I haven't worked on my layout for a while but I have been doing some research on it and ordering some stuff for it.

I am a 14 year old model railroader from Australia building a new layout. I saw Joe fugate's deadbold turnout controls on one of his videos and thought they look cheap & easy, does anyone have details to build them?

Wow... I'm tired. This morning started at 3am Pacific to catch a 6:15am flight from Portland to Milwaukee, via Denver.

It's now 9:15pm Pacific... but my body feels the 11:15pm Central it is here.

I'm installing the Wather's furnace and have read up on the process to use lime, coke and ore.   But the process also requires oxygen.   What is the source of the oxygen?  Is it produced at the plant or shipped in?   If shipped in, what format - compressed air, liquid?   What types of cars would be used?   My era is 1952 and I have been told that there were few tank type cars then but box cars fitted with internal tanks for shipping were used.   Is this the purpose of the tanks and piping on the kit?

If you have Google Earth enter Tehachapi Loop as a destination and you will see a beautiful photo of an 83 car train - I think container carriers - going around the loop.  It has already crossed over itself but the impression is still dramatic.  If you follow the tracks south to Mojave you get a good idea of what the route consists of. - no straight lines.

Great computer entertainment - and it's train related. 

If you don't have Google Earth I urge you to get it.  Incredible photo presentations of the planet we live on.

Art Armstrong

 It has taken me awhile to realize that the keys to neat soldering of rail joiners are a clean hot soldering iron and fine gauge wire solder.  Thus I have a number of joints that are fat, oozy and unsightly.  My efforts to clean them up with files and a dremel have proven less than satisfactory.  I tried a desoldering vacuum bulb which also didn't do the job for me.

Well...maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration but it's another unbelievably hot day in the Northeast US as we've passed 100 degrees here in Connecticut for the 2nd day.  Since the heat has me captive I figured it was time to post some content. 

At the link below; a mock up on the dining room table with 'Coal & Steam' buldings so far completed. In case you think this project is further down the road that I've let on, the living room wall has been replaced with a blurry sky from the Bridport area using Photoshop to help me gauge where I'm going with this project.

Read on....http://nevardmedia.blogspot.com/2010/07/dining-room-table-mock-up.html

I have an  N-scale Con-cor Hudson made in Japan. In the process of repairing a wire, I lost one of the motor-brush springs. Finding a needle in a haystack has nothing on finding this spring. Con-cor is a wash-out for parts, so I was wondering if anyone has any locos for sale as parts or motors or the pieces I need. I have heard some of these locos were notorious for not working very well, this one pulls very nice, and as it belonged to my late mother, I very much would like to get it up and running.