Hello, I have been installing decoders for customers here in Illinois for more than 10 years, but I recently came upon a bad issue.
Customer had Proto 1000 Subway car with an 8 pin DCC plug on the lighting board. I removed the factory jumper plug and installed an NCE 8 pin plug in decoder (N14SRP). Had this decoder on hand and was new.
Programmed on program track, using Decoder Pro, put on main line and in about 10 seconds 1 of the diodes for the bridge rectifier burned up big time.

Hello
I am planning a new modular layout, and wants to hear what system you use to connect the needed electrical contacts other than tracks from one module to the next. 

Each module is a framed layout top, just like a drawer turned upside-down.

It does not matter here, but this is HO scale.

Best regards, Olav, Norway

It might not look like much, in fact it may look a little odd, but this will be the first locomotive I've installed ditch lights on. Here the SMD LED's are fished through the shell, and they've been wired to the DecoderBuddy (one of the very early ones). 

The ditch light mounts are Details West DL-229 parts, currently having the canopy glue holding the lenses in drying. 

As we prepare for the next run of ProtoThrottle faceplates, we are considering another special run color. Would anyone be interested in an olive green faceplate? The photos below show how this olive green color would look relative to the standard grey/blue faceplates, in some different lighting conditions. We will still keep the standard grey/blue and probably do another set of black plates.  These would be in addition to that.

Please let us know your thoughts, either way.

Thanks,
Michael