Today, Monday March 16, students stayed home from school while the faculty and administration figured out how we would continue the school year under challenging circumstances. 

As many of us adjust to the Coronavirus and its accompanying "social distancing", e.g. working from home, avoiding crowds, etc., I thought I'd post a reminder that occasionally taking a break and sitting still - whether we're talking about us as layout owners or the prototype equipment we model - can be positive too.

Now for a little something different.

So - I was laying out some Peco switches, spacing them with Micro Engineering rail (both Code 83) and found out that the ME has a smaller overall profile but a slightly larger web. Result: rail heads don't line up, and the ME will not go easily into Peco rail joiners. Guess I have to find some Peco rail stock... or cut up Peco flex...

Any ideas?

Hello Everyone,

As I was browsing through the recent Weekly Photo thread I saw @Steve kleszyk compliment my recent Video (Thank You Steve). It hit me that I haven't posted here on MRH in some time so here it is. 

I wanted to know the operating characteristics of the old open-frame Pittman motors in my brass engines so I could replace them with can motors.  I wasted several months ordering and testing various motors that were too slow. A multimeter could measure voltage and current draw. But how to determine the RPMs?

Fortunately, other people know how to measure RPM, amperage, and torque, and posted it all on YouTube.

Now that the upper deck is fastened down, we can proceed with upper lighting valance and the fascia on the front of the upper deck.

Previous: The Mud Bay & Western #5 - Fastening Down the Upper Deck

Started ballasting the track and the Bachmann ballast spreader is coming in handy.  Doing the straight tracks and turnouts by hand.  Hope to start paving the surface for the pumps and propane storage tanks tomorrow.  

Here is the second video on my tools that I use for scratch building.

Hello all I got two videos up this week the first is a continuation on the UP freight house in Denver that I am scratch building. Looking at the mock up.