I have a need for  two short staging tracks for an interchange with another railroad, and to fit it in the space I have for it, requires the straight sections to be spaced 1.5" on center instead of the usual/typical 2" on center.  As I measure most of the equipment I have (modeling circa 1953) I believe there should not be any clearance issues.  I don't intend to run locomotives on these sections of track, they only are for the incoming and outgoing cars for interchange throughout the operating session.  Has anyone successfully done this without issue?&nbsp

I see in the new MR magazine (News & Products) that ANE Model has a new SmartFrog V.4 board for powering turnout frogs.  Their website and instructions are not clear if these are similar to the popular Tam Valley Frog Juicers circuits. The picture of the new board shows multiple screw wire connections where it appears that 8 frogs could be attached.  I was wondering if anyone has tried this new product and whether it really can handle more frogs than its Tam Valley counterpart.

So for a little change of pace I have started installing the Interchange Classification Yard.  The yard allows me to interchange between the three railroads (well possible four if the D&H gets in too) that will be operating on the layout, The Reading, Conrail & Chessie System.

I'm building a new layout room. It is a shared space - trains runing around the walls. I'm trying to decide whether to use the roll of carpet I've been saving. I'm tending toward ditching the carpet and installing floating floor. The carpet would offer better fatigue resistance standing there working on the layout - kneeling underneath etc. But the floating floor is probably easier to build around, easier to clean up paint spills and solder splashes etc. The floating floor has foam underlay too, just not as thick as the carpet. Thoughts?