In my blog on motorizing the Athearn wreck crane Ken Rickman presented an idea for transferring power from the wheels into the rotating cab of the crane. I didn't like Geoff's method on his article on the parts he used to transfer the power from the wheels to the crane cab. Then Ken presented an idea that I took and modified. His suggestion is here: http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/8956?page=6

This is my own personal layout and not a club layout. Thanks, Era is 1955 and it is proto-freelanced.

Bob Helm

Just got around to opening the "New River Mining" I picked up a bit back and noticed that the window mullions are molded into the clear plastic. I'm used to the two piece deals with the frame and mullions applied separately and then the clear plastic is added afterward. Looking at painting these and it seems to me the best way would be to paint a piece of cardboard with a fairly wet coat of spray paint and then press the pieces onto it where the raised area picks up paint and the other part doesn't. Or is there a better way?  Tips and suggestions?

When I first got back into this hobby I set Google Alerts for the real railroads like BNSF, CSX, etc. After a couple years of looking at these I have come to a conclusion. Real railroads, in total, have a lot of derailments. It seems there isn't a day goes by that some railroad doesn't have an incident somewhere. I know they have a lot of track and trains in operation. But gee whiz, almost daily incidents. Some of the bigger wrecks cost millions of dollars to clean up. The COOs must consume aspirin by the bucket load.