I am working on getting an older Walthers/Shinohara double crossover ready to work with DCC.  I had set it aside a long time ago because it looked like a nightmare to make it DCC friendly.  I'm following Steve Baggot's instructions on Alan Gartner's Wiring for DCC website.  

I was given a bunch of steel rail "O Scale" I think. Maybe 20-30 pounds of it along with a bunch of pre stained ties that were in old Walthers boxes. I am thinking of taking it to the metal salvage  but maybe people still have a use for it?

I'm ready (finally!) to start building my much-delayed layout. I'm trying to decide how I want to operate my turnouts. There seem to be two general schools of thought, I.e. hands-on vs. remote operation. I see valid points on both sides, but tend to favor the remote camp after seeing one guy break a ground throw on a layout he was a guest operator on and personally being responsible for knocking over a couple of pieces of rolling stock on an adjacent track when I was throwing a switch on the same layout.

... So my wife says "Why don't you work on the patio until the sections can go in your train room?" I'm not sure who she so, despite a room built for my hobbies" I am now taking over the patio. I's like 85 degrees up there during the day anyway.