Hey All

I recently wired a NCE D13 SRJ Decoder in a walthers  GP-9M AM Trak  loco,  after hooking the wires up and programing it,  when I push the forward button it would run in reverse and same for reverse it goes forward this is the first installation of a walthers loco. Done some in Athearns and no problem. What is the differance in the way it's hooked up? Any help would be great.

Thanks ,Turkeycall

As I sat waiting for a call for an follow up interview today I pulled out some of my weathering materials and grabbed three box cars and starting practicing with some new materials. I'm working with the MIG line of washes and pigments and I'm undecided on the results right now. Are these good, bad, to much, not enough weathering? In other words if they were finished up with trucks and couplers would you be willing to run these on your layout?

Great article in this month's issue on scrap gons and weathering. It has me scrambling for something I put away for a "rainy day" - an article on using a soldering iron to help "customize" cars to show the usual wear and tear they go through while in service. I'll try to find it; copy; paste; and pass it along. If I remember correctly, the only caution was the heat transfer time and "rust weathering" of affected areas that may have paint issues. It should help me in detailing the scrap yard which will be part of my layout.

I am beginning another conversion of an old Tyco Mantua 4-6-2 Pacific.  These locomotives are very good runners and very common at the big auction site, in unbuilt kit form (I've bought two for less than $30.00), built kit form, or factory-assembled form.  They are based on northern US prototypes, so a good deal of modifications are necessary to convert them to my "not-totally-prototype" Southern US layout's standards.