Modeling steel mills I run into unique operations and equipment. This is one big reason I model them. A couple years ago while talking to a friend about steel mills he brought up an Sept. 1970 article in Railroad Magazine that had a picture of CB&Q No. 6317. A 2-10-4 that was being used as a stationary steam locomotive within a mill of Northwestern Steel & Wire. The locomotive was being used to supply steam to parts of the plant.

Is there any improvements I can make on my track warrant?

I happened on a couple of Helix Humper motors sealed in the original packaging.  I am thinking on using these as part of a motor upgrade test series.  

The question I have is the source of these motors.  The package indicates that they were made by Alco Products in Pennsylvania.  

All the info about HH motors indicate they were last made in Alliance, Ohio.  Does anyone know the lineage of the motors that I have?  What info I have found on the Ohio motor is mixed relative to other upgrade options.

As work on the control panel continued, I realized that my power distribution wiring was not as clean as I would have hoped. Some occupancy zones would detect properly and some just would not. And if I did the quarter test in some places more than one PM42 feed would trip. I had already decided that there should be a 1:1 relationship between PM42s and BDL168 zones -- bought a second PM42 and installed it, This exposed a number of issues that had probably been there all along. Some of my track wiring was a mess.

I decided that I wanted to build a small switching layout to demonstrate some of the principals regarding switching safely and efficiently. I had a few things in mind and wanted to incorporate them into a module set.

I wanted to design a switching module that would have a variety of car types, be relatively compact, and have some of the common hazards of the real railroad. These hazards would include things like spurs, crossovers, close clearances, and road crossings.

A friend of my family was off at a wedding a while ago and met someone who worked on a railroad. He was shop worker I beleive. He offered to send something to me, and today I received a switch key for the Indiana Harbor Belt and a caboose whilstle. The whistle isn't too glamorous, but hey! It's cool!

This is my second gift from a railroad worker. My first was a brand new bad order tag for the Norfolk Southern.

Hi I am looking for a source of MP3´s of Locomotive train sounds of generic steam and diesel locomotives along with just train sounds to play from an iPhone when running a layout due to the fact that I don´t have DCC if anyone knows where I can find some that would be great.

In about a month the 22nd Avenue Secondary might be making a 1700-mile trek across the country ('might' because I don't know if I'm actually going home between college graduation and starting work). Unfortunately this cannot be accomplished with the layout in a single piece, as compact cars can carry only the tiniest layouts whole. I would have to make a single cut somewhere around this line and split the layout into approximately 7- and 3-foot halves.

To All: Today I present two photos of a PRR Manifest freight on my layout on the A&S Belt Line passing Jack Mall Potato Co. and Horse Shoe Lake. Yours, Elvin Howland/E. St. Louis Rail Group Layout

Operations session at Art Cunningham Sierra Lines during Hograils 2015. This is really one of the great operational layouts I have been on.  Best part is hearing the whole story of what happened to get the five RRs into one track. Part I and II