've been smitten with the New York, Ontario & Western and its F unit fleet and shortish trains...also considering heavily a late PRR steam layout. Need more info? Or have at it?

So here's a question - if I posted the footprint that I have available and what I'd like the railroad to be...would some of our great layout minds make suggestions/designs? I'm kinda stuck at where to start

Part magazine, part book, 100% great information: http://rpcycpub.com/

I've also sent, ahem, care packages to RMwebbers and had them take as long as a month to be delivered. Meanwhile, items coming from the UK get here in less than a week, and do so reliably. Strange.

For steam era freight cars, Speedwitch Media has published several books. "The 1932 ARA Box Car" is insanely detailed and a great read He's also done a couple of spiral bound books on box cars and tank cars full of b&w photos of cars. Another very useful series are the 'Classic Freight Car' books. And of course any of the Morning Sun 'Color Guides' are invaluable in their color photos of various roads' freight and passenger equipment...

Klein's is very reliable, indeed. But I was at Trainmaster Models in Buford, GA on Tuesday afternoon and again impressed with the amount of product they keep in stock. But I'm not certain how they do overseas shipments...