First of all, I want to thank all who respnded to my query concerning DCC for their input. Again I'm impressed with the degree of civility on this site as I've had some negative experiences on other ones. There has been some progress on the construction of the "new" Eerie-Lackamoney RR. I have completed three sections of benchwork. Two along the wall shelf units (although not shelves, technically), and one unit for a 5X9 peninsula.

Pulling carpet up, its still got dampness in it as well, got most of it up throughout the living room, been facebookin' too much, but have gotten some things done, I'm working on putting an interior into my old Rivarossi  D&RGW smoothside coach, and then making my smoothside RPO runnable, seems after putting Athearn trucks on it, complete with the talgo coupler system they come with, that the car derails on a particular curve at the bottom of the grade, that won't work, will have to remove the trucks, snip off the coupler pockets and then body mount my Kadee's.

 I haven't had much time this week to do what I really wanted due to some unforeseen things I won't bother describing here.  I did, however, take time today to finally build a turnout with my new FastTracks jig.  I have to say, I'm surprised at how well it turned out for the first try.  It still needs a little work, but I didn't buy the flexible file Tim talks about in his videos and I think it would be well worth the investment.  

Hello!

I have a small L-shaped HO layout which is operational, but scenery is completed 50%. It is run by Roco DCC Multimaus or standard DC controler - which I choose by flipping a large DPDT switch.

Roco DCC system is really entry-level Lenz, only repackaged in Roco shape and colors. It does not have CV read capabilities, so I will consider upgrading the system when time comes.

I plan to post many questions, and some solutions I came to in a year or two using DCC.

Back in the late 1950s and early 1960s Hollywood made alot of horror movies. As kid I remember going to the movies on Friday afternoon's to see some of those gems (not) with my firends after school. It was a good way for our mother's to get us out of the house while they got ready for the Sabbath and it was cheap at 25 cents too. When I got older they showed many of these *gems* on TV as well and I watched them while doing homework or building one of what must have been thousands of models.

For 3 years I planed to build a portion of the D&RGW & the RGS in an area 30ft by 40ft. early this year my new building burned to the ground just before completion (NO RR equipment was lost.)

So until my funds in the stock market are replaced ready Cash in NIL.

Flash I now have changed my whole way of thinking about the RGS. I have an area 26ft X 18ft in the form of 2 rooms and instead of trying to build everything at once I have taken a whole new approach.

The July 2009 issue of Model Railroader features a track plan for the west end of the Maine Central's mountain division. Included prominently in this plan is the paper mill at Gilman Vermont. Since I am including this industry in my design as well, I thought it might be interesting to see what I came up with, too.

Guess I kind of opened a can of worms, eh? Actually I appreciate all the responses and the info is mostly all good. I also am impressed with the level of civility as I have  experienced a lot less so on other forums. To add a little clarification, I am a single operator, don't have a club within less than an hour and a half drive time, no local hobby shop that carries anything but some old MRC stuff that you have to blow the dust off, and am making my first foray into DCC.

It’s been a long time since I did any updates on my progress, so I thought I would give a general update on the status of my layout construction. With the warmer weather lawn care and preparations for my first child have taken up a good amount of my free time so there isn’t a lot of tangible progress on the layout, but I have been able to finish a few odds and ends projects in the past few months so I wanted to share my progress and experiences.

I recently ordered Howard Zane's My Life with Model Trains. If you haven't read it you are missing out on something special because he offers another approach to the hobby and we can always use something like that. Besides, being a character, Howard tells the story of his model railroad (all 2,850 feet of it at the present time) amd how it came to be. He does it with great photos and lots of text.