Just because you’ve switched to DCC doesn’t mean you should toss or sell your old DC power pack. Well, if you are like me you have 5 or more in the tickle trunk so I guess you could sell some of them. I need to know the free running and stall current of an old Athearn GP9 to ensure the decoder I have is suitable. Out comes my meter, power pack and a few clip leads to hook things up.

To All: A point of View--Model railroading and rail fanning is not a plug and play hobby, it is a challenging hobby, not for the lazy person. It is the road less traveled, it is expensive, time consuming, requires multiple skills and is not for everyone. We search it out. If we did not get a blank stare when we tell others we like trains and are model railroaders, I suspect we would take up a hobby that most others do not have. What is your opinion? Yours, Elvin Howland/E. St. Louis Rail Group Layout

lLast night finished assy of hoist by putting flywheel and handle on. needs a bit of touch up paint.

Cut out corner brackets. Your supposed to cut them from the instruction drawing, but I made a copy and cut them out. Then make pin holes where the bolts go.

It was posted on the internet that White River Productions has purchased Railroad Model Craftsman and also Railfan and Railroad and will resume at a future date (sooner than later) and will give all current subscribers their due issues.  They are the same publishers that publish NMRA Bulletin, NRHS magazine and 22 RR historical society magazines.  They are also the company that rescued Model Railroad News and brought it back.

Jim Scofield, Augusta, GA

I setout today, as it was quite hot and muggy out to enjoy being outside, to get the foam board glued down. I took off the precut pieces and labeled them so I was not trying to figure out what went where later. I went to get the caulking adhesive I had bought and turns out I didn't quite read the label right. The two tubes I got were safe for foamboard but further reading the label which I didn't do good enough I guess at the big box store said it was good for foam to wood but not foam to foam.

Last time I updated my progress on the Black n Blue, I was gently admonished by a fellow poster and hobbyist  because the stuff I was showing was in a more " finished" state and I didn't show more pictures of how I had arrive there.  So I'm making an effort this time to show a little more "in progress" work.  Most of what is shown here has been  being worked on, in one form or another, either the " imagineering"  or the actual work,  for the last couple of weeks.

I would like to thank Bill Brillinger for helping me with the embedding of videos on MRH.  All of the ins and outs of this electronic age are a challenge.  They seam to change daily. What was good last week does not work this week.  This will improve my post for all of you.  Again thanks to Bill.

Art.

So it's been a bit since I've had a chance to sit down and work on this. I did a bit today so here's a progress report.

Well last time I wasn't aware of what the meaning N/B/W was but glad trolleydrvr was able to help me out. So here's some pics of that detail installed.

Here is a picture of the track plan drawn in AnyRail. Below that are photos of the shelving and rough foamboard(not graded or glued down yet). Hopefully photos of roadbed and trackwork not far ahead. Still have about 10 turnouts to build but will update as progress is made,

The Benchwork

Hi all.

I scrapped the previous layout and started again.