It took a while, but I got the “under the back porch layout room” cleaned out. Old cabinets went upstairs to the garage as repurposed storage.  A paint bin with all the old paints that previous owners had stored, went to recycling, while the bin was used for storing tools and miscellaneous boxes.

So i finished up the layouts scenery and it looks great (for a beginner layout)

This is an update to my previous DCC Electrical Fun post.  While looking for what I could use for dwarf signals in the Union Station area (the ready made ones are kind of expensive), I found an item called an LED Assembly.  They are essentially two bi-polar 3-lead LEDs in a plastic housing.  They are a good size for N-scale or HO use.  The first picture below shows the first one installed in the Union Station yard.  The second is a diagram that shows how I wired the LED assembly.

So i recently scrounged up this pair of speakers from some headphones. They are all i have right now so any ideas on how well it would work? It seems like headphone speakers would be perfect for smaller engines and larger ones for well larger engines.

photo of the speakers:

I had some time tonight to do a small update. Had a week off and got to spend a little time working on the Layout so I thought a small update was in order.

I'm trying this web based design tool while designing my layout extension. It won't work with my iPad but works ok on my laptop.

I have a e-z DCC bachmann decoder that no matter what engine i use it in it does not "motor" well, any tips on cvs to make it work better?

Hello everyone! I decided this past week to tackle my Bowser Executive Line PRR H30 hopper as the second freight car weathering project of my hobby experience. Some of you might recall the post of my first weathering attempt which appeared in the "Yes it's a Model" section of this month's issue of MRH. It was a heavily weathered jade green NYC 40' boxcar. I decided to weather the hopper this time because it was something different, and I think it came out fairly well. It took a few more days than I expected but the results were well worth the wait.

I am very fortunate to be retired and able to leave my New England home for a warmer place every winter.  The downside is having to leave my layout from New Year's through April, prime time for model railroading.

After a couple of years of griping, I decided to build a portable layout in HO scale to keep up my skills, pass some time, and allow some operation.